WHY GET YOURSELF A WOOD&TRONICS?
Because since 2006 we have built 480+ instuments, all one-offs, developed and and built for each client as a unique piece. It has been an invaluable, research-driven experience eventually gaining us the craft of speaking with our fellow bassists and understanding exactly what it takes to build their own, ultimate instrument.
Out of our 480 builds, only once a client called to report that his new bass didn’t sound as he expected: that customer required that we just built the bass, and dictated 100% his specifications, without our advice whatsoever. We shoulnd’t have allowed that. So, we took his bass back, resold it and built him a new one to our recommendations, and everybody was happy in the end.
THE WOOD&TRONICS SOUND
The Wood&Tronics sound is articulated in 5 declinations, or "tone packages" (soon will come videos showcasing each one in this page!). Each tone package provides great transparency, definition and dynamic reactiveness to highlight your expressive nuances no matter how close to the neck you like to set up the strings.
Check our videos for a listen.
Versatility. Flexibility, or versatility is more than just fitting in different musical contexts. It is about things like preserving, with both pickups in action, the clarity normally associated with the bridge pickup working alone. Or, a punchy and round-sounding package that will never get muddy, even in such critical conditions as a boomy environment or a cramped jam session. But most importantly, it is what it will do for your expressiveness: different types of tone character elicit different phrasing and ideas, thus the more sound options at hand, the broader your expressive range. Hence our unique creation:
THE VARIABLE PICKUPS POSITIONING SYSTEM
Our breakthrough innovation for unprecedented tone flexibility.
It is a fact that most bass players are not aware of the key importance of the bridge pickup’s location on the body. As strong as it might sound, it is not as much about the woods, or the type of pickups as it is indeed the bridge pickup’s position that decides the sonic fundamental of a bass.
The V.P.P. device displaces the bridge pickup in four era-related spots: 1960s (Vintage) J-style, 1970s J-style, MusicMan, Alembic-style.
If a hollow body is what you have in mind, just know that a Pasini will rather be a great all-round one than just a niche, acoustic-electric specialized build. To us, it is always about expanding possibilities within one single instrument.
OUR PICKUPS
Since our beginnings, we got to put hands on basically every top brand on the market in our quest for the highest levels of headroom, transparency and dynamic responsiveness. With the pickups we use today, made on our request by our extraordinary partner MP Pickups, we achieve our absolutely best result so far, regardless of cost. Because when everything you reach for seems to be waiting for you, and you are able to cut through any sound mix, cost becomes less of an issue.
Neck fluency Based on the “J”-style (“oval”, or C-shaped) 1960s neck shape, commonly known as "oval" (or "C-shaped), and revised with a slightly flatter radius and in its section for fluent, effortless playability. Regardless of their technical level, physical features or musical prowess, the bassists who get the chance to put hands on a bass of ours almost never request a custom neck shape or measurements - it just feels like everything you reach for is just waiting for you.
The way we build it follows precise angles leading to the ideal curve once the strings impart their tension. There’s no need to follow the trend that sees pleking as a plus while pleking is only useful to fix a sloppy fretboard. The work is completed by graphite bars made with a special mix that enhances resonance instead of suppressing it, as well as a fret leveling allowing the lowest action without buzz noises.
The Feel. Sheer functional proportions, convenient weight distribution and free access to the highest fret result in a balanced connection with the instrument, both standing up and sitting, for easy consecutive hours of playing.
The Finishes. are done with products made in Italy to stand the test of time, providing the utmost durable protection.
The Finger Ramp. The radiused tablet placed between pickups beneath the strings, essential to the playing style of visionaries like Gary Willis, Dominique DiPiazza and Matthew Garrison, allows super fluent fingerpicking by limiting how deep you dig in between strings. Your fingertips slip on the ramp’s surface while picking the strings, resulting in effortless fluency of right hand action, wether you play traditional 1-2 picking or multi-finger techniques.
Fully in-house manufacturing. We use no resold or outsourced items here. Each wooden part is made by us in limited numbers, using pre-seasoned, luthiery-selected materials which we acquired at least three years before, and sit in our shop in optimal aging conditions until we use them.
Each one feels in its own, peculiar way while access to the highest fret is always easy and weight is always as light as it can get in relation to the needed materials to achieve a specific tone character
OUR STORY
Growing up in the artistic beauty of the Veneto region in Italy, my partner Erik and I soon realised that the artist lives in eternity through his creations. Driven by such idea, bass playing and bass building became our high purposes, the way to relate to our ancestors, historical blenders of function and aesthetics.
In 1983, as a teen ager in the Golden Era of bass guitar, with Bernard Edwards, Jaco, Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke, Mark King, Jimmy Johnson and Victor Bailey rocking the world, I decided I had to play bass and to the absolute best of my capabilities. I wanted an instrument capable of taking me there as quickly as possible while making me enjoy the process, but that type of instrument was too expensive for me.
Once I started to travel and look around, that supreme bass seemed to only exist in my mind – something was always missing either in the tone, the feel or the looks.
During 1995 in New York City my friend Matthew Garrison introduced me to Fodera Guitars and their remarkable work. From then to the early 2000s I collaborated with the company as Fodera's “Italian ambassador", and in those years between Italy and New York I built up my own vision which in 2006 started turning into reality under the name Wood&Tronics Basses.
2020 marks the time for stepping into our next level: www.pasinibasses.net