Travis Bean is an American luthier and machinist from California. In the 1970s, he partnered with Gary Kramer to start Travis Bean Guitars, which made high-end electric guitars and basses featuring machined aluminum necks, an unusual design that provided incredible clarity and sustain. The aluminum center section ran through the instrument body, with the pickups directly mounted to the aluminum. The majority of these instruments featured solid koa wood bodies and humbucker pickups. Models included the Artist, Standard, Wedge (rare), and TB500 (rare) with single coil pickups. The downside to the use of aluminum necks was their weight. Kramer and Bean parted ways in 1975, with the the former starting Kramer Guitars. The first series of Kramer guitars were redesigned aluminum-necked instruments but utilizing wooden inserts along the back of the neck to cut down on weight and provide a more traditional feel; this was also partly to get around Travis Bean's patent on the original neck design. Bean produced several more aluminum-neck guitars and basses in the late 1990s, though no more than 9-10.
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Musicians who play or have played Travis Bean guitars and basses
Guitar Players
- Steve Albini - TB500
- Duane Denison of The Jesus Lizard and Tomahawk
- Jerry Garcia
- Stanley Jordan
- Scott Paterson of Sons and Daughters
- Stephen Pedersen of Criteria
- Joe Perry
- Keith Richards
- Keith Levene of Public Image Ltd
- Kim Mitchell
- Efrim Menuck of Godspeed You! Black Emperor
- Gary Schider of Funkadelic
- Jeff Schneider of Arab on Radar
- Slash
- Lee Ranaldo
- Stephen O'Malley of Khanate (band) and Sunn O)))
- Richard Reed Parry of The Arcade Fire
- Yannis Philippakis of Foals
Bass Players
- Peggy Foster played a Fretless Bass serial #248 on Steve Vai's Flex-Able and Anthology albums.
- Matt Gentling of Archers of Loaf
- Mick Karn of Japan
- Bob Weston of Shellac
- Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones
External links
- Travis Bean Unofficial Guitar Resource
- MetalNecks.com
- Instrument Information Page
- Gary Kramer Guitars - History Page
- Previous travsibean.com Message Board
- Photos tagged on flickr with "travisbean"
See also
Frying pan (guitar) - The first aluminum neck guitar, 1930s
