The Simonetti Basses story began in 1985 when I bought my first used bass in a pawn shop. It was an Arbor brand Star shaped bass. Very 80’s metal! Before I ever played it, I took it completely apart. After Putting it back together, I found out that I had a lot to learn about what makes strings and wood a functional instrument. I was hooked! I absorbed all the information I could about repairing and modifying instruments and before long friends were asking me to work on their instruments.

Fast forward a few years and I entered the workforce as an artist. I was very fortunate to not only have some amazing jobs as a sculptor, woodworker, prop and set builder and scale model maker but to also work with some very talented people that shared many tricks of the trades with me. All the while I continued to improve my skills as a luthier.

By the end of the 1990’s I was ready to strike out on my own and Ray Simonetti Instruments was born in 2000. I started doing repairs full time and offering a line of basses. I quickly learned that players who wanted instruments wanted custom instruments built to their own design and specs. Ray Simonetti Instruments became Custom Shop Basses and for the next few years there were no standard models, everything was completely custom made.

In mid 2004 I came into possession of an old pickup winding machine. I saw winding my own pickups as a good way to offer players more options more options and a way to have a little freedom from the supply chain. After a couple of years trying different methods I found a design I was happy with and, more importantly, so were the players who tried them out.

At the same time I was developing my own bridge system. This also gave my customers another unique feature and freed me up a little more from the supply chain.

By 2012 I had a lot of interest from players that wanted my unique features but didn’t want to design their own bass. At this point I changed the company name again to Simonetti Basses and launched several of my own designs while still offering completely custom instruments using whatever components the player desires.

In 2019 I embarked on a whole new adventure by purchasing a CNC machine. This was the biggest game changing tool I’ve ever acquired. There was quite the learning curve that came along with this change but it allows more complex designs to be attained in a safer manner and gives more consistency to standard products.

The future is looking very bright as business is at an all time high and I look forward to making your dream instruments for many years to come.