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This is my main instrument. It is a four string fretless bass, made by Matt Friedman in 1994 under the Acacia brand name. I bought it from Dan Lenard at Luthiers Acces Group in 1998, after exchanging a few e-mails with Matt where he suggested I should contact Dan. This instrument had traveled with Dan to various trade shows and such for four years, and he let me have it for a friendly price. So since then it has been my main bass, and I love it very much. It has traveled with me to many places during my years with YWAM, and has been very reliable.
The instrument is made entirely by hand, using a variety of different woods laminated together and hand carved. The neck is laminated of nine pieces of wood; from center to edge these are Mahogany, Maple, Rosewood, Maple and Wenge. The center Mahogany piece in the neck is tapered, so it is wider at the body then at the head (you can see this in the pictures). The body is laminated of five pieces of wood: the core is Mahogany, the top is Lacewood, and there is a thin piece of Rosewood between the core and the top. The fingerboard is Gaboon Ebony, and it has Maple fretlines and Rosewood dots; as well as little side markers of brass. Tuning machines are Japanese Gotoh type. The bridge is Kahler. The pickups are EMG Extended series at 18 volts, passive controls. It weighs about 3.7kg (8.1 pounds), and has a very comfortable body and neck shape.
Recently (May 2004) I changed pickups from the old EMG 35DC type to a newer 35TW type. The old ones were Dual Coil and sounded very nice, but I felt like trying something new. The TW model is both Dual Coil (Cheramic Steel) and Single Coil - it is switchable. So now I have even more tonal variety available, which is very nice. The single coil mode gives a clearer and somewhat brighter sound than the dual coil mode, which is a bit meatier with more punch in the mids. Here are some pictures of the pickup changing process.