2021 Atelier Z – Baby Z5

I owned an Atelier Z back in the mid 2000s and loved it, but when I stopped playing music regularly and had bills to pay, it was sold off. As I began playing again during the 2020 covid pandemic, I began playing more and more short scale basses, but still missed having the low B string for those moments when it’s needed. There aren’t very many short-scale 5 strings out there, so when I saw this one, I jumped on it.

The previous owner found the original pickups too noisy for his taste and swapped them for two split coil, noise canceling pickups. They sound great and expand the versatility of the instrument. There are some cosmetic flaws, but they only underscore the fact that this is a working instrument.

2-band onboard preamp (active/passive push/pull on the 2nd volume knob). The bridge is a factory custom Hipshot B-style and the bass can be strung as a top-loader or thru-body – which allows you to use longer strings. The bass uses AtelierZ’s proprietary “Z-tuning” system which basically means that the neck is perfectly flat and you can get the action down to within just a couple mm of the frets.

The whole line was a limited run: They made these for a short time in a natural finish and then did a very small run of ones in Sherwood Green (the single BEST color for a bass) and white, both with a matching headstock. I think there was like 150 made? They continue to make the 4 string version, which you can see on their website, but the 5ers are no longer being made.