michael tobias . michael tobias design type private industry musical instruments founded 1994 founder michael tobias headquarters kingston new york usa area served global products electric bass guitars website www.mtdbass.com michael tobias design mtd is a kingston new york based manufacturer of electric bass guitars founded by luthier michael tobias in 1994 . tobias along with two part time helpers currently builds about 10 electric basses per month at his shop in woodstock new york . mtd s kingston heir and saratoga basses are manufactured in china to tobias s specifications . 1 2 tobias also designs and develops electric and acoustic basses in collaboration with musical instrument makers that have included lakland modulus alvarez brian moore and american showster . 3 4 mtd is a successor to tobias guitars established in orlando florida in april 1977 and sold to gibson guitar corporation in 1990 . following the sale tobias moved to kingston new york where he began building basses under the eclipse name before settling on mtd michael tobias design for the company name and trademark . 5 mtd handmade american basses come in 35 inch scale 4 5 6 and 7 string models and are available in a variety of configurations . necks are made from maple or ash with a rosewood fingerboard . wood bodies are made from medium weight ash domestic tulip wood aka eastern yellow poplar alder and mahogany . mtd bodies and necks are ergonomically carved to allow access to the instrument s extended scale and feature an asymmetrical neck a design where the neck is thinner on the lower side than the upper . pickups and active electronics are a proprietary design for mtd made by bill bartolini . all currently manufactured mtd basses including kingston basses employ the buzz feiten tuning system . lower priced chinese made mtd kingston bases include the precision bass inspired crb or classic rock bass and the kingston saratoga bass billed as a modern re imagining of the classic jazz style bass . 6 features of the mtd kingston basses include an ergonomic body shape and asymmetrical neck . see also edit tobias bass guitar company references edit cook steve . mtd kingston saratoga bass review premier guitar . march 2011 . retrieved 2011 02 27 . mtd history . mtd website . retrieved 2011 02 27 roberts jim 2003 . american basses an illustrated history and player s guide . san francisco backbeat books . isbn 0 87930 721 8 . p. 131 . mtd history . mtd website . retrieved 2011 02 27 roberts jim 2003 . american basses an illustrated history and player s guide . san francisco backbeat books . isbn 0 87930 721 8 . p. 131 . mtd kingston basses mtd kingston website . retrieved 2011 02 27 . external links edit michael tobias design mtd mtd kingston basses this article related to a manufacturing company is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e this article relating to guitars is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title michael tobias design & oldid 712967202 categories bass guitar manufacturing companiesmanufacturing company stubsguitar stubshidden categories all stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 1 april 2016 at 03 09 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view