Carl Thompson (born February 5 1939) is a

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...

and musician specializing in the construction of high-quality custom

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

s. He is based in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Born in

Pitcairn, Pennsylvania Pitcairn is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, east of Pittsburgh's central business district, named for Robert Pitcairn, an official of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Early in the 20th century, Pitcairn was the site of large railroad ...

to a large musical family, Thompson moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1967 to pursue a career as a

jazz guitarist Jazz guitarists are guitarists who play jazz using an approach to chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has fulfilled the roles of accompanist ( rhythm guitar) and soloist in small and large ...

. After working in a guitar shop to supplement his income, he started his own guitar repair business. He made his first instrument in 1974 and quickly gained renown in the craft. Carl Thompson has invented several important designs for modern basses. The most important advances in design attributed to Carl are his invention of

Neck-thru Neck-through-body (commonly neck-thru or neck-through) is a method of electric guitar construction that combines the instrument's neck and core of its body into a single unit. This may be made of a solid piece of wood, or two or more laminate ...

instruments using a single piece heel block, as well as lengthening the electric bass from a 34" scale to a 36" and 38", which extends the harmonic overtones producing a richer

timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or musical tone, tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voice ...

that is more consistent with the traditional acoustic bass. The

piccolo bass A piccolo bass is either an electric bass or acoustic double bass which has been tuned to a higher frequency, usually one octave higher than conventional bass tuning. This allows bass players to use higher registers during soloing while retaining ...

, a guitar of the same dimensions as a normal bass but tuned an octave higher, was envisioned by

Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, film composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jaz ...

and first built for him by Carl. Carl also constructed the first six string

contrabass guitar A contrabass guitar is a low-register bass guitar with four, five or six strings. It is often called, simply, a ''six string bass guitar''. The ''five string bass guitar'' is rarely called a contrabass guitar, even though it typically has the sam ...

envisioned by Anthony Jackson. Carl's most popular endorsee is

Les Claypool Leslie Edward Claypool (born September 29, 1963) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and author. He is best known as the founder, lead singer, bassist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the ro ...

of the band Primus, who plays and owns seven Carl Thompson basses, his most famous being the Rainbow Bass, a six-string

fretless bass A fretless bass is a bass guitar whose neck does not have any frets. While the instrument is played in all styles of music, it is most common in pop, rock, and jazz. It first saw widespread use during the 1970s, although some players used them befo ...

made of several different woods. He has made at least four basses for

. Clarke honored Thompson at one of his concerts and invited him on stage, calling him "a very great bass maker" and stating "(Carl) made one of my first piccolo basses. In fact, he made ''the'' first piccolo bass." Carl has also built guitars for Lou Reed and Hank Williams III. Thompson basses are sought after, and he maintains a two-year waiting list, though some orders can take well over three years to complete. The cost for a basic four-string bass made by Thompson is about $5,500. Basses such as the "Rainbow Bass" can cost well over $10,000, although Carl will not make copies of the bass for his clients despite being asked to do so in the past. He maintains that all his basses are one-of-a-kind. Thompson continues to be an active musician, practicing several hours a day, and performing once a week at a local Brooklyn restaurant. He has a fascination with jazz singers, and is a respected vocal coach of young singers.

References

*https://web.archive.org/web/20130117213431/http://www.lucaspickford.net/transajgrooves.htm *https://ctbasses.com *https://ctbasses.com/guitar-player-magazine-march-1985 (Guitar Player Magazine, 1985)

External links

Carl Thompson Basses web site
* . * .
Charles Farnsworth's (brother in law to Stanley Clarke) fretless all-cherry bass.

The Rainbow Bass; made for Les Claypool.
*
The "$10 Million Bass" in Black Ebony.

Les Claypool playing one of his seven Carl Thompson basses.

The world's first six string bass by Carl Thompson; made for Anthony Jackson.
*Lou Reed on stage with a one-of-a-kind Carl Thompson Guita

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Carl 1939 births Living people People from Pitcairn, Pennsylvania American luthiers Guitar makers Businesspeople from New York City