Basses in the UK!

owen_liam · #1 08-16-2009, 09:07 AM

Hello everyone!

At the risk of restarting the endless 'which bass should I buy' type thread (I've had a good look through the newbie threads at the top of the page!), I have a question.

I am an electric player that has dabble in DB for a while and have finally decided to take the plunge and splash out on a good quality entry level instrument. I have a budget of around £1400 GBP (about $2300 USD) to play with.

I have been doing tons of research and it appears to me that the kind of bass that would be right for me would probably be a good laminate (or cheaper hybrid) bass, something like the Upton Bass Standard laminate. The only problem is that it would cost about $950 to ship it safely to the uk! That's a lot of money that I could be spending on bass rather than postage!

So, before I go down that route, I've decided to look closer to home. However, I've drawn a bit of a blank when trying to find similar, quality laminate/hybrid basses in the UK. Whilst there seem to be a lot of luthiers in the US working hard to make quality instruments at this level, over here there seems to be a lot of very cheap, poor quality imported basses and then a gap until you get to the £3000/£4000/£5000 mark, which is way out of my budget, and not very much in between.

I know lots of you guys are on the other side of the Atlantic, but if there are any Brits or if you have any ideas of suitable instruments that are readily available in the UK that would be really helpful! Or, any luthiers that make good quality laminates not as an afterthought but with a similar thorough and serious approach as Upton Bass seem to.

Thanks fellas!
Liam.

TenorClef · #2 08-16-2009, 03:35 PM

Liam i'm also in the UK, check out www.thomann.de lots of basses in your price bracket, i've just bought a cheap one and can't fault Thomann's secure safe delivery method, very good. Check out my review of the Thomann 111.

owen_liam · #3 08-16-2009, 04:24 PM

Thanks for the tip! Some interesting basses in there. I was particularly intrigued by the Thomann Kontrabass 2 WR 3/4

http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_kontrabass_2_wr_34.htm

Couldn't find your review though...could you forward the link to me?

Any thoughts or other ideas for a UK friendly bass? I'm in London next Friday, so I may spend a day playing as many as I can. Any suggestions from anyone about where to look?

Thanks!

LouisF · #4 08-16-2009, 06:46 PM

Thwaites? You never know what they might have.

There's this: http://www.contrabass.co.uk/2749.htm (but about £1K over your budget)

LF

TenorClef · #5 08-16-2009, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by owen_liam

Thanks for the tip! Some interesting basses in there. I was particularly intrigued by the Thomann Kontrabass 2 WR 3/4

http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_kontrabass_2_wr_34.htm

Couldn't find your review though...could you forward the link to me?

Any thoughts or other ideas for a UK friendly bass? I'm in London next Friday, so I may spend a day playing as many as I can. Any suggestions from anyone about where to look?

Thanks!

Thomann 111 double bass

MIKMAN · #6 08-17-2009, 08:06 AM

The bass you mentioned is made by Strunal in Luby, Czech Republic. It is a decent instrument and it's better for you to buy directly from the Strunal factory (www.strunal.cz).
I'd prefer the thomman 22 3/4 bass, which it's also a hybrid made by Hora in Reghin, Romania. It has a better top plate, made with good spruce and a better fingerboard. The arco sound is significantly better by the Strunal and the piz sound at least equal.
It is not so heavy and my experience from five Horas and four Strunals makes me to like the Horas much more. Strunal makes good fully carved flatbacks and roudbacks, much better than the Horas of the same grade, but in hybrids IMHO the Romanians are much louder, with a more focused sound, so i prefer them.

rodmallia · #7 08-17-2009, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MIKMAN

The bass you mentioned is made by Strunal in Luby, Czech Republic. It is a decent instrument and it's better for you to buy directly from the Strunal factory (www.strunal.cz).
I'd prefer the thomman 22 3/4 bass, which it's also a hybrid made by Hora in Reghin, Romania. It has a better top plate, made with good spruce and a better fingerboard. The arco sound is significantly better by the Strunal and the piz sound at least equal.
It is not so heavy and my experience from five Horas and four Strunals makes me to like the Horas much more. Strunal makes good fully carved flatbacks and roudbacks, much better than the Horas of the same grade, but in hybrids IMHO the Romanians are much louder, with a more focused sound, so i prefer them.

So we can safely say that you're playing or at least, you have played, a 22 3/4 ... is that right?

Is there anyone else who has experience this particular model who can give us some more info?

Bruce Lindfield · #8 08-17-2009, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by owen_liam

Hello everyone!

At the risk of restarting the endless 'which bass should I buy' type thread (I've had a good look through the newbie threads at the top of the page!), I have a question.

I am an electric player that has dabble in DB for a while and have finally decided to take the plunge and splash out on a good quality entry level instrument. I have a budget of around £1400 GBP (about $2300 USD) to play with.

I have been doing tons of research and it appears to me that the kind of bass that would be right for me would probably be a good laminate (or cheaper hybrid) bass, something like the Upton Bass Standard laminate. The only problem is that it would cost about $950 to ship it safely to the uk! That's a lot of money that I could be spending on bass rather than postage!

So, before I go down that route, I've decided to look closer to home. However, I've drawn a bit of a blank when trying to find similar, quality laminate/hybrid basses in the UK. Whilst there seem to be a lot of luthiers in the US working hard to make quality instruments at this level, over here there seems to be a lot of very cheap, poor quality imported basses and then a gap until you get to the £3000/£4000/£5000 mark, which is way out of my budget, and not very much in between.

I know lots of you guys are on the other side of the Atlantic, but if there are any Brits or if you have any ideas of suitable instruments that are readily available in the UK that would be really helpful! Or, any luthiers that make good quality laminates not as an afterthought but with a similar thorough and serious approach as Upton Bass seem to.

Thanks fellas!
Liam.

There was a long thread where I detailed my frustrating search for a reasonable DB in the UK - I think it was titled "Inexpensive Basses in the UK"...

In the end I settled for a full-carved Stentor - they are put together in Reigate. I've played mine for several years now and have loved every minute of it - it cost me about £1300 - so fits in your budget!

rodmallia · #9 08-17-2009, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

There was a long thread where I detailed my frustrating search for a reasonable DB in the UK - I think it was titled "Inexpensive Basses in the UK"...

In the end I settled for a full-carved Stentor - they are put together in Reigate. I've played mine for several years now and have loved every minute of it - it cost me about £1300 - so fits in your budget!

Bruce, what particular model do you play? I see they've got quite a range ...

owen_liam · #10 08-18-2009, 02:31 AM

Thank you very much for your tips guys! I'm doing some trawling of local shops today: I may even unearth a gem somewhere! I'm very intrigued by the Thomann basses - it's great to get that info Mikman, especially when you can't get to play them both before you buy them! Will look into the Stentor too.

Will keep you informed! Keep the suggestions/discussion coming. It's interesting that I'm not the only one to have this problem Bruce!

Bruce Lindfield · #11 08-18-2009, 03:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodmallia

Bruce, what particular model do you play? I see they've got quite a range ...

I have an Elysia - which is fully carved with Ebony fingerboard - I have changed the endpin though - which was a bit insubstantial and was causing a rattle. I had it replaced with a carbon-fibre endpin from the Basse Shoppe in London and this had the desired effect of curing the rattle and improving the tone!

I really like it - but it is slightly small - compared with other basses I have tried - but that suits me, as it seems to make it slightly easier to play, higher up the neck..?

I do intend to check out more basses and maybe get something bigger and older - but have discussed this with various teachers/tutors and I think improving my technique first will have a bigger impact on how I sound than buying a better bass...

In other words it is perfectly adequate for purpose and I have heard it played by some great Jazz pros - including Julian Siegel (!) and would be happy to sound like that!!

oliebrice · #12 08-18-2009, 03:46 AM

I can recommend the Stentors as well. I played a conservatoire for several years, from beginner to gigging professionally. They sound surprisingly good for the money, and are very easy to play.
2nd the recommendation of replacing the end pin too.

oliebrice · #13 08-18-2009, 03:48 AM

have you read through this?

Inexpensive Basses in U.K?

Bruce Lindfield · #14 08-18-2009, 03:55 AM

Hi Olie - I saw your band was playing at Brighton Jazz Club but was unable to get down there - I'm working in London now!

All the best!!

MIKMAN · #15 08-18-2009, 04:29 AM

Actually I have played five basses of the above mentioned model. All of them were in the same quality, reasonably constructed and all of them delivered almost the same sound. The laminate parts (ribs and back) are made from a resonant material which improves the low frequencies. The thing that surprised me favourably was the arco sound, even with the La Bella Super Nil strings. Two of my friends are going to order this bass for back up instrument. Decent bass in very good price and IMHO strongly recommended.

owen_liam · #16 08-18-2009, 09:41 AM

Just been out to play a bass at a respected local violin and cello dealer. The dealer is known for expertise in violin and cello and has dozens of quality instruments in stock, although they only had one bass. Encouraged by their reputation for dealing with string instruments, I decided to drive out to have a look at it. Despite my optimism - the instrument was advertised as a fully carved 'hand finished' bass at £850 - it was terrible! It was clearly not a decent quality instrument - it was set up terribly with horrible strings, the finger board was a mystery hardwood painted very badly in black to mimic ebony, the finish of the bass was shoddy with splatters of black paint from all over the varnish. It was very uneven to play: woolly in the lower registers, brash in the higher. I asked the dealer a lot of questions about it and he clearly didn't really know/care very much about the double bass and was happy to pass off lots of half-truths and misinformation to get me to buy it. I had a play on it by myself to give it a fair chance, but found myself leaving the store thoroughly down in the dumps a few minutes later.

Why do we have this problem in finding decent double bass dealers that can cater for a wide range of budgets and players in the UK? This is the second reputable string instrument dealer that has given me this kind of treatment this week! Despite being a relative novice in the area of DB, even I can spot the shoddy salesmen patter that's being dished out for me: "all basses nowadays are made in China"; "you won't find anything this good for the price"; "you could pay twice as much for a bass and it won't be as good as this"! I find it very insulting to be honest...and it definitely puts me off buying a DB from one of these string dealers!

Any ideas why, compared to the USA, Germany etc, the UK has this gap in the DB market?

owen_liam · #17 08-18-2009, 09:44 AM

Oh yes, I forgot to say that the dealer, in an effort to seal the deal on the bass, dropped the price by £200 when I started to look like leaving. That summed up his faith in the quality of the instrument for me!

owen_liam · #18 08-18-2009, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MIKMAN

Actually I have played five basses of the above mentioned model. All of them were in the same quality, reasonably constructed and all of them delivered almost the same sound. The laminate parts (ribs and back) are made from a resonant material which improves the low frequencies. The thing that surprised me favourably was the arco sound, even with the La Bella Super Nil strings. Two of my friends are going to order this bass for back up instrument. Decent bass in very good price and IMHO strongly recommended.

Maybe the Thomann 22 is the way forward! At least I don't have to run any more violin shop gauntlets! Thanks very much for the information Mikman.

tinyd · #19 08-18-2009, 11:09 AM

Hi Liam
I'm based in Ireland and I had many of the same woes that you're having trying to find a bass. I too was going to get a bass from Thomann, but in the end I waited and got a good deal (I think!) on a second hand Shen from a private seller. From looking on ebay, it seems like some potentially decent basses come up now and again, especially in London, so my advice is to try out as many basses as possible ( which was only 2 in my case ) and then keep your eyes peeled for potential bargains.

Having said that, there are plenty of posters who have bought from Thomann and they seem very happy, and I have no doubt that I'd have bought one from them if the Shen hadn't turned up. As well as the other Thomann basses mentioned, I'd take a serious look at the Christophers:-

http://www.thomann.de/gb/christopher...trabass_34.htm

A lot of people here on TB seem to rate them highly in the entry-level end of things...

PaulKing · #20 08-18-2009, 11:10 AM

It's definitely a gap in the market.

I even toyed seriously with the idea of seeting up a company importing direct from Strunal for a while.
I had one of their ply basses, 50/4 - it was great. Perfect for the mass market, low budget, from punks and psychos to serious students.
Cost me just over £800 deliverd to the door.

BUT, it's not a big enough market, the mark up is nowhere near enough to make any money, and the hassle of set up and delivery make it prohibitively expensive.

I guess that's why it's difficult in the UK. Thomann is about the only company that's got anywhere near cornering the market in Europe. Power to their elbow.

Meanwhile, there are just about enough second hand bvudget plys around to keep the demand satisfied ... you just have to wait for them to come up, and know what you're looking for. Tricky...