L ace Helix
5 -STRING BASS
PRODUCT REVIEW
B YD ANB ERKOWITZ
I magine your typical electric bass. A familiar
b ody shape quickly comes to mind, one
p robably dating back to the dawn of bass-d om. Your mental image of the pickups is
p redictable, too – coils of wire with plastic
c overs and round magnets mounted just
b elow the strings. You even know what the
k nobs should look like.
I n other words, you know the bass paradigm,
a nd you know it well.
B ut here comes Lace Music and their new
5 -stringer that breaks the bass paradigm in
two big ways: style and function. Style is the
e asy thing to notice about the Helix 5-string.
S culpted mahogany wings adorn a
multi-l aminated maple and mahogany neck-thru
d esign – imagine a Guild Pilot reinterpreted
for a futuristic sci-fi flick. The neck came well
s et up, needing just a slight tweak of the
truss rod, with fast, low action and a neck
p rofile that fit nicely in my hand.
That’s a heavy dose of science, but what do
the Alumitones sound like? Very natural, with
a good range of basic sounds – nothing too
extreme, due to the instrument’s passive
electronics. There are just two Volume controls and a Tone control, consisting of large
rubber knobs that resemble the jog wheel
on my digital recorder. Because the pickups
have low resistance – less than 3 ohms – they
interact a bit differently with each other and
respond more to small turns of the knob. A
friend played the Helix and we compared
notes; he thought the bass sounded like a
cross between a Precision and a Rick.
The Final Mojo
If you’re looking for a comfy bass that is
certain to turn heads, the Helix 5-string is
quite the contender. It comes with a fits-like-a-glove gigbag, that – you guessed it – looks
like no other (the term “Euro-style” comes to
mind). But I’m no clairvoyant; only time will
tell if a new bass paradigm has arrived.
The headstock echoes the bold curves of a
u pper horn and lower waist, showcasing the
4 -plus- 1 array of lightweight tuners. Speaking
o f lightweight, because of the slim body
d esign and the Alumitone pickups, the Helix
c heckedinatundersevenpounds–adrastic
d rop from the typical nine or ten pound of
m odern basses. Your shoulder will thank you.
After spending enough time admiring the
Helix”s looks, I strapped the bass on and
went to plug in. But where did the plug go?
There”s no jack on the face of the Helix, and
none on the side, either. Flipping the bass
over revealed a teardrop-shaped cover over
the control cavity and a Strat-style jack at
the bottom. It”s a nice feature that keeps the
front of bass looking slick and refined.
Buy If...
You’ve had enough of the status
quo, you need a light axe and
you’re adventurous
Skip If...
Skip if… you like basses with a
traditional shape, feel and sound
– and a bolt-on neck
Rating... 4.0
The Helix”s pickups will likely cause another
double take. At first glance, it looks like they
have just two polepieces set between the
middle pairs of strings, but those are actually
the height adjustment screws. The Alumitone
pickups use bar magnets embedded in the
pickup”s top, not underneath like
conventional designs. As Lace Music explains, these
pickups are a “current driven method of
sonic translation of the notes with zero noise
and light weight.”
Lace Music
MSRP $999.99
lacemusic.com
