Mattisson Custom Series 5 Flamed Ash (pre-owned)

Custom Series 5 Flamed Ash

Mattisson’s own recipe

This is the Custom Series 5 from Mattisson, out of Sweden. It weighs 4.9 kilos, so it’s a solid one, and we’ll come back to that. Mattisson build in small numbers. Moreover, they build to their own recipe rather than to a market.

For me personally, the spec reads like a list of decisions rather than a list of features. For example, there’s a mahogany core with a figured ash top left natural under satin. In addition, the five-piece maple, padouk and wenge neck is finished in wax.

Furthermore, there’s an ebony board with a zero fret at the top of it, and 24 frets. The hardware was chosen for what it does, not for whose name is on it. In short, nothing here is decorative, and nothing is there because the catalogue expected it.

Back with new pickups

We’ve had this exact bass through the shop before. However, it has come back with new pickups. Specifically, the passive Delano dual coils are gone, and there’s now a pair of EMG 40TW-X in their place.

That’s a real change of sound, not just a swap of parts. Meanwhile, the rest of the bass is exactly as it was: same woods, same neck, same geometry, same price.

It’s in mint condition. There’s no buckle rash, no fret wear and nothing on the satin top or the back of the neck. In fact, it looks like it came off the bench, because it has barely been played since it did.

The producer switches

One thing to know up front, because you’ll notice it in the photos and again when you pick it up. There are two mini toggles on the lower bout that aren’t connected to anything. In fact, they’re producer switches, the oldest running joke in session bass, right?

Indeed, it’s the one Lee Sklar is best known for. For instance, somebody in the control room asks for a different sound, you flip the switch and everybody nods. However, they can be wired up to do real work if you’d rather they did.

Body, Neck & Woods

Mahogany with a figured ash top

The body is mahogany with a figured ash top, and that pairing does a specific job. Basically, mahogany is the warm half.

For example, it’s a dense, even hardwood with a strong fundamental, a thick low midrange and a slow, generous decay. However, on its own it can sound a little soft at the top. That’s where the ash comes in.

Ash is ring-porous and stiff. Therefore, over a mahogany core, it brings back the snap on the attack and the airy top end that mahogany leaves out. In other words, you get the weight and body of one wood with the definition and sparkle of the other.

Left natural under a satin finish, the ash also lets you see what the top is doing. Indeed, the flame runs right across the open grain, and nothing has been coloured or filled to hide it.

Five-piece neck in wax

The neck is five pieces: maple on the outside, padouk either side of a wenge centre stripe. It’s bolted on and finished in wax.

Laminating a neck isn’t decoration. In fact, alternating the grain direction across several pieces cancels out any one board’s tendency to move with humidity. As a result, the neck stays where you set it through seasons and rooms.

The three woods also do different jobs for the sound. For example, maple is bright and stiff. Wenge is very stiff and naturally damps the woolly low-mid frequencies that soften the front of a note. Meanwhile, padouk sits between them with a warm, resonant midrange.

In short, the combination gives you a neck that transmits rather than absorbs. Moreover, the wax finish keeps it fast. There’s no lacquer film to go tacky under a hot stage light, just sealed wood under your thumb.

Ebony board, 24 frets

The fingerboard is ebony, and on a five-string I would say it’s the sensible choice rather than the fancy one. Ebony is about as hard and dense as fingerboard wood gets. Indeed, hardness under the string is what sharpens the attack and keeps the fundamental from smearing.

The low B is always the string that suffers first. Therefore a dense board is one of the few structural things that really tightens it.

Twenty-four frets take you two full octaves on every string. Furthermore, the neck joint is cut back far enough that the top of the board is actually usable, not just there in theory.

Zero fret and string guide

There’s a zero fret at the top of the board, with a separate string guide behind it. In fact, this matters more than it looks like it should.

With a normal nut, the open strings sit in slots cut from bone or plastic. Consequently, they get a different material, attack and decay than every fretted note on the bass. A zero fret, however, puts the open strings on exactly the same fretwire as everything else. As a result, an open E sounds like a fretted E.

In addition, the action at the first fret is set by fret height, not by how well somebody cut a nut slot. That’s one of the most common reasons a first position feels stiff. Meanwhile, the string guide handles spacing and break angle, so each part does one job properly.

Why 34″ on a five

The scale is 34 inches, the standard. Moreover, it’s a deliberate choice on a five-string, since plenty of builders go for 35″ to get an easier low B.

Going long is the blunt way to solve that, and it costs you something. For example, you get more stretch in first position and a stiffer feel under the right hand. In addition, the strings have to be ordered rather than picked off the wall.

Mattisson, however, solve it structurally. Specifically, the B is held tight by a five-piece laminated neck that won’t flex. Likewise, the ebony board is dense enough to keep the fundamental from smearing.

Finally, five separate single-string bridges anchor each string into the body on its own, instead of sharing a plate with four others. As a result, the low B has a firm, quick attack. At the same time, it still sits under your hand the way a 34″ bass should.

Condition

This is a 2024 bass and it’s in mint condition. For example, there’s no buckle rash on the back and no wear on the satin top or around the forearm. In addition, nothing shows on the back of the neck, where a wax finish usually shows a player’s hand first.

The ebony board is clean, and the frets are unlevelled by use. Specifically, there are no divots under the D and G in first position and no flattening on the low B. Likewise, the black hardware has kept its finish, and the Hipshot tuners turn as they should.

The pickup change

The one thing that has changed since it was built is the electronics. In fact, the original passive Delano dual coils have been replaced with a pair of EMG 40TW-X. That’s why the bass is active now, where it used to be passive.

It was done properly. For instance, the pickup routs are clean, the pickguard sits flat and the control layout is unchanged. Meanwhile, the two producer toggles were part of the original build and still aren’t connected to anything.

It comes with the Mattisson gigbag. Because we’ve had it through the shop once before, we know what it is and where it has been. Finally, it’s priced exactly as it was then.

Electronics, Sound & Feel

EMG 40TW-X: two pickups in one

The pickups are a matched pair of EMG 40TW-X. TW stands for Twin, which means that each housing has two separate pickups rather than one. Specifically, there’s EMG’s CSX ceramic-steel dual coil and a JCSX single coil.

Switch between them and the character really changes. For example, the dual coil is the big, aggressive, mid-forward sound, with the humbucking silence that goes with it. In contrast, the single coil is leaner, clearer and more open. Indeed, it has the top-end detail and slight airiness a real single coil gives you.

In short, that’s two different sounds at each pickup position, not a thin split-coil impression of one.

The X Series preamp

The X in the name is the part worth caring about. EMG’s X Series preamp sits inside each pickup. Moreover, it’s a redesign of the circuit that made EMG famous.

In fact, it’s aimed squarely at the criticism that classic EMGs sound compressed and a bit clinical. As a result, X pickups have far more headroom, so hard playing opens up instead of flattening out.

Furthermore, the dynamic response is much closer to a good passive pickup. In other words, you hear where your right hand is, and how hard you hit. They still need 9V to run, because the preamp is what makes them work. However, the sound is the modern, open EMG rather than the tight, controlled one from the eighties.

Volume, volume, tone

The control set is deliberately plain: volume, volume, tone. Two separate volumes instead of a blend let you set each pickup by ear. Moreover, you can drop either one to zero without hunting for a detent.

Meanwhile, the passive tone rolls the top off the whole bass, the way a tone control is supposed to. There’s no onboard EQ, because all the preamp in this bass lives inside the pickups. Therefore the signal path stays short, and the tone shaping goes back where a lot of players want it: on the amp.

Then there are the two producer switches, which do nothing. Indeed, neither of them is connected. However, if you want the 40TW-X coil switching wired up to them, that’s a straightforward job. In fact, they’re already drilled and mounted for it.

Black hardware

The hardware is all black and all chosen for function. For example, the bridge is five separate single-string units, each with its own baseplate, saddle and intonation adjustment.

Each one is anchored individually into the body. As a result, the strings are decoupled from one another, and you set spacing and height per string instead of accepting what a one-piece plate gives you. Finally, the tuners are black Hipshots, which is about as reliable as bass hardware gets.

What’s not to like?

Be aware that at 4.9 kg this is a solid bass. Because mahogany, an ash top and a heavily laminated neck all add up, my advice is to bring a wide strap. Is that a problem? Not really. On the other hand, it feels planted, sustains for a long time and has real body behind every note.

Moreover, the spec is really hard to buy any other way. Specifically, it’s a hand-built Swedish five with a zero fret and individual single-string bridges. In addition, two pickups each give you two completely different sounds. In my opinion, it’s for a player who knows what they want and has stopped finding it in the catalogue. So, what’s not to like?