Description
Bass Solo is an aromatic tribute to wenge, a wood from central Africa which is prized for its hard and heavy timber, making it suitable for the production of musical instruments that require dense woods for better sound. Wenge is also favored for its beautiful, dark brown color patterned with black striations.
Wenge does not necessarily have an aroma, but being beneficial for music and beautiful to the eye, it inspired the perfumer to extract deep and vibrant accords hidden within.
Bass Solo offers an aroma pitched in the lowest register; its dense melody is composed of a selection of woody notes including soft sandalwood, salty driftwood and a blend of cedars with their comfortable, dry nuances.
Bass Solo was launched in 2016. The nose behind this fragrance is Bertrand Duchaufour.
tezaya – :
This is a pleasant and safe unisex scent with great longevity (11 hours plus) and moderate sillage/projection.
Dominant notes are driftwood, sweet oppoponax, cedar, milky fig and lavender. The opening is quite unusual and very pleasant. The middle stage and the final are more common. I’ve smelt this before. The final stage has amber, milky fig, sweet opoponax, mild lavender as dominant notes.
I recommend it for spring and early fall daytime. It would be also very nice for cool summer nights. A safe mild sweet pleasant scent but nothing groundbreaking. Just nice.
Some people here compare it with DG The One. I don’t feel any similarity between them.
Mike88VK – :
For those who referred to it as a niche D&G The One, I’m in full agreement there. Not a complete copy by any means, but those who enjoy The One are highly likely to enjoy this. The notes are refined and amped up a bit, to the point where you can distinguish certain ones individually (D&G to me is nice but pretty flat and linear to me). The ginger in this – in particular – is far more prominent and natural to my nose.
SUPERBOBR – :
BUY THIS FRAGRANCE! HOLY COW I LOVE THIS STUFF! NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT OUT THERE. WOW I’M IN LOVE. WORTH EVERY PENNY & THEN SOME. SO UNIQUE AND ADDICTIVE. MORE MASCULINE THAN UNISEX IMHO… PROJECTION AND LONGEVITY IS THROUGH THE ROOF! I GET SO MANY COMPLIMENTS WEARING THIS…
Zaiver – :
This smells similar to Puredistance Black, but Bass Solo has more of a vanilla vibe in the top, instead of the incense in the former. Both share that boring, woody thing in the background. I don’t get the comparison to D&G The One really, at all.
zverks – :
A niche version of dolce Havana the one. The ingredients are much smoother and more natural. It’s one sexy fragrance and definetly a crowd pleaser and complement getter
samodelki – :
I am a lover of “woody” fragrances.
I have smelled and enjoyed everything from the deepest and darkest Arabian attars to the lightest, sweetest “westernized” woods.
Bass Solo from The Vagabond Prince has by far become my absolute favorite wood/oud based fragrance.
I consider it to be the perfect blend of dark and light woods that happens to be highly sophisticated, as well as being boldly sexy.
This is an extremely unique fragrance in the wood family.
As much as I enjoy woody scents, I do tend to get bored with them quite easily when wearing them daily… but that has never happened with Bass Solo. There’s too much character and soul in this scent to ever get bored with it. The woods do dominate, but they are so well blended with the other notes that you have a liquid symphony playing at all times.
It’s a divine concert, indeed.
If you love wood based scents, do yourself a big favor and try this beauty.
Scent – 9
Sillage – 8
Longevity – 9
arkada211 – :
Almost the full copy of Dolce & Gabbana The one for men. A beautiful, but that’s a shame they use the mass market formula in the niche, moreover, that was unexpected for Duchaufour.
A sweet ambery-ginger-tobacco start copies the opening of The One, after that Bass Solo becomes smoky, woodier with sweetness still prevails.
If you are looking for The one version with better longevity and sillage, Bass Solo could be your choice.
uqf228speagoessenda – :
Very nice woods, clean fresh cedar, dry salty driftwood (one of my favorite scents), minty lavender, and all intertwined for me in those wonderful notes is curry. Curry, asneaking up.
Curry , which I love, and find myself getting hungry.
But if I smell as if I spilled food on myself, while out wearing an amazing aromatic.
I cannot get past it.
I am sorry, Fragrantica and Vagabond Prince 🙁
Thank you for the samples, you have a fan in me for other VP frags, but I have to say No to this :/
stas-virys – :
Oh my, this sums them up.
Cardamom on woods and some cloves and ginger.
Nothing more to say, very disappointing unfortunately although the bottles are quite impressive but doesn’t worth the 180 Euro for the 100 ml.
I wasn’t sure before but right after this line and his newly created brand, “Bertrand Duchaufour” has lost it and i believe he was overhyped already. I am really shocked that he created this line after Timbuktu, Ashoka, Or du Serail, Tralala, & Fusion Sacree! Really Bertrand! are you satisfied with this line! & i have absolutely no idea how Elena approved it!
I’m sorry but this is not niche.
All i can say is thank you for the giveaway, i am grateful but very disappointed.
Nouddirubdime – :
Holy $h¡t! This is a great representation of what a “real” wood fragrance should smell like. Slightly spicy and a whole bunch of wood that leaves your imagination contemplating where have i smelled this aroma..
For me.. It reminds me of that wood aroma you smell in a wood working studio(shop)
* i’ve built quite a few things in my life and this brings back old memories.
The problems i have with this is.. When or where would i wear this? And do i really want to smell like that all day.
I do enjoy the art and creativity that went into this scent. it has average lasting power and sillage..
Decent fragrance. Just not my type of perfume.
snikers1131 – :
Dark, mysterious, sensual fragrance. I’ve never smelled anything like it. Salty, dry woods balanced with milky, slightly sweet smoke. This is very masculine fragrance IMHO and it smells way better on my boyfriend’s skin than on mine. Very sexy and inviting. I think it would work well in all seasons and because of its uniqueness it would make a memorable signature scent. I think I’ll be getting him a bottle for his birthday as a surprise because I find him often his nose glued to his wrist, smiling blissfully. It’s an amazing fragrance and my favorite from the line along with Swan Princess.
aey067bedyWelty – :
Unique and mysterious opening with a cozy familiar dry down. Bass Solo opens with an interesting salty driftwood note contrasted with a smoldering sweet amber and something darkly woody but hard to pin down. I love the opening and it holds my attention because it’s not a combination I’ve ever encountered before. It’s exotic but intimate- an unusual balance.
The dry down is where the boozy aspect of the amber really comes into plain view. It’s something I have smelled before and I welcome it after a challenging yet enjoyable opening. The stages Bass Solo moves through are all pleasurable and the longevity is good. An exclusive whiskey cocktail combined with a very natural smelling cedar.
I love that there is evolution here, as if the story of the scent is being revealed over time. I think this works very nicely on a woman as well as on a man, and anyone who enjoys dark boozy warm wood scents with an unusual twist, will likely find something to enjoy here.
Lenom – :
I received this sample as a prize from the Vagabond Prince, along with samples of their other fragrances!
Bass Solo opens as a gourmand, but of the savoury variety, due to the ginger, lime, and saffron, with just a hint of sweetness from the cardamom and “fig milk”. I really enjoyed this, as it’s unusual and sort of sexy.
The perfume then becomes a very dry woodsy scent, with a touch of warm amber, incense and musk towards the drydown. There is also a “barbershop” undertone, thanks to the lavender. I also detected a rather dissonant but interesting asphalt accord, from the “birch tar”. I also got the impression of a cigar box, like some of the other reviewers.
Bass Solo’s longevity is on the high end of moderate, while the sillage is less strong but good. Used very lightly it could serve as an office-friendly “skin scent”.
While I love Bass Solo, it is my least favorite of Vagabond Prince’s offerings, mainly because it is a tad too “dry”. I prefer my woods a bit sweeter. However, it is still an excellent, rather traditionally “masculine”, but still unisex choice.
Fuego_Terco – :
I received a sample of Bass Solo with my bottle of Enchanted Forest from the fragrantica giveaway! Thank you again fragrantica. Well, i adore this scent! It opens with lots of amber and driftwood and a small amount of cedar. The cardamom is present giving it a sweet spicy woody smell. The middle phase is my favorite! I can smell nutty oppoponox and birch bark and cigars. My property has alot of birch trees and every year we collect birch bark to make a tea for medicinal purposes. Well Bass Solo smells exactly like freshly boiled birch bark tea! It’s dry, smoky, nutty and warm. Occasionally i smell smoked campfire wood. It dries down to a musky cedar. I think this is amazing! Very cozy and unique imo. I have a dabber vial not a spray sample so sillage and longevity might not be perfectly accurate. I got 4 hours of longevity on skin and sillage started out at an arms length but within 20 minutes became close to the skin but others could still smell it if they are standing in my personal space. If you like the smell of real wood, cigars, and oppoponox, then I’m pretty sure you would love this. I don’t smell any lavander or fig leaf.
kai999999 – :
I am almost always fiercely opposed to amber and dismiss any fragrance with this note listed. So sue me! But this fragrance checked every other box; cardamom, dry woods, cedar, and lavender are current favorites in my wardrobe. So I gave Bass Solo a chance, especially considering the anticipation of it’s release. I am so glad I did.
Upon opening I get a dollop of figgy-amber-cocoa butter and am immediately turned off. Too sweet! The amber shouts too loudly! But then a tumble of wood bursts through and I can literally feel beneath my fingertips the rough grain of a cedar cigar box. It is uncanny.
I have very warm memories of the empty cigar boxes my father gave to me when I was a child. I remember being presented with one in which he had saved the delicate paper cigar bands, which I placed on my fingers to wear like fancy rings. I remember being delighted by the tiny brass lock on the front. It made me feel like I had inherited some precious gift. The box was saved for my keepsakes like bookmarks and bracelets that always smelled faintly of cheap tobacco and wood. Subsequent boxes were turned into time capsules, guitars, and caskets for deceased birds.I am positive, 30 years later, that there is a cigar box stuffed with odd bits somewhere in my house, softly imparting its dry spice on the treasures inside.
The cedar box accord remains prominent throughout the life of this fragrance. The sweetness that I initially disliked eventually fades to a gentle cream that balances the harsh spice of the woods. I am so, so pleased by this offering by Vagabond Prince. It smells to me not like a wooden instrument (though that is a very accurate impression. I am often confused by perfumer’s interpretations of their works that do not match my experience. So +1 for that) but like tiny, cedar scented mementos.
evgeniya_p82 – :
The opening reminds me of Black Walnut by Banana Republic, then kind of gets darker and goes in a dry cocoa-fig route. I like woody, but this smells like WOOD. You can see how the notes fit into the frag, but it creates a sense of sniffing inside a wooden box… or guitar I suppose.
As with Black Walnut, I can’t see myself wanting to smell like a desk, or a guitar in this case. Good quality, it is pleasant, but smells like a piece of wood.
Diser777 – :
It has a dark hollow wood type of vibe (good representation of what they want to convey), somehow wet and dry at the same time (hence driftwood & cedar) with a metallic hint (lavender); becomes nuttier and sweeter as it dries (opoponox).
It’s good but personally I like cedarwood or rosewood dominant scents better.
Haasss – :
It is released! You can find it at vagabondprince site and luckyscent (they have samples too).