Karl Clews Signature Bass "Broadsword"
Facts:
For over 18 months, I have been working with Karl Clews, this wonderful bassist from Ireland. Everything started with Karl's interpretation of Simon & Garfunkel's classic "The Sound Of Silence", which I discovered rather by chance on Youtube. I liked it so much that I immediately looked for more videos and it became clearer and clearer to me that Karl is the ideal bassist for my Bogart Headless basses. I was sure that Karl would like my basses and so I took a rather unusual path, namely that as a bass builder, I asked the artist if he was interested in a collaboration. Karl was immediately enthusiastic, he had already heard a lot about my Bogarts, but had never held one in his hands. The beginning was made by the Silver Surfer, a 4-string Bogart Sport, equipped according to Karl's specifications. He has now played this bass on many of his fantastic Youtube videos and received consistently positive reviews. In 2020, it was time for the next step, for a bass that even better met Karl's ideal expectations. I have tried a lot and am now very proud to introduce the new, "official" Karl Clews Signature Bass, which Karl has named "Broadsword". Karl says about this: "As for a name for the bass - how about the ‘Broadsword’? There’s something medieval about the lovely bronze/copper finish, and the bass has a tone that can cut through any mix, so the name feels appropriate!"
Body and Neck:
The body of the Karl Clew Signature Bass has, unlike the normal Bogart Sport, a core made of red Balkan-erle and an outer shell made of gelcoat with aluminum, copper, and bronze additives. This combination produces a rather treble-emphasized, but never aggressive tone and has an enormous bass and low-mid foundation.
The neck is the normal Bogart Sport carbon neck, with a Pau-Ferro fingerboard (phenol no longer available) with red LEDs on the sides and on the front. At the 12th fret, the signature logo is made of perloid. The fingerboard edge at the neck end is rounded.
Pickups and Electronics:
As pickups, Karl has again chosen the proven Bartolini BB4C Soapbar Humbucker - a good decision, because these pickups decisively shape the basic warmth of the overall sound. As a preamp, the new Noll 4-band electronics with 2 parametric mid-bands is used, which works extremely effectively. This preamp is built exclusively for Bogart Bass Guitars and will also be available soon as a replacement EQ in our shop.
Hardware:
The complete hardware, i.e. the tuner/bridge headless unit, the string holder for double ball end strings (and normal strings) as well as the pot knobs come from ETS. The strap pins come from Schaller, together with the Schaller S-Lock strap lock system.