Found church bass?

[mjt0229]

This past weekend I played with an amateur orchestra in western Mass. Wanting to avoid having to drive back late, I stayed at a B&B off in the country. The proprietor, upon learning that I played the double bass, said that a nearby church had once owned an enormous double bass. She showed me a postcard that she had with a photograph of the bass on it.

According to the postcard, the bass was enormous: 6' 11". The instrument in the photo looks like a classic New England church bass. It has 3 strings and the distinctively shaped shoulders and F-holes that I've seen on other old New England basses.

After I got home, I sent the B&B proprietor an email with some photographs of similar instruments. She responded with the following:

Thank you for sending that beautiful photo of the bass. I called one of the officers of the historical society just a few minutes ago and here is the story about the church bass and it is pretty sad but at least there may be some hope. The bass is in the upstairs of the church which is not heated in the winter or air conditioned in the summer. The society bought the church a few years ago as the church population numbers have dwindled to the point where they could no longer afford to maintain the building. The bass viol was part of a huge celebration in 1935 which was the 200th anniversary of the towns incorporation - it was on a float in the parade. So far so good but THEN some subsequent minister had it in the parsonage and allowed his children to play with and on the bass and it is now split, she thinks, on the back and may have other damage. I know you are cringing, Mark, and so did I. So this woman offered to take me upstairs to see it sometime and I suggested that IF you come back here to stay you might be willing to look at it. We were talking about how nice it would be to get it fixed up so it could at least be displayed but the cost might well be exorbitant.

Perhaps if you looked at it or suggested someone else who might, we could start a fund to repair/restore or whatever is possible. It may be damaged beyond repair but the woman I talked to had not seen it for a long time and anyway is not knowledgeable about the instrument. It would be better if it had been sold to a collector, bass player or museum but that is not what happened although if it could be restored, at least it is still in town!

I'm going to try to go out and take some pictures for documentation, and I told them that unless the bass was utterly destroyed, that it could possibly someday be restored. I also suggested that they move the bass to somewhere where it can be kept safe from further harm.

[Eric Swanson]

Very cool. Good looking out. I immediately thought of Jed Kriegel, in Meford, as he does a lot of restoration work on some precious, one-off instruments...

[mjt0229]

Originally Posted by Eric Swanson

Very cool. Good looking out. I immediately thought of Jed Kriegel, in Meford, as he does a lot of restoration work on some precious, one-off instruments...

That's who I thought of as well. Of course, there may not be funds available. I'm hoping to take a look at it and find out if (in my inexpert opinion) there are enough pieces to make a bass. I'll post pictures if I can arrange to see it.

[Roger Davis]

Originally Posted by mjt0229

That's who I thought of as well. Of course, there may not be funds available. I'm hoping to take a look at it and find out if (in my inexpert opinion) there are enough pieces to make a bass. I'll post pictures if I can arrange to see it.

I wonder how much it would cost. Could we start a fund, perhaps?

[kmanley_29649]

Very cool. I really hope that you can get some pictures, and that it can be restored.

[powerbass]

The folks at Easthampton (MA) Violin http://www.easthamptonviolin.com/index.php put on a show in 2003 at the Springfield MA Museum about violin makers in the Pioneer Valley. You can check it out from http://www.easthamptonviolin.com/eas...eumexhibit.htm. I live in Western MA, don't know what town you visited. Stamell Strings in Amherst http://www.stamellstring.com/ would also be a good place to have the bass checked out. Several years ago my local newspaper ran a story about early American artifacts stolen from rural Mass. churches and town halls that turned up for sale on ebay. No doubt there are still basses tucked away in church attics.

[Paul Warburton]

Originally Posted by Roger Davis

I wonder how much it would cost. Could we start a fund, perhaps?

I'd be in with this.

[Will Yager]

I would also contribute. It's an incredible shame an instrument like that has been treated that way.

[crowsmengegus]

I thought church basses were smaller, closer to the size of a cello. Like this or these. If I'm confused, feel free to give me a re-education.

If this one is really big, I wonder what it was used for, and how old it is. Maybe it is not a "church bass" but just a really big old double bass. I'm curious....

[damonsmith]

Originally Posted by crowsmengegus

I thought church basses were smaller, closer to the size of a cello. Like this or these. If I'm confused, feel free to give me a re-education.

If this one is really big, I wonder what it was used for, and how old it is. Maybe it is not a "church bass" but just a really big old double bass. I'm curious....

I heard/read they were very big and meant to fill out small organs and amature choirs. There are some great instruments on that site as well as a fine contemporary art collection - I'd love to make it to Boston someday!

[crowsmengegus]

Originally Posted by damonsmith

I heard/read they were very big and meant to fill out small organs and amature choirs. There are some great instruments on that site as well as a fine contemporary art collection - I'd love to make it to Boston someday!

I'm not sure about them being big. I got most of my ideas about church basses from this article in Strings magazine. According to the article "they were used in churches and meetinghouses throughout New England to keep congregations singing in tune" and "they range in appearance from reasonable approximations of classical European cellos to idiosyncratic folk art". The article says back measurements vary from 26¼ to over 33 inches (cello is about 30 inches).

I've heard rumors before of some New England luthiers making very large basses. Maybe this is one of those?

[powerbass]

I posted a link above to the exhibit on instrument makers in the Pioneer Valley (the region in western Mass which is the Connecticut River valley, extending from southern Vermont, New Hampshire, through Mass to Connecticut, I live in Northampton Mass which is right in the middle of this region). This link has some info on church basses along w/ a photo http://www.easthamptonviolin.com/eas...lin/early.html. As for why this instrument was "treated" so poorly, I also mentioned above that many of the rural towns in Mass have significant antiquity collections and lack the conservatory expertise or funds to preserve, restore or display these objects. There are many churches throughout the western MA region that have incredible organs built pre and post Civil War (the instruments that replaced the bass in church) - ancient air pumps, wooden and tin pipes. With dwindling congregations and with limited funds for upkeep these instruments along with the beautiful buildings will eventually fall to the same fate of disrepair etc.

[shwashwa]

church basses are small. they look like cellos with bass tuning gears on them. ive seen a few prescott chruch basses over the years for sale for relatively cheap compared to a prescott bass. i believe they were going for between 1-2k. of course they needed restoration and the law of supply and demand (practically no demand) affects the price as well

[Dave Hosking]

Listings of three church basses attributed to Prescott (New Hampshire), Teweksbury (New Hampshire), and one from PA, with detailed descriptions and a modest price range:
http://www.vintage-instruments.com/navigate/catidx6.htm

[crowsmengegus]

mjt0229: you say it looks like a classic church bass, can you give some examples of that kind of size instrument coming from New England? I'm not really familiar with anything 6'11", though I've heard they exist. (I don't know much about these things.)

Nahrmann's has a "4/4" Prescott Busetto but doesn't list the overall length. I doubt it's 6'11".

[mjt0229]

I may have misspoken in calling it a classic church bass, but here's a Prescott at the MFA that belonged to a meeting house. Although their description does not indicate specifically that it was used in church ceremonies, I assume that by meeting house they're referring to a Quaker meeting.

When I said "classic", I was thinking of the resemblance of the bass in the postcard to some of the Yankee instruments I've seen in Ken Smith's old threads as well as the American basses pictured at Nahrmann's shop and the Bass Cellar.

[billyfalconer]

Not all basses used in churches are church basses . The Russians had famous basses in their churches, but they were humans .