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Close-up of inlay
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Spector Builds 32,000 Year Old Bass for
Charity |
Stuart Spector Designs has just
completed a bass, the NS-30K BC that will
utilize what is believed to be the oldest wood ever used in the construction of a musical instrument.
Obtained by Spector from logs discovered buried 40 feet deep in a sand quarry in Georgia, USA,
the wood is perfectly preserved, due to the sterile nature of the sand and the natural decay
resistance of the cypress wood itself. Using carbon 14 testing techniques, samples of the
wood were examined by Beta Analytics, in Miami, to check for radioactive decay in the small
amount of carbon that is present in all living organisms.
Astonishingly, results revealed the timber is 31,970 years old, plus or minus 570 years from
the time the tree was originally felled, while the tree itself may have been as much as 1,000
years old at the time a storm blew it down. At present, Spector plans to produce just one
instrument from this wood, a 4 string bass in the classic Spector NS curved body style.
Ornamentation on the NS-30K BC will be a 12th fret marker made from fossil mastodon
ivory, fashioned in the shape of a mastodon (extinct elephant-like creature), cut, inlaid, and
hand engraved by master inlay artist, Larry Robinson.
The completed instrument can be seen at the Spector booth, during the forthcoming NAMM
show, held between July 20th-22nd at the Nashville Convention Center. Estimated selling
price of the bass is expected to be $20,000, with the full profit from the sale going to the
World Wildlife Fund.
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