Jol Dantzig Discusses the Creation of Sting’s 8-String Hamer Explorer Fretless Bass
I had the opportunity to discuss the creation of one of rock ‘n roll’s most iconic fretless basses with Jol Dantzig – Sting’s red fretless Hamer 8-string Explorer bass. Dantzig and the team at Hamer Guitars custom designed this bass for Sting in 1980 with a maple neck, unlined fingerboard, and a cherry red Explorer style body. Featured in The Police video for “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” and played live on a few occasions, this bass is an absolute work of art and truly is one-of-a-kind.
8-string basses are typically strung with four pairs of strings, each in the pair a different gauge, set close together and typically played together. The top string of each pair is a light gauge string strung an octave up from the main normal gauge bass string of the pair, creating an octave and chorus effect when played together. Though this is the typical setup, other alternate setups exist including using the heavier gauge bass string as the top string of the pair, with the light gauge string below it.
Dantzig was kind enough to answer a few questions for me about the design, build, and presentation of the bass, and even sent me a photo he took of Sting playing it live.
FB: How did this project come together?
JOL DANTZIG: Sting had already purchased a Hamer bass and was looking to upgrade his multi-string. Sting and I collaborated on its specifications. It was one of many basses made for Sting by Hamer, and I was his primary contact as I also did the artist relations up until about 1994. I sat down with him and we mapped out the general idea: Red fretless 8-string with an Explorer style body and maple neck. He left the rest of the details up to me. Andy Summers had bought a Hamer Standard, so Sting was aware that we could make that kind of bass. I was going to use our usual multi-string bridge and tailpiece that we made at a machine shop in town. I designed the hardware based on the Thunderbird bass bridge and we used it on all our 8 and 12 string basses. The headstock is the typical Hamer “Snakehead” shape.
FB: Tell me about the build process and how long it took to complete.
JOL DANTZIG: As always, the first step was for me to fill out a build sheet that lists everything on the instrument. Then I took the specs and made a full size technical drawing that located all the important dimensions and parts placements. Once I’d done that, I took the drawing and build sheet to Steve Ward in the wood shop and he and I picked out the materials and discussed the build. At that point the different parts of the instrument were assigned to the appropriate departments. The typical time to build a custom instrument is about 12 weeks.
The bass is a transparent cherry red and the neck is attached with a glued dovetail joint. The neck was built in the neck department and the body was made in the body department. These people dealt with this scenario all the time and were used to it. Steve was responsible for bringing the two parts together after they’d been made. I would meet with Steve and the department leaders every day to follow progress and they could bring any questions to me at any time as I would be in the wood shop all day. Then it was into the paint department where four or five different people would be directly involved masking and coloring and then spraying clear coats. In between coats of clear the bass went out to the leveling area where one of the levelers would sand the paint before going back into the paint booth for more clear coats.
After drying for 10 days the buffers would get it polished up and I would assemble the hardware and wire it up. After that it went to one of the three set-up people to be strung up and tuned. I did the final check, put it into the case and took it to Sting. This was in November of 1980, I believe.
FB: What pickups, electronics, and controls were used on this bass?
JOL DANTZIG: The pickup is a DiMarzio X2N. I used it because there aren’t pole pieces, instead it has a blade pole piece that goes all the way across the pickup which works better with multi-strings. It has just a volume, and there is a preamp boost inside that has a mini toggle switch to activate. What you see on the face of the instrument is the mini switch and an LED that lights up when the preamp is activated.
FB: What was Sting’s reaction when it was presented to him? He must have been pleased because it appears in a major music video and he played it live on multiple occasions.
JOL DANTZIG: He went nuts! He immediately started playing it. I delivered it to him in person at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom and I made some videos of him playing it for the first time. Somewhere I have the video footage I shot, and I have the full build sheet and sales records too.
FB: What other basses did Hamer make for Sting?
JOL DANTZIG: He had a couple of different color Cruisebasses, a fretless Cruisebass, along with numerous other Hamer basses over the years.
A big thank you to Jol for discussing this beautiful fretless bass that has fascinated me for years. To learn more about Jol Dantzig, his history, stories, and current creations check out the links below.
https://guitardiaries.dantzig.com/blog/
https://www.facebook.com/guitardesigner
https://www.instagram.com/dantzigguitar/
