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Bass Musician Magazine’s Year of the Luthier – Tom Lanni, Tensor Bass Guitars
Meet Tom Lanni of Tensor Bass Guitars…
How did you get your start in music?
I started playing bass when I was 15 years old. I inherited a bass from my older brother who lost interest after trying to learn to play. It was a “beater” with terrible action but it worked.
Are you still an active player?
I still play in Church bands performing Christian contemporary music.
How did you get started as a Luthier? When did you build your first bass?
I started a few years back when I had some ideas I wanted to pursue for making a bass that would address some issues I was experiencing with the basses I was playing. The first thing I wanted to do was to come up with a way to stabilize the neck, such that I could achieve a thinner more comfortable profile. This required a bit of engineering and led to the development of our patent pending Force Balance™ system. This system redirects the force of the strings into the truss rod causing a balance between the two forces allowing for a more stable neck beam. I also worked on reducing the weight of our instruments. Our models range from between 7 to 8 pounds.
How did you learn the art of woodworking/Luthier? Who would you consider a Mentor?
Woodworking had been a hobby for many years. I started with general carpentry and graduated to cabinet making. My background is in engineering so I have quite a bit of experience with CAD and CAM. It was a natural fit since a great degree of the work in building instruments today utilize CNC routers. My background also helped in developing the processes required to construct our bass guitars. I really can’t say that I have a mentor per say but I have a great deal of admiration and respect for the many talented Luthiers that I have met.
How do you select the woods you choose to build with?
I use maple as the primary wood for our basses. It is structurally reliable and machines well. I also use rosewood and ebony for our fingerboards as well as maple. Since the body is chambered for weight considerations the species of wood has less of an effect on tone.
How about pickups? What electronics do you use?
We are presently using two types of pickups in our basses. The Ultralight Classic series use Lace Alumitone Bass Bars. The Ultralight Jazz Series use the Aguilar jazz bass HOT pickups. Our basses come standard with passive systems. We will install active systems upon the request of our customers.
How do you develop a signature or custom bass for an artist?
We have a portfolio of design options for our customers to choose from. We can personalize the design for a specific artist.
What are a few things that you are proud about your instruments and that you would consider unique in your instruments?
I think we can offer a bass that has light-weight with near perfect balance with a unique look that also plays and sounds great.
Which one of the basses that you build is your favorite one?
That is like asking which one of your children do you love best. I play the 5-string Ultralight Jazz now but I will sometimes pick up one of the Ultralight Classics now and then. It really depends on what mood I’m in.
Can you give us a word of advice to young Luthiers who are just starting out?
I think I would suggest that they not be afraid to experiment. Dare to be different. There are many skilled Luthiers that are doing clones and variations of the traditional Fender models. I think there is always room for innovation.
What advice would you give a young musician trying to find his perfect bass?
I would suggest that they try different basses in different styles and scales. Find one that is comfortable to play. The pickups will dominate the sound more than anything else. You can always replace the electronics if you want get a different sound.
Are you preparing something new, some new model or new design? Or maybe some new gear amps, etc.
We have just introduced the Ultralight Jazz series, which are lighter in weight and are more geared to the players who have a more progressive style of playing.
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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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