That´s a really BIG BASS...

[bassist14]

... and a very interesting story, i think.

http://www.llrc.org/bass/
http://www.llrc.org/bass/rosenkavalier.htm
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Large-5-string...QQcmdZViewItem

[mcnaire2004]

I read some were that at one point in time around the time people starting going to the double bass from the viol da gamba people experimented with 10 & 15 foot basses that took 2 people to play them.

[Matthew Tucker]

Great story! very funny too in a British sort of way ...

>I made and fitted the carbuncle, as the angle of the strings was a bit acute.

carbuncle? odd term for a saddle!

[5stringDNA]

Sweet.. I wanna play that thing bad now...

Originally Posted by mcnaire2004

I read some were that at one point in time around the time people starting going to the double bass from the viol da gamba people experimented with 10 & 15 foot basses that took 2 people to play them.

I don't think this is true. You're probably thinking of Vuillaume's Octobass made in 1850 which stands at over 11 feet.

[theshadow2001]

Originally Posted by mcnaire2004

I read some were that at one point in time around the time people starting going to the double bass from the viol da gamba people experimented with 10 & 15 foot basses that took 2 people to play them.

Myabe thats where the term double bass came from

[bejoyous]

The big bass looks very similar to a bass by Lludwig Neuner for sale here: http://www.contrabass.co.uk/2657.htm .
The backs look very similar
I wonder if they were brothers? .

[Jimmy Hudson]

Thanks for a great post Bassist14, reading it was the entertainment high point of my day!

[Don Carrigan]

For Sale: 1884 5 string Mattias Neuner (43 & 3/8ths Inch string length)
I found a bass that must be more robust than my 1820 Prescott! Read the details here: http://www.llrc.org/bass/
It is in Wales, UK. "Dealers need not apply."

[bribass]

Originally Posted by Don Carrigan

For Sale: 1884 5 string Mattias Neuner (43 & 3/8ths Inch string length)
I found a bass that must be more robust than my 1820 Prescott! Read the details here: http://www.llrc.org/bass/
It is in Wales, UK. "Dealers need not apply."

Wow, what a bass story. Low,low a flat, geez!

"While Robbie was at the BBC he worked with Sir Henry Wood, of Promenade Concert fame. Raymond Elgar's book on the Double Bass records that Wood used to walk round the orchestra tuning players individually, and in this way he first encountered a 5 string bass. What's this? said Sir Henry, Clapham Junction? What Elgar does not record is that the bass in the story was Robbie's Matthias Neuner."

I remember this story from the Elgar book, but I never got the joke.
(Clapham Junction? ) Still don't. Can a Brit or anyone fill me in?

BG

[Andy Allen]

Originally Posted by bribass

Wow, what a bass story. Low,low a flat, geez!

"While Robbie was at the BBC he worked with Sir Henry Wood, of Promenade Concert fame. Raymond Elgar's book on the Double Bass records that Wood used to walk round the orchestra tuning players individually, and in this way he first encountered a 5 string bass. What's this? said Sir Henry, Clapham Junction? What Elgar does not record is that the bass in the story was Robbie's Matthias Neuner."

I remember this story from the Elgar book, but I never got the joke.
(Clapham Junction? ) Still don't. Can a Brit or anyone fill me in?

BG

Clapham Junction is a big railway terminal/intersection in London, with many train tracks going every which way.

Andy (ex-pat Brit. nearly 17 years now in the US )

[bribass]

Originally Posted by airbass

Clapham Junction is a big railway terminal/intersection in London, with many train tracks going every which way.

Andy (ex-pat Brit. nearly 17 years now in the US )

Oh, thanks Andy

[Tritonis]

I'd like to hear that low low A flat.

[Silversorcerer]

Originally Posted by Tritonis

I'd like to hear that low low A flat.

That's bound to be in the frequency range that is more felt than heard. I think somewhere around 20 Hz is the hearing threshold and that is barely above it.

Overall, that DB is just a little larger than my 5-er, which has a 43" string. The Guinness Book of World Records lists a DB that is 14 feet tall as the largest ever built, much larger even than the Octobass, and probably not very functional. It was built in New Jersey by Arthur K. Ferris in 1924. The weight was 1300 lbs. The lower bout was 8 ft. across. Strings were apparently coiled leather and the lowest notes (most of them) were subsonic. You could feel rather than hear the instrument. Ferris claimed the instrument was built to specs given by the Archangel Gabriel. Perhaps he was trying to finally get a bass that didn't need and extension .....

[bribass]

Originally Posted by Silversorcerer

Perhaps he was trying to finally get a bass that didn't need and extension .....

LOL..

I saw the Octobass. It's in museum in Paris. It's pretty wild looking. A 3 stringer w/ foot operated levers to stop the notes on the "fingerboard". It's got and E string that's like a 3/4" thick. It is not behind glass. It's just out in an open display and you can get up close to it. I couldn't resist trying to just pluck an open E, but when my hand got close a buzzer went off. I slinked away as if I had been lookin at something else and the buzzer stoped.

BG