 Welcome to “Meet Your Maker,” a series dedicated
to bringing you closer to the individuals
behind the instruments that inspire us.
FEW NAMES GARNER MORE RESPECT
in the bass-building community than Michael
Tobias. For good reason: Mike’s beautiful
basses have been gracing stages since the late
’70s, and his gentle and unassuming spirit,
along with his warm and friendly “Grizzly
Adams” features, have been a staple at
NAMM Shows for decades. Perhaps more
important, however, many a successful
luthier cites Mike both as an inspiration and
a mentor, and he has never been reluctant
to provide advice and guidance to the next
generation of builders. MTD’s outstanding
series of basses demonstrate that Tobias is a
skilled craftsman, an innovative visionary,
and a true artisan. His instruments are a
wonderful amalgamation of organic beauty,
technological innovation, and practical design.
Mike jokes that stupidity was his initial
inspiration for building guitars. “I didn’t have
the discipline to practice much, but I would
never admit that it was my fault that I couldn’t
play better,” he confesses. “I kept looking at
my guitar thinking that if it were made better,
then I could play better.” As a result, Mike
kept looking for ways to improve his own
guitar, which he says was a lot more fun than
practicing. In the early ’70s, he went to work
repairing guitars at a place called the Guitar
Shop in Washington, D.C. Desiring more
independence, Tobias decided to open his
own repair shop, and in 1976 he and his wife
moved to Orlando, Florida, which is where
he fi rst came up with the idea of building his
own guitars. “Guys would come in and want
a guitar modified so heavily that I told them,
‘Why not just leave this alone and let me try
to build you something,’” Mike recalls. “That’s
how I got started.”
IN PURSUIT OF CREATIVITY
Some of his customers took him up on that offer,
but many just wanted him to mimic factorymade
instruments, and Tobias quickly found
himself dissatisfied with the lack of creativity
such work offered. According to Mike, most
customers wanted Strat, Tele, or
Les Paul replicas, but it wasn’t
artistically very satisfying. As a
result, he decided that he would
stop making clone guitars and began
experimenting with his own design, with a
particular eye toward comfort, playability,
and tone. Interestingly, when he began
pushing the boundaries of guitar design,
it was bassists who first took notice. “At
that period in the ’80s there weren’t
many alternative instruments available,”
he recalls. “It seemed like bass players
were more individualistic. They wanted
their own sound, and if you couldn’t get
it from a Fender or a Rickenbacker, you
were out of luck.”
 One day a bass player came into his
shop and asked Tobias if he would build
a bass that had the same attributes as the
guitars he was building. Mike agreed and
set out to make a bass. Upon its completion,
the guy loved it and told his friends
about Mike’s work. They in turn told their
friends, and before long, Tobias found
himself making more basses than guitars.
Relocating to the West Coast in 1980,
Mike established himself as a preeminent
builder, and business boomed—so much so
that Tobias had difficulty keeping up with
the orders. Around 1990, he remembers,
“We had a two-year waiting
list and were making 200
basses a year.” He sold
the company to Gibson
in 1990, but he stayed
on making basses with
them until ’92, after
which he took a year
off and then reopened
his own company, MTD,
in ’93. Since then, Mike has
been busy creating a variety
of models that have earned him
a well-deserved reputation as
a master luthier.
LISTENING TO
TREES
Early on in his
designs, Tobias
experimented with
the tonal quality of
a variety of wood
choices. He says that
his early experiments
centered on how different
woods make the
string vibrate through the
magnetic field differently in each
instrument, providing a nice range
of tones. “I approach my basses as
being acoustic before being electric,
and I believe that the sound of the
wood should first determine the voice of
the instrument, not the pickups,” he says.
This early conviction has stuck with Mike,
who works to guide customers to their
desired sound by first contemplating wood
choice. “For example,” he explains, “if you
want a fairly aggressive bass, then we’ll
build it out of these particular woods. If
you want something that’s got a lot of
pop and hits you right in your face, then
we’ll use this kind of wood.”
EMOTION IN MOTION
Despite his clear appreciation for the
sonic properties created by construction
and electronics, Tobias ultimately believes
that there are other powerful influences
on an instrument’s voicing. “Everybody’s
instrument is greater than the sum of
the parts and what the builder puts into
it,” he states. “It’s the builder’s energy
that gives it life, and then that of the
owner.” He acknowledges that such an
assertion may sound a bit too “new-age”
for some, but he claims that this reality
is demonstrated when two different
players pick up the same instrument
and produce radically different sounds.
“It’s the emotional attachment to the
instrument that helps bring that life
about,” Tobias asserts.
Mike’s approach to building is fairly
straightforward and
customer-driven. Being
a successful luthier, he
maintains, results from
a combination of how
you treat your customer
and how you fulfill their
needs. “There are a lot of
bass builders that make
really good basses,” he says.
“The criteria are that a
bass has to please the
owner and play in
tune. Other than
that, everything
is equally valid.
It’s a very simple
formula.” He
says that his job
as a builder is to
try to sort out all
of the details that
make the bass work well for the customer. A
quick look at the artists who choose to play
his basses provides all the evidence one needs
to see that Tobias does that very well. “A lot of
luthiers forget that we’re actually in a service
business. But I’m not doing you a favor by
building you a bass—you’re doing me a favor
by playing one of mine.”
BASS FOR BASS SAKE
MTD mostly makes 35"-scale 5- and 6-string
basses, and this past year saw the introduction
of the Andrew Gouché’s Signature 6-string. Both the modern look and
sonic range of these basses demonstrate an
open mind toward the ever-expanding role
of the bass, but according to Mike, the role
of the instrument is still rooted in the rhythm
sections. Still, he acknowledges that the
bass has taken on another character as well.
“There’s bass for songs, and then there’s bass
for bass sake, and that’s a lovely thing. It’s not
just a niche instrument anymore, which is the
coolest thing about it.” Mike anticipates that the
bass will continue to develop as a solo instrument,
as will the range and musical styles played
on it, and if history is any indication, MTD will
most likely be there to meet the instrumental
needs created by this new development—with
beauty, precision, and probably some of that
emotional mojo Mike talks about.
MICHAEL TOBIAS DESIGNS
Builder Michael Tobias
Price range $700–$2,500 (Kingston
Series); $4,400–$8,000 (USA Series)
Mission To make basses with a wide array of
tonal qualities that satisfy the creative and
emotional needs of each individual player
Notable players Andrew Gouché, Norm
Stockton, Bobby Vega, Dante Nolan
Contact mtdbass.com
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