SOULMATE
BRING YOUR SOUL ALIVE, WITH EACH NOTE YOU PLAY
After comparing many old basses from the 50’s and 60’s, and together with the input from many players, an idea began to form in my mind of what Soulmate should be. For that vintage vibe, a wide neck was essential. The wide neck fights back, but at the same time it lends a helping hand so you can focus on groove, timing, phrasing, and coloring. And to me, this is the soul of bass playing.
Sander de Gier
DETAILS
Nobody likes a neck that’s constantly on the move. I implement a steel dual action trussrod and carbon fibre reinforcements into each neck. This creates stability and allows for comfortable neck adjustments, as well as easy future servicing. This neck is designed to last.
Lightweight tuners help to eliminate the neckdive caused by heavy tuners. However, the mass of heavy tuners does add to tone, but a thicker headstock does the same thing. So on Soulmate you have both goodies: light weight, balanced, and enhanced tone.
I use a fairly unique method for creating fretslots. You can learn more in this video. In short: I found a way to make use of the inner strenght of the wood instead of cutting it away. That enhances stability, it also prevents fretends from sticking out over time. It’s also quite elegant.
Many vintage basses have small frets. They play so easy, it’s almost as if you play better. But if they wear down, you can’t level them anymore, you need a refret. On Soulmate I use small vintage frets, but made from a harder nickel silver alloy. They last.
Soulmate features a compound fingerboard radius of 6.5” to 8”. This stays close to the 7.25” of vintage basses. The advantage of a compound radius is that it allows for a lower setup than a constant radius. But if you don’t like low action, I can always set it up any way you like.
The pickup is a splitcoil and therefore humcancelling. The control cavity is shielded with thick copperfoil, the pickuppoles get grounded and the whole pickguard is grounded to eliminate electrostatic noise. It is quiet.
There is passive Volume and Tone. I feel that the Fatboost would be a mismatch with the soul of the instrument.
ORDERING
Soulmate 4 string
Price within The Netherlands: € 4150,- incl BTW
Price outside The Netherlands: € 3430,- export price excl VAT
Non-Dutch EU residents will have to pay the VAT of their country on top of the export price.
Non-EU residents will pay the VAT in their country.
Soulmate 5 string
Price within The Netherlands: € 4295,- incl BTW
Price outside The Netherlands: € 3550,- export price excl VAT
Non-Dutch EU residents will have to pay the VAT of their country on top of the export price.
Non-EU residents will pay the VAT in their country.
Prices are excluding shipping
Standard Configuration
| Body | Alder |
| Neck | Hard maple |
| Fingerboard | Rosewood |
| Pickups | Fralin, Nordstrand, Lollar and Aguilar |
| Bridge | Custom de Gier/ETS |
| Tuners | Hipshot ultralite |
| Controls | Volume, Tone |
| Color | All traditional solid colors available. For sunburst and metallics see custom options. |
Custom Options
| Lefthanded | € 250,- |
| Swamp ash body | € 90,- |
| Maple fingerboard (coated) | no extra |
| Other wood for body/fingerboard | see orderform |
| Fretless | See orderform |
| Fingerboard-Binding | € 150,- |
| Block inlays | € 180,- |
| Different pickups | upon request |
| Sunburst | no extra |
| Custom finish | upon request |
| Metallic finish | no extra |
| Relic | € 180,- |
| Matching headstock | € 90,- |
Any other custom option not in this list is available upon request.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
| Soulmate 4 | Soulmate 5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Neckwidth at nut | 44 mm | 46mm |
| Neckwidth at last fret | 63 mm | 78 mm |
| Thickness at nut | 20 mm | 20 mm |
| Thickness at 12th fret | 24 mm | 24 mm |
| Fretsize | small | small |
| Stringspacing at bridge | 19.5 mm | 19 mm |
| Radius fingerboard | 6.5″ to 8″ | 7.5″ to 12″ |
| Neckshape | C | C |
| Number of frets | 20 | 20 |
| Neckjoint | Bolt on | Bolt on |
| Scale | 34″ | 34″ |