Alusonic instruments

Rimini, Italy

Near the North Central coast of Italy, close to the Adriatic Sea, there are some very talented Italian luthiers at Alusonic Aluminium Instruments doing unique things with aluminum.

They mill bass bodies out of a raw block of aircraft-grade aluminum and create beautiful "flame maple" patterns on the patented scratch-plates. All the parts that Alusonic uses to make their instruments, except for the tuning machines, are proprietary and made in-house. From the 3D printed pickup bobbins to the carefully designed bridges and custom electronics, Alusonic makes each part to their exacting specifications to set their instruments apart from other more traditional manufacturers.

In 2010, Andrea “Polly” Pollice, the owner of Alusonic, started with a vision to create an instrument with more stability and predictability than traditional materials. His vision led him to use aluminum for the body. He found that not only did an aluminum body help him achieve his initial goals, but it also sounded amazing! Polly says about utilizing aluminum: “To explain the biggest difference from aluminum to wood, you have to picture listening to a bass line with cotton in the ears... well, this is how the wood sounds after playing an aluminum bass."

Aluminum alloy provides the largest frequency response that you can obtain from an instrument, with warm and massive low end, well-balanced middle frequencies, and clear and crystalline high end. An aluminum bass body gives an incredible attack and an endless sustain. In my opinion, aluminum is the best material to build an electric instrument in the 21st century.

SPOTLIGHT ON

Owner, Andrea “Polly” Pollice

  • A: In 2007, I was a professional bass player surfing the web looking for new instruments [and] I met an Italian craftsman, Lanfranco Veronelli, who built aluminum Precision bodies for passion.

    My first impression was: “Wow!!!”

    I asked to him to built an aluminium P-body for me. I [bought] the others parts on the web (neck, pickups, etc.) and in a couple of weeks I was able to play the first aluminum bass guitar of my life.

    Two years later, I was going to change my life and my job too, so I thought to start to build electric bass thanks to my good know how about this world. I was fascinated by aluminum guitars, so I tried to call Lanfranco to ask him to begin a new adventure together, but unfortunately he died a few weeks earlier [and couldn’t] receive my call.

    So, without any experience about CAD drawing, machinery tools and without any feedback about this kind of alloy to build a guitar body, I started to learn all about this wonderful world (Google can be a very precious resource), and one year later Alusonic Aluminum Instrument was born.

    All that thanks to my great passion and the priceless work done in the past by Lanfranco.

    I am the owner of Alusonic and also the only employee. The parts I need to build an instrument like aluminum bodies, bridges, pickguard etc. are provided by the best Italian companies specializing in aluminum works.

    Luthiers builds the necks starting from my 3D drawing, the pickups are built by I-Spira and the active preamp by CoolSound (both small companies well known in Italy).

    In that way I can enjoy the great competence and know how of my partners, without large investments.

  • A: To be honest, there aren’t so many prototypes of my instruments, the firstly instruments I built have been sold and are still used by the owners.

    That’s because an aluminum body is very expensive and I don’t like waste time and money. I think today, before produce a goods, it’s necessary to be ready at 99.9%.In the last period we introduced the MKII version of the bodies, that has increased the tonal qualities of the instruments.All that thanks to the many feedback we receive everyday by our artists and customers.

  • A: The project and the drawing is extremely hard to do, because there isn’t an encyclopedia or feedback from other builders, or the web as well.

    The alloy is very different from wood, so weight and balance will be very different also in a body with the same shape. But the big problem is especially the “core” drawing. The bodies are milled inside (hollow body) so it’s very important the core structure to obtain the best tonal balance and the best characteristics bass player likes: attack, focus, sustain.

    To explain the biggest difference from aluminum to wood, you have to picture to listen a bass line with cotton in the ears…well this is how the wood sounds after playing an aluminum bass.

    Aluminum alloy provides the largest frequencies response that you can obtain by an instrument, with warm and massive low end, well balanced middle frequencies and clear and crystalline high end.

    An aluminum bass body gives an incredible attack and an endless sustain. In my opinion, the aluminum is the best material to build an electric instrument in the 21th century.

  • A: Yes, there are different alloys that provides different tones.

    It’s not properly like the wood choice, and probably is not so easy to listen the differences, but I tried different alloys and I chose the best one for my idea of bass and guitar sound.

  • A: As I have described in the others answers, the largest frequencies responce, warm and massive low end, well balanced middle frequencies and clear and crystalline high end.

    Someone thinks that aluminium means cold sound, but my instruments are warmer than wood instruments. Another good way to explain all that: Sound 2.0

  • A: f you are looking for a natural evolution of an electric instrument, if you are looking for the best tonal characteristic that an instrument can gives you, if you are looking for a wonderful and unique instrument, and especially if you are looking for a new sound experience, an aluminium instrument is the right choice for you.

  • A: I don’t know if this will be fun, but one of the things that make me proud and I like to share with you guys, are the priceless facial expressions and the comments of great technicians and artist out of Italy, when they see it coming an Italian craftsman with his “metal” stuff and they listen for the first time the sound of my instruments. At that time, probably most of they realize what means: “Made in Italy”.