Travis Bean
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Travis Bean is an American luthier and machinist from California.
In the 1970s, he made high end electric guitars and basses featuring machined aluminum necks (an unusual design that provides incredible sustain, also used in Veleno and early Kramer guitars) running through the instrument body.
The majority of these instruments featured solid koa bodies and humbucker pickups. Models included the Artist, Standard, and Wedge (rare), with Artist models being played by musicians including Joe Perry, Saul Hudson (Slash), Stanley Jordan, Jerry Garcia and Status Quo. The TB500 model (rare) with single coil pickups is favoured by Steve Albini and Scott Paterson of Sons and Daughters. The Travis-Bean basses were played by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, Status Quo and Mick Karn of Japan. Bean produced several more similarly designed guitars and basses in the late 1990s, though no more than 9-10.
