Bass Shops In Wisconsin and Accent Basses?

[mrjasonpries]

I was hoping some experienced bass players in the north eastern Wisconsin area would know some stores where I could try out some double basses. I live in Manitowoc, which is about a half an hour south of Green Bay, and the only place I've found so far has been Heid Music, which had two basses.

One of those basses was a carved Accent bass, made in Korea. It played nice and sounded 100 times better than the plywood Englehardt (the other bass in the shop). I haven't read any posts about this particular bass manufacturer though. The guy at the shop said brand new it was $2,600, but it had a crack so they repaired it and are reselling it for $1,400 dollars. It had an adjustable bridge and some type of Hellicore strings. If the brand is any good I was wondering if this is a steal of deal or not?

[Bob Branstetter]

I am not familiar with the Accent bass, but I have to pass on my experience with all the Korean made basses I've had to work on. I do instrument repair work for several school districts in the KC area and several of them are now refusing to accept bids for basses made that are made in Korea because of the very high rate of (expensive) repair problems . There are several different brands included (primarily Scherl & Roth, Knilling), but they are so similar that they seem to be from the same factory. The worst offenders are the flatbacks. I suspect the problem is the woods they are using. I've had to repair two Korean made basses in 3 weeks that broke in exactly the same place (where the scroll joins the handle of the neck) on instrument less than two years old. The really unfortunate part is that from outward appearance, they look to be well made. In this case appearance can be deceiving.

While I am sure that someone will pop up with something about how you shouldn't lump all instruments made in a particular country together, my experience with all Korean basses and cellos has been very negative.