The PRS Private Stock “Guitar of the Month” for July is a bass guitar, specifically the Grainger 5-String Fretless.
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This bass is a limited run version of Gary Grainger’s signature PRS bass, which was co-designed by the high profile bassist who played for Nancy Wilson, John Scofield, Dennis Chambers and many more.
This revival of the “Guitar of the Month” feature by PRS Guitars is their way of celebrating the 20th Anniversary of their Private Stock line. For each month in 2016, the Private Stock team will be offering special edition instruments, interestingly, the company chose a bass guitar for this month.
PRS launched the “Guitars of the Month” program back in December of 1994, and it provided them with the opportunity to try out ideas and designs outside their usual production line instruments. This eventually led to the creation of PRS’ Private Stock program, and releasing their first ever custom built instrument on April 1996. Paul Reed Smith himself is overseeing this department for the last several years, to ensure quality, attention to detail and more importantly, innovation.
Paul Reed Smith adds, “Private Stock is very special to me. It is an amazingly passionate team working with our most treasured materials and new designs. These craftsmen are building heirloom quality pieces of art that play and sound as good as any guitar I have ever played. I am very proud to be celebrating 20 years of Private Stock with the Guitar of the Month program.”
The story goes that this release was inspired by a Grainger 5-String that was custom built for Alex AL, a bassist known for his decade long work with Michael Jackson. It features top of the line cosmetics that include PRS’ Tree of Life inlay on top of its fretless fingerboard.
This bass guitar features a premium quality tonewoods that include curly maple for the top and white wash swamp ash for the back. It has a 34″ scale curly maple neck topped by a 24-fret ebony fingerboard. The most standout feature of this bass is its Modern Tree of Life inlay on which consists of sparkle, solid white and gold mother of pearl, green heart abalone and dark red coral. The elegant inlay runs through the fingerboard, truss rod cover and headstock veneer, giving the instrument a distinct appeal. The body is finished in Fire Red Smoked Burst high gloss nitro finish, which complements the eye catching inlays.
For electronics, the Grainger 5-String Fretless Bass comes with PRS/Grainger active treble and bass pickups. Other hardware include PRS machined brass Grainger 5-string bridge, Gotoh bass tuning pegs and brass nut. The hardware are finished in gold to complete its premium look.
Paul Reed Smith concludes, “Alex has played with everyone from Stevie Wonder, Sting, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, and Taylor Swift. We made a 5-string Grainger bass for him with a beautiful Tree of Life inlay. When the bass was done, it was just exquisite. Looking at and playing the July Guitar of the Month bass, that was inspired by the Alex Al bass and discussions with him about a fretless version, I think it fits this program perfectly because this is not only a work of art, it is fit for a Grammy-worthy recording or for a world tour performance.“
According to PRS, only six Grainger 5-String Fretless Bass guitars will be build for July 2016. For further details, you can head over to PRS Guitars.
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