By ShackMan
Let's start this off with a few fun facts. The dude behind Ampeg and that SVT thunder and Flip-top warmth that everyone's loved for years? Bass player. Bob Gallien of Gallien-Krueger? Bass player. Marco di Virgiliis, leader of MarkBass and amplification revolutionary? Bass player. Pierre Erizias, the man whose basses wowed the entirety of the MGR staff (and just about everyone who walked over) for perfection of feel and tone? Also a bass player. So, that Jay Baldemor guy who is heading up that new Gruv Gear company who made the V-Cart Solo so you can cart large and heavy objects (like, say, a bass stack) really easily, and designed the FretWraps specifically for bassists as a MUCH easier alternative to the scrunchie? Yeah. He's a bass player, too.
For those of you who aren't so great with pattern recognition, we seem to get good products out of people who see a need for these products, a niche to fill, a better, smarter, easier way ? and that's exactly how the GruvGear FretWraps came about. "I had the idea for a few years in the back of my notebook," says Jay, "and it just stayed there for a while untouched. Then one day I was driving with Norm Stockton, and he started wishing that there was something better than the average hair tie. I just sat there with this big grin on my face and said, 'Go on...'" The two worked out then and there that Jay's drawing needed to be made real, and it had to do everything you wished a hair tie could do.
Of course, it had to fulfill the most basic function, if anything: cutting out overtones, and deadening ringing strings. Hair ties may be able to stretch over the headstock if it's thick enough, but after that it's often too stretched out to really do the job well. It also had to be adjustable, so players could change the pressure on the strings from heavy to very light according to their playing style, tastes, and the task at hand, saving them from changing hair ties or just dealing with one that happened to be too strong or too soft. It had to fit all kinds of basses (and guitars), and it had to be made of soft enough material so that it wouldn't mar the finish or wear at your bass in any way. It had to look pretty snazzy, too. After plenty of testing, the result is what you see pictured above and below. (Anthony Wellington and the pictured basses are unfortunately not included in the purchase price.)