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The ax(e) bass was an heirloom of Marceline's family. It was originally a battle axe before Marceline converted it into a bass guitar, which Hunson Abadeer thinks is "some kind of lute."

The iconic bass makes its debut in "Henchman", where Marceline sings the "Fisherman Song" for the Peanut Baby. Later, she orders Finn to kill the Dimple Plant Monster with it, but he refuses. In the episode "It Came from the Nightosphere," she plays the "Fry Song" with the bass. When Finn summons her father, Marceline's dad seems surprised that Marceline has it and takes it from her. When he takes it, he used it as a brooch. In her efforts to reclaim it, she is shown to care somewhat more for the bass than she does for Finn, as she chooses to save it from hitting the ground rather than Finn.

It shows up in "Go With Me", where she was about to play it, until Finn interrupted her by his singing outside her house. It appears again in "What Was Missing" when she plays it during the songs "I'm Just Your Problem" and "My Best Friends in the World". It makes an appearance in the episode "Marceline's Closet," where Marceline plays it in "Journal Song." It's later seen in the episode "I Remember You", Marceline is briefly seen strumming on it before the Ice King enters her cave, she later plays it during the second half of "Remember You". Marshall Lee has an axe-guitar, which appeared in "Bad Little Boy". He used it to accompany the song "Good Little Girl".

In "The Music Hole" Marceline plays Francis Forever for Finn during the Battle of the Bands, also referred to as plan C. She is accompanied by Lumpy Space Princess and Death for her band, which includes: Marceline on bass, LSP on drums, and Death on guitar.

The bass has been seen destroyed multiple times. The first time was after her fight with the Vampire King (first seen in "Everything Stays," and the process is later in "Vamps About"); the second time is in Adventure Time: Distant Lands, in "Obsidian." In the latter episode, Marceline is shown playing "Woke Up", both in the past and present. Later, her bass is destroyed by a monster. Although she is initially livid, she decides that helping Princess Bubblegum out is more important and seems to accept what has happened.

Design[]

The bass is a red double-sided battle axe with a few scratches and chips. In the episode the bass debuted in, "Henchman", the axe had silver edges. The head stock was most likely added by Marceline, along with the machine heads, two on each side. The fingerboard has 13 frets. The pickups, also added by Marceline, appear to be single coils of unknown manufacture. The body has just two knobs (for volume and tone). In the Stakes mini series, Marceline was seen making tally-like scratches on the bass, each scratch representing a vampire she vanquished after staking The Fool in "Everything Stays."

Marshall Lee, Marceline's genderbent counterpart, is shown playing a four-stringed bass in the intro for the Fionna and Cake episodes, but in "Bad Little Boy", he has a six-string guitar with a design thats reminiscent of a broadaxe. While six-string basses do exist, they aren't as common as the standard four-string, so it's likely that Marshall's axe is a guitar instead of a bass.

Trivia[]

  • In "Henchman," the bladed ends were silver; however, following "It Came from the Nightosphere," they were red.
  • The Axe might be a pun on “axe” being a nickname for a guitar.
  • In "It Came from the Nightosphere," the axe bass is referred to as both a bass and a guitar.
  • Marceline's axe bass is highly similar to The Bloo Superdude's guitar in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends' "The Bloo Superdude and the Magic Potato."
  • Somehow the axe bass can be clearly heard in "It Came from the Nightosphere" when Marceline sings "Fries," even though it isn't plugged into an amplifier. This can also be observed in later episodes including "What Was Missing." This is most likely because the bass is enchanted.
  • It is unknown whether the axe bass has a truss rod; a part that keep the bass's neck flat, allowing the strings to be played correctly.
  • It is one of four basses that Marceline has played, the other three being one that looks like a Fender Precision Bass in "Evicted!", the Butterfly Bass in "Heat Signature" and the Devil Monster Bass in "Five More Short Graybles."
  • In the book 'Seeing Red', Marceline states that the battle axe was made into a bass guitar by Hunson Abadeer so she is able to use it.
  • In Distant Lands episode "Obsidian", the bass is smashed by a giant monster created by Larvo.

Gallery[]

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