While wandering through music stores (yeah, that’s a thing!) in some rare downtime, I stumbled across this Tom Martinson 6-string bass, the Phat model. Tom builds these at an incredibly low price point for a handbuilt instrument, and they’ve all looked stunning in pictures. I’ve been seeing more and more of these over the last year or so online, but was shocked to see one in Cream City Music here in Milwaukee. I played it and, despite some issues, liked the feel, and decided to take it on as a project. I’ve been wanting a 6-String I could feel comfy leaving at school for teaching instead of taking one of my Skjold basses to and from each day. I’ll be chronicling my journey of taking this bass to the next level. Here’s part 1!