Bass Of tomorrow
Hungarian luthier Péter Gáspá of Blasius Guitars on his vision for the future
Hywel Davies interviews Planet Earth’s bass-making heroes
“Istarted making basses about 30 years ago. I’m a bass player myself, so I was always trying to find better instruments to play,” explains Péter Gáspá when we ask about his past history of making bass guitars. “I wasn’t satisfied with what I could find when I started playing bass. I made my first bass back in ’82 and I started making holes in it, replacing pickups – and that’s where it began for me.”
Blasius consists of three luthiers – Balázs Mihály, Zoltán Mihályi and Gáspá. Mihály, who founded the company over 30 years ago, follows the philosophy that basses should be treated as acoustic instruments in their own right. To him and his colleagues, the resulting tonality resonates far more naturally, equating to a superior-sounding instrument.
So, what new developments have occurred at Blasius lately, we ask? “We have new
“PEOPLE CAN COME IN EVERY WEEK TO SEE HOW IT’S GOING, EVEN RIGHT FROM THE START”
electronics with active pickups, which gives much more clarity to the sound. We have new Jazz bass styles and the Precision styles, but we like the modern sound, which is why these models are made with fanned frets.”
The philosophies of the finest luthiers have one thing in common, which is that locally sourced materials make for better instruments. Blasius follow this thinking, but also use modern materials to enhance their basses. “Most of the time we use the types of wood that grow in Hungary,” says Gáspá. “We try to protect the environment as well, so we don’t use all these exotic woods. We try to use as many of our local woods as possible, but the other thing we’ve started to use is carbon fibre in our instruments. It’s not just inside the wood – it’s laminated between the woods, so there’s a lot more stiffness to the neck.”
Blasius have an open-door policy for their clients, making sure their basses can perfectly fit the needs of any given artist. “If someone comes to us with an idea of the sound and character that they want from a bass, then we can design the bass just for them. The shape, the materials, the electronics – these are all made specifically for that person. People can come in every week to see how it’s going, even right from the start when we collect the woods. They can be there when we choose the electronics and all the other parts. Our artists are a big part of the whole process of making our basses.”