My finishes are sprayed by Jerry Dorsh, a former
principal of Modulus basses. My finishes are thin-
ly applied polyurethane. As I said, all the basses
are assembled, fretted and built by me.
a client wants nitro, of course they could have it
done for an up-charge. In my opinion, a thinly-
applied poly finish sounds just as good as a
thinly-applied nitro finish.
than an enthusiastic owner. Don’t get me
wrong, we received some stellar reviews
that helped immensely. We also advertised
steadily for quite some time. You need to
get your name out there.
MIKE LULL
Mike Lull Custom Guitars
I have to ask, why poly and not nitro lacquer?
Bottom line is poly holds up much better than
nitro. Nitro starts to get worn looking after a
few months of use. My basses are not relic’d. I
like them looking new for as long as possible. If
What factors have led to the success
of your brand?
By all means word of mouth is essential.
Once your basses start to get into the hands
of the right players, there is nothing better
What’s on the horizon for Mike Lull?
We just launched our new T-bass line, which
is a modern-vintage interpretation of a vintage T-bird. We have one- and two-pickup
models. Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam is using
the prototype right now.
[Writer’s note: Mike and I are both big T-bird
fans. The rarest bass I ever owned was a translucent black, 1964 Thunderbird IV that I bought
from Mike about 1997.]
“Sure, we have those in stock.”
Chuck Levin’s
WASHINGTON MUSIC CENTER
