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Interview with Luthier Davide Cardone of Meridian Guitars by Alberto Rigoni
Interview with Luthier Davide Cardone of Meridian Guitars by Alberto Rigoni…
I recently discovered some incredible basses by Italian Luthier Davide Cardone of Meridian Guitars. I was interested to learn more about his instruments so I asked him for an interview, which he accepted right away.
(AB) Ciao Davide, first of all thank you very much for this interview! Could you tell us when and how you started your style in bass making?
(DC) Hello Alberto, thank you and a greeting to your readers. My very first experience as a Luthier goes back to about 10 years ago, when I decided it was time to try and build a bass that would enclose all the features that I appreciated in high-end musical instruments that I had played until then. The experiment didn’t turn out so well; when I first tried to string the bass, the neck cracked and headstock fell off! But all good things need several failures before they become good things, don’t they? So, since that day I decided that, if I had to build my own instrument, I’d had to do it the way it should be done. That’s when I began studying anything that would come into my sight: manuals, articles, videos, forums, as well as instruments from other manufacturers. We have come a long way since then and I am proud to say that our instruments are having a great success and that we are constantly receiving orders from all around the world.
(AB) Could you explain your approach to the design of the instruments?
(DC) Designing an instrument is not an easy task at all. You have to combine many different aspects, which are all equally important, like ergonomics, aesthetics, sound and balance. So, you see, it’s really a puzzle. The designing of our Aural II required 14 months of headaches and nights on the computer to harmoniously blend the characteristics I have mentioned above. But in the end our customers always appreciate the care we take in each step of our work, and that’s what makes us happy.
(AB) Where do you get all of your design ideas from?
(DC) We currently have three lines in production, in addition to a concept bass with a 22.5 inch scale. Each one of them has very different characteristics, in order to satisfy the needs of a vast number of musicians. Yet, all our basses share the same starting module, an essential geometric shape from which we develop the instrument in its complexity: the ellipse. Starting off from a module, an archetypical form, was taught to me during my art studies. Painting, sculpture and architecture make use of such method in exactly the same way.
(AB) What could you tell us about the tone of your instruments? What about woods and electronics?
(DC) The sound is clearly one of the elements on which we work in an extremely detailed and, most of all, customized way. When a musician comes to us with his sound in mind, we spend hours talking about the details that will make a standard instrument his very own instrument. This is achieved by having the chance to choose from a wide choice of woods and pickups, as well as by installing customized electronics that will match the pickups we select. Preamps are made by my collaborator Franco Torti, who deals with all aspects of electronics. As for the wood, we always use stocks with 25, 30 or even 35 years of seasoning, and this – I guarantee – really makes a difference. What’s more, we generally use unconventional woods, which contribute to add unique sound subtleties to every instrument.
(AB) What’s your opinion about the finishes used on the basses? Do they affect the sound?
(DC) Finishes are one of the most important things on an instrument because they have a double impact on the final product, both aesthetic and functional. A finish must be light so that it lets the wood vibrate, as well as resistant and elastic enough to go along with the wood’s movements. It wasn’t easy to find a finish that would enclose these characteristics. Many use nitrocellulose because it allows the wood to vibrate, but then they apply 25 hands on the body to get a nice glossy look… and that literally suffocates the wood and its vibrations! I think it’s about time to get away from the sixties and from the way instruments were built back then. There are new materials now, and technologies, that are far more efficient and valid.
(AB) Is there something you would like to tell to our readers?
(DC) Well, first of all I’d like to thank everyone who has read this interview up to here! If you find our story interesting I’d like to encourage you to try something different from the usual three or four brands everybody knows. The world is full of talented Luthiers with brilliant ideas that build fine instruments, and I sincerely hope that, among these, you’ll come and try out one of our basses someday… because I’m pretty sure you only need to try them once to fall in love with Meridian. See you!
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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