Gil Yaron Pre-CBS Basses

Gil Yaron, builder of some of the absolute finest '58, '59 & '60 Burst Replicas and pre-CBS guitars and basses to be found, has brought on DAG to represent him for sales in North America. It's a great honor for us to have a luthier the stature of Gil Yaron join our collective and it's with great pride that we offer his remarkable work to you, our valued customers and friends.

Gil Yaron makes various types of instruments with a focus on pre-CBS lines of guitars and basses from the 50s and 60s, hand crafted in his shop.

NOTE: The headstock on all Gil Yaron guitars will feature the Gil Yaron logo.

The Wood
It takes a great wood to make a great bass. Plain and simple. This is why only a portion of Yaron's wood blanks are lucky enough to be turned into a fine pre-CBS-line instrument. Yaron specifically orders his wood supply for the Pre-CBS line and that means swamp ash and alder for the bodies, hard maple for necks and Brazilian rosewood for fingerboards. He buys his swamp ash from the best mills in Southern U.S. and mostly in feather weight and one piece blanks. Alder comes from the U.S in one or two piece blanks and selected to be knots free and feather weight as well. The hard rock maple is from old growth Canadian stocks. The Brazilian rosewood is from the best suppliers in Brazil (he has family and friends over there).

Although dry enough when ordered, wood is naturally dried at Yaron's storage (kiln is not needed in Israel...) for an additional year or two until it reaches the correct moisture content percentage and an additional week after initial body and neck cuts to make sure it is stable enough for further processing. He also uses his big selection of highly figured old growth maple for those 'one of a kind' projects. All body and neck blanks get Yaron's unique 'tuning forks test' after their initial cut and are divided into three major categories: bright, warm and scrap. Later, a matching is done between body and neck to achieve the required properties for each instrument.

The Process
Yaron's shop was designed from the ground up to reproduce the pre-CBS line. This means machinery, jigs, templates, tools, materials.... everything! Each step of the original manufacturing process was accurately duplicated as well as the building schedule and jobs order. Almost every step has its own unique jig to get a true production line that produces consistent and accurate instruments. All jigs were designed by Yaron to duplicate the originals. For example, his templates were cut from the original instruments, back of neck is shaped on a custom shaping cutter, fingerboard radiusing and slotting is done with a swing arm jig, trussrods are made in the shop and installed in the original way, frets are installed sideways, marking dot materials are correct bakelite for 50s and real 'clay' paste for 60s, body shaping is made in the exact old way with correct routing depths and correct contours made on the sanders, plastic and bakelite guards are also cut at the shop with great accuracy..etc etc. The original goal was to do it in the old historical way and Yaron sticks to the plan.

The Finish
The original pre-CBS finishing process has evolved over the years, finishing materials were tested and replaced often at the old factory and it took quite a lot of effort to investigate those changes. Yaron performs the finish schedule and uses the different materials based on the target year of reproduction but in general all Yaron's clear coats are nitrocellulose based and custom colors are mixed according to the original 50s and 60s color chips. Yaron believes in applying a super thin finish film that not only ages beautifully but also allows the wood to resonate in order to get that unmistakable vintage woody warm tone. He uses flip nails and a lazy Suzan table just like it was used on the originals so that you'll even get those nail holes looking accurate, filled with the right sanding and buffing material... It takes a few weeks for the coats to cure before Yaron wet sands and buffs the nitro to a perfect shiny gloss by using a circular disc sander as it was done in the old days.

The Tone
Yaron designs, builds and winds his own pickups. After years of using other manufacturers pickups he came to the conclusion that the only way to make a complete balanced instrument is to build them specifically for that given instrument. He uses the very same materials and methods used in the old days but he can freely control the pickup character by changing some of the variables such as the scatter pattern, AlNiCo magnet type, magnet wire type, number of turns, wire tension, magnetic field strength, winding speed... etc.He uses forbon fiber material for his bobbins, many types of AlNiCo magnets of different grades and manufacturers (they all sound different), AWG 42 heavy formvar and plain enamel wires, AWG 43 plain enamel for Tele neck pu and AWG 22 waxed cloth pushback lead wires. A part of the final setup sometimes involves pu calibration to get that perfect balance in the set.

Base Prices, basic N.O.S. (non relic) basses, inclusive of shipping and duty:
- 50's 60's P-Bass: call for consultation and pricing
- 60's JazzBass: call for consultation and pricing

Some options are extra (exceptional tops, one piece feather weight Fender bodies, figured Necks... etc...)

Next available building slot is in the first quarter of 2011. Average build time is  roughly 2 months.