How our body shapes evolved

First there was the Standard Point. It was made so you would have to put it in a stand (ever try not to?). Remember, we were a repair and modification shop before we made instruments, and one of the most common repairs we performed was fixing pegheads because people would lean their instrument on the wall rather than putting it in a proper stand. Next was the Omega, and the Small Standard. Heart Omega variation was an early one. Later, our customer David Fung designed the Stinger Omega. Triple Omega, Point, Omega, Heart Omega and Stinger are all the same template, the bottom detail is done in the carving department.

The Distillate blends the Point and the Small Standard, with a flat bottom. John Entwistle wanted the Exploiter body. He bought 15 of them. We made lots of Spoilers and Distillates in the 80’s with this shape. Contrary to its appearance, this is one of the best balancing body shapes.

The Spoiler has nearly all unique curves, and nearly all were 32″ medium scale. Scorpion shape was really many different ones, but all versions had “pistol grip” horn(s), and a Heart Omega bottom. The most popular on was a version we made for Germany, about 3/4 scale of a Standard Point blended with the Spoiler.

The first Elan was made for a customer in Japan that wanted a very Jazz looking bass (the “H” in the Elan serial number is for “Hojin”). Take an Elan and shave 1/4″ off and voila, Europa emerges. The first Europa was made for Ron that used to work at the Bass Centre in LA way back when. These were the first bodies with tummy and elbow carving standard. The Essence draws its lower body half from the Small Standard. The upper horn is extended so that it will balance in a long scale. The Essence is our smallest body, and is narrower than most guitars.

To make a Rogue, merge an Essence into the Europa, and then stretch the horn to match the length of the 6-string custom Series II in the 1990 brochure. Everyone loved that shape, but it was really quite enormous. The Rogue captures the feeling of that bass, but is a much more manageable size.

Epic was the first set neck version bass. The key feature here was to have the horns part of the same curve. The bottom curve of the body is borrowed from the Elan, but a little more rounded.

Orion is the set neck version of the Europa. Same thing as the Epic on the inner surface of the horns… they are on the same curve.

Excel is sort of like a set neck new Spoiler, but more circular. This body has the most extreme inner horn curve. That covers the major body shapes. There are lots more stories of course, and many countless more bodies, including some that never made it off paper!