This beautiful looking and playing bass came to us from a local bassist's estate. He had a letter with it that came from Michael Tobias with specs and other important info. It reads:
01/13/12
Dear Customer,
This is an MTD AG 5. This is the 2178th bass of my MTD series and the 7th Andrew Gauche signature 5
string bass. The serial number is 2178011212.
The body is alder with a maple burl top. The neck is maple with a purple heart fingerboard. This bass also
has special side dot material from Luminlay, the glowing dots can be activated with the LED provided.
This bass is delivered with the revolutionary Buzz Feiten Tuning system. This system will show a great
improvement in tuning when playing chords and when working with a keyboard and horns. There are
several tuners on the market which have the "Feiten Mode" built in. Tuning is normal in every way except
the intonation. There is a set up and intonation sheet included with this paperwork.
This bass is 35" scale with 24 frets. The neck and body are hand finished with an epoxy base coat and
catalyzed urethane topcoat. This should make a great feeling and durable finish. Upkeep on the finish is
simple. It can be cleaned and polished with any high-quality guitar polish.
The new truss rod is a true double acting rod and will adjust in both directions. It is adjustable with the 4
mm Allen wrench supplied with this package.
The strings are Andrew 's preferred set from Dean Markley, SR 2000 It. Tuned down a full step
The pick-ups and active electronics are custom made by Bill Bartolini. The controls are: master volume
and a pan pot, treble, mid, bass cut and boost, with center click (from neck to bridge). The three position
switch selects the mid-range cut and boost point. Down is lower mids (250); center is middle (500) and up
is upper mids (1000). When the mid pot is at center click, the switch has minimal effect. This eq has 2
batteries and is a +/- 9 volt system. Be especially careful not to change the batteries when the bass is
plugged in. There is a trim pot inside the control cavity to adjust the gain.
There is great variety in the settings of the EQ. The basses can be made to sound very traditional by
cutting the mids all the way at 1000 and boosting the bass and treble to 10 with the blend pot at center.
To me, this is the best slap tone. Boosting the mids at 250, with bass at 10 and treble at 9-10 with the
blend pot on the bridge pick up gives the early Bartolini TCT tone. This offers a very percussive finger
tone. These are just suggestions. Your tone will vary depending on your rig and technique.
I hope that this bass brings you many hours of enjoyment and playing satisfaction.
Best regards,
Michael Tobias , Luthier