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On Location at Wing Bass Headquarters with Luthier Chris Stambaugh and CEO Andy Brown
In early August, I had the pleasure of taking the beautiful car ride down to Lincoln, RI to visit the founder of one of the most unique products in the industry. An invention born out of necessity, the brain child of Andy Brown (CEO) and Chris Stambaugh (Luthier) was born the wing bass.
Here is a brief description of the Wing Bass concept:
“The Wing Bass was born out of the desire to have a portable instrument available at all times for travel, practice and performance. The concept is simple… place a capo at the twelfth fret of a standard bass and chop the neck off behind the capo. The result is the Wing Bass… an instrument that feels, plays and sounds like a standard scale bass with a capo at the 12th fret.
As a practice instrument, work on anything you normally would including scales, arpeggios, chord progressions, soloing, etc. Since standard gauge strings and spacing are used, the technique exercises you work on are not entirely lost when moving back to your main bass.
For travel, the Wing Bass is small enough to fit in a 21? carry on, or to place under the seat in front of you, making it easy to take it with you on trips anywhere.
For performance, the Wing Bass is tuned a full octave higher than a standard scale instrument, it sounds great for chordal solo work. To get back down to standard range try any sub-octave pedal, such as the EHX Micro POG or Boss OC-2. Different pedals will give you different flavors.
We know you’ll find the Wing Bass to be blast to play, as well as an asset when you’re craving to play while away from home and your beloved main bass.”
The instruments were incredibly unique and very, very well made. For those unfamiliar with the craftsmanship of one Mr. Chris Stambaugh, it would be great to familiarize yourselves with one of the most talented and underrated Luthiers in the New England area…
Check out stambaughdesigns.com
The attention to detail on the woodwork, as well as the set-up and electronics were top notch.
This is by no means a novelty or a toy in any way and it was constructed with the same care that one would put into a professional level instrument.
We ran the Custom 7- and two 5 strings through a PJB PB-400 and an array of pedals and also tried out a little bit of the beautifully built guitar.
These guys really do make wonderful products and they fit a very much needed niche for the traveling hobbyist and musician that wants to keep the overhead space but not sacrifice quality while writing or practicing on the road.
Check out the videos on Instagram:
Visit online at www.wingbass.com
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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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