The star-shaped Space Bass, Bootsy’s signature instrument since 1975, has had many iterations and evolutions since Michigan guitar tech Larry Pless first brought it to life, working from a crude design Bootsy had sketched on a napkin. “The Space Bass is what I imagined in my head,” Bootsy remembers. “It wasn’t just the design of it as a star, but it was what it was gonna sound like.”

Bootsy has worked with various luthiers and manufacturers to produce new iterations since working with Pless, including Washburn Guitars and Germany’s Warwick. After producing a custom Space Bass for Bootsy with 165 LEDs in 2012, the latter approached him with the idea to make a consumer version available for the first time.

The result was the Warwick RockBass Artist Line Bootsy Collins Space Bass, a limited-edition, purple, 34" long-scale, Mahogany-body, four-string electric bass (see full list of specs below) produced in 2014. Of course, one of the basses from the run had to go to Bootsy for testing and safe-keeping, which he’s now made available complete with his signature.

Specs

Matched Headstock: Matching Headstock with Bootsy-Logo

Machine heads: Warwick machine heads

Nut: Just-A-Nut III

Neck Wood: Maple with Ekanga Veneer stripes

Fretboard: Rosewood

Inlay: Star Inlays

Fingerboard Radius: 20"

Scale length: Scale length: 34" (long scale)

Fret quantity material and size: 24 nickel silver frets (width: 2,9mm/ height: 1,3mm)

Body Shape: flat Body Shape

Bodywood (Topwood / Backwood): Mahogany

Pickups: active MEC J/TJ

Electronics: active MEC 2 way electronic

Pot layout: Volume P/P / Balance / Treble/Bass stacked P/P for spliting coils

Pickguard: Purple Pickguard

Bridge system: 2-piece Warwick bridge

Strap system: Warwick security locks

Construction: Bolt-on

Left Righthand: Only available as right-handed and fretted

Color: Special purple Bootsy Finish

Hardware color: Chrome Hardware

String label/gauges: Warwick Red strings: 4-string: 045" - 105" (42200 M)