Zon Guitars

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Zon Guitars is a manufacturer of professional-level bass guitars founded in 1981 by Joseph Zon.

[edit] Background

The company is highly regarded among bass players for its high-end models which feature non-traditional designs and materials. The brand is most closely associated with endorser and player Michael Manring, who collaborated with the company in the mid-90's to design the Hyperbass. The Hyperbass is a fretless four-string model which has a radical body shape featuring an extended cutaway to give access to a three-octave fretless fingerboard. The biggest departure from traditional construction is the use of four detuning heads (usually basses have at most one) and a unique bridge design, which allows selective tuning changes of one or more strings. This design allows quick changes to a vast selection of altered tunings. The design also incorporates four separate transducers mounted in various locations on the instrument and uses a special output connector to allow access to these individual signals in addition to the signal from the magnetic pickup.

Zon is also known as the first manufacturer to offer an optical pickup system from Lightwave Systems as a standard option on its basses.

Zon had their graphite necks made by Modulus Guitars until Modulus' patent for Graphite neck construction ran out in the early 1990s.

Robert Trujillo, known best from his role as bass player for Metallica, plays Zon basses, as well as Fernandes and Musicman basses.

Adam Duce, the bassist for Machine Head, also uses Zon basses.