Bass Gear Issue 7 : Page 17By Vic Serbe The Company Line Mike Pedulla originally went to New York’s Clarkson University for Engineering, but after only one year, he transferred to the Crane School of Music for a Music degree. For over 35 years now, Mike Pedulla has been applying his love for both engineering and music towards a passion for building superb bass guitars. Just as with other luthiers, the early years were mostly about guitars, but eventually led to bass building as well. His early basses aren’t that unlike what he builds and sells today. They used maple bodies, quarter-sawn maple for the neck (though it has gone from a slab to multi-piece), and Bartolini electronics. He’s been successful since the first run of basses, so he must have had a sixth sense for what bassists wanted from the very beginning. Mike credits much of his early success to Jaco Pastorius’s popularity, since his Buzz model’s focus was to be a top quality fretless bass... a model that remains popular even now (though he also made the fretted version, the MVP, at the time, which also did well). In fact, his fretless basses are known for their “coated” fingerboards, which is basically a refinement of an idea Jaco had. Mike’s very proud of the fact that all his instruments are built completely here in the USA, and insists on a very high level of customer service. Put both of those things behind a product like his, and it’s easy to understand why he’s still around and doing well. Mike did a lot of work for Mark Egan and Tim Landers back in the day, which is where a lot of his feedback came from regarding what works and what doesn’t. Mark Egan plays an MVP to this day, and Tim Landers plays a 4-string Buzz. Interestingly, Tim is featured on the Pedulla web site demoing a Nuance 5-string, and the clip is great. You should visit www.pedulla.com and listen to it. It’s fairly rock-ish and does a good job of showing off how fat and aggressive the Nuance can be. Other well-known names also populate that list, including Doug Johns, who is also featured in this issue in our player interview. Currently, Mike offers several models of basses based on very different designs, each with its own tonal and aesthetic target in the bass market. Each is a culmination of his own design ideas coupled with feedback from the pros. Today, we’re looking at the Nuance. I think you’ll like what you see here. It’s clear from this model that Mike is continuing to advance his craft. Publication List Using a screen reader? Click Here |
