Strangy's "She-Devil"

A patriarch of psychobilly bass and slapping for some 20 years, Strangy is one of the UK's - and indeed the world's - hardest-working psycho bassists, playing in and/or founding bands such as the Klingonz, Celtic Bones, Demented Are Go! and the Dead Kings. When one of his basses was recently lost in an unfortunate and unanticipated event, he contacted Norton Customs for a new instrument to replace it... But what to do with the blank canvas?

Strangy went with a deep, rich trans red, burst to a bold black. A thin red pinstripe outlines the bass' gamba shape, ending in small devil points on the top and back of the instrument. Finally, the finish was leveled and polished up to a wet-look gloss.

The instrument is also loaded with innovative, quality hardware. From the bottom up, the bass starts with one of the new Norton Endpins for a strong and lightweight foundation. The Wittner lightweight tailpiece is attached using flexible aircraft cable, and the quality French Despiau bridge blank is fitted with one-piece aluminum adjusters from Mike Pecanic and dyed black to match the tailpiece and ebony fingerboard. Finally, the bass is topped off with new Norton "Lighter-weight" tuning machines, individual nickel machines that employ aluminum peg shafts to reduce weight. Forstrings, Strangy chose his faves, Thomastik Superflexibles, in the solo gauge tuned to orchestral pitch.

It all comes together to complete a bass that's loud, punchy, lighter in weight and - oh yeah - sports devilishly killer looks to boot!