Ken Lawrence Instruments is a manufacturer of custom

guitars The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and

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 founded by Ken Lawrence in 1986. Besides building instruments, Lawrence has also performed as a

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

both live and in recording sessions. Lawrence began building instruments in 1981 at Moonstone Guitars, and five years later, he set up his own company. Lawrence mainly builds handcrafted bass guitars with a delivery time close to a year with 20 to 25 built each year, but he has also built guitars for

James Hetfield James Alan Hetfield (born August 3, 1963) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, co-founder and a main songwriter of heavy metal band Metallica. He is mainly known for his intricate rhythm playing, but occasionall ...

, guitarist and vocalist of the American band

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

. Most of the guitars built for Hetfield conform to the measurements of his

ESP ESP most commonly refers to: * Extrasensory perception, a paranormal ability ESP may also refer to: Arts, entertainment Music * ESP Guitars, a manufacturer of electric guitars * E.S. Posthumus, an independent music group formed in 2000, ...

Explorer but have slight differences in the

headstock A headstock or peghead is part of a guitar or similar stringed instruments such as a lute, mandolin, banjo, ukulele and others of the lute lineage. The main function of a headstock is to house the pegs or mechanism that holds the strings at the ...

and custom inlays on the fretboard. He has also built a five-string fretless bass for

Trevor Dunn Trevor Roy Dunn (born January 30, 1968) is an American composer, bass guitarist, and double bassist. He came to prominence in the 1990s with the experimental band Mr. Bungle. While performing with Mr. Bungle, Dunn would dress similar to the ...

of the American band

Mr. Bungle Mr. Bungle is an American experimental rock band formed in Eureka, California in 1985. Having gone through many incarnations throughout their career, the band is best known for music created during their most experimental era. During this time, ...

Construction

All instruments are built on an individual basis for each customer. Lawrence avoids the use of endangered woods and advocates the use of "responsibly harvested" rain forest hardwoods for his instruments. The instrument bodies are usually made in

Ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

Alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

, or

Mahogany Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...

, but other types of wood are available if the customer demands it (such as Jamaican blue wood). All necks are made of eastern hard rock maple and are usually fitted with fretboards in

grenadilla ''Dalbergia melanoxylon'' (African blackwood, grenadilla, or mpingo) is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to seasonally dry regions of Africa from Senegal east to Eritrea and south to the north-eastern parts of South Africa. The ...

or katalox. All bass guitars can be ordered in different finishes, with or without frets, and with a variety pickups and preamps.

Line of bass guitars

Associate

* Sculpted two piece body of select southern ash or alder. * Graphite reinforced maple neck with 24 fret rosewood or grenadillo fretboard. * Custom made Bass Line pickups with 3 band preamp and black hardware. * Available as four, five and six strings.

Brase

* Sculpted selects ash body with upper horn connected to neck at the 11th fret. * Hard rock maple neck with graphite spars and dual flex truss rod. * Custom Bass line pickups and preamps. * Available in five or six stringed versions.

Chamberbass

* Sculpted semihollow mahogany body with red wood top and soundholes. * Extended ebony tailpiece and heightadjustable ebony piezo bridge. * Custom Bass line pickups and 3 band preamp. * Available as five or six stringed versions.

External links

References

Bass guitar manufacturing companies {{musical-instrument-company-stub