Russell Guitars / Gnomon Bass - Electric Upright / Natural / Bass
The Russell Gnomon upright electric bass was added to the Russell line in the summer of 2008. This is a beautifully designed, ergonomic, vertical electric bass with the sounds and feel of a standard bass guitar. It is not meant to be an electric mini-body acoustic bass.
The Gnomon is made with either a fanned or standard fretboard. It is also made with either a fretted or fretless fretboard. Both four and five stringed versions are available. The Steinberger high quality, black, adjustable and removable stand with foot peg is included.
The Gnomon electric upright bass is ergonomically designed for ease of playability and exceptional electric bass tones. The Gnomon was inspired by a request from a bassist who was having hand and wrist pain when playing bass guitar in the conventional horizontal position.
The idea was to create a vertical electric bass that had the sounds and feel of an electric bass guitar. This was not to be an electrified bodyless acoustic bass. The Gnomon pictured is a five string, fanned fretboard version. The Gnomon is also available in four string, fretless, and standard fretboard versions.
The Gnomon body is a similar thickness to a Fender Jazz bass and has tone chambers inside the Alder body which is capped with 1/4" thick flamed or quilted Maple. It has a Steinberger high quality, black, adjustable and easily removable stand with foot peg.
Please see this link for pricing:
www.russellguitars.com/pricing.htm
Russell Guitars, USA 
ABOUT RUSSELL GUITARS AND JAMES RUSSELL
Russell Guitars features high-end, hand crafted guitars designed and built by James Russell of Redding, California. Guitar styles include several models of steel string guitars, nylon string and classical, archtop, electric, and a vertical electric bass model.
Russell Guitars offers rich, balanced voice and resonance, fine sculpting and craftsmanship, and beautiful designs. James goes the extra several miles to create beautiful instruments by designing and building with great attention to detail. In his desire for highest quality craftsmanship, James creates his jigs, cuts his bindings, slots his fretboards, and mitres to as near perfection as possible. All who see and play James' guitars are impressed with not only the overall beauty and sound of his guitars but the extent to which he goes to achieve these ends and the love and care put into each guitar.
Music and guitars have been a central theme of James Russell's life since he was eleven years old. It might have been even earlier, had his parents given in to his begging from the time he was five for a guitar and guitar lessons. At last they realized this kid was serious and helped him get a guitar and a guitar teacher. When he began guitar lessons at eleven, he immediately learned to sight read and went through the entire series of Mel Bay Guitar Method books and began arranging chord solos from piano sheet music. Sadly, his guitar teacher left town, and James could not find a teacher to replace this gifted mentor. He continued his music and guitar study on his own by listening to a wide range of favorite guitarists, from Jimi Hendrix to Wes Montgomery.
James always liked to make things. He began making models with intricate detailing when he was five years old. He made his first guitar in 1979 when he was twenty-three, while living in Orange County, California. He still plays this 16" jumbo style guitar with Indian Rosewood sides and back and Sitka Spruce top. It kicks butt. One of the things he learned in making this guitar was that he was hooked. He knew he wanted to design and build guitars. Years later he was able to leave his paycheck behind and dive in full-time and wholeheartedly into this art and right livelihood.
James and his wife, Layne, moved from Santa Rosa, California, to Redding in 2000. He enjoys working in his one-man shop in an older, quiet part of town near the Sacramento River. James has exhibited Russell Guitars in the Healdsburg Guitar Festival held in Santa Rosa, California, in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Amazingly, midst designing and building his guitars full-time, James still squeezes in time to teach guitar to fifteen to twenty lucky students and also to perform solo guitar in the Redding and Mount Shasta area.
