Laborie Endpin Length/Bass Height

[DaveAceofBass]

Hello to all my fellow TBers...

I have a new Kolstein Guarneri bass, and Barrie installed a Laborie endpin at my request. He told me that I'd have to cut it to my desired length. Well, I cut it too short--when the bass was at a nice angle, the nut dropped below my eyebrow and my back began to ache very badly at jazz gigs.

I saw Barrie again at IAJE and he brought me another endpin--more money spent. I've cut off a few inches, and right now it is about 3.5" to 4" longer than the old endpin. The bass still seems a bit too high, but I'm afraid that if I cut any more off that I'll wind up like the original and my back will hate me for it. My bass has sloped shoulders very similar to a Quenoil. I've looked at Rabbath videos and it seems like the bass hits him pretty high up on his stomach, nearly his chest. I'm tempted to hack off about another inch, but I'm a bit scared and don't want it to be too short after my first experience.

Would anyone have some kind of reference as to how long the pin should be? I stand at 5'11", so maybe that will help. The first endpin is about 8.5" and the second is about 11.5" with the rubber ball... This translates to a huge difference when standing. If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. In the meantime, I think I'll email Christian Laborie and see what he suggests.

[bpclark]

I think I would put the too short endpin in and then put blocks under it to raise the height. Then once I found the height that worked well add the height of the blocks to the length of the pin and cut the new endpin to that.

[JoeyNaeger]

Go in half inch increments. Unfortunately I made the same mistake as you, and once I have some free time, I'm gonna try and work out how to join the leftover cutoff to the endpin to make it longer if I want to.

[Maaaven]

Play around with you body height, to simulate how much
you think you want to take off. Imaging standing on
two books or a plank, or... use you imagination.
Then you need to translate height to length of the pin.
They are not the same due to the angle. Measure twice,
cut once.

[jfv]

Be sure and keep the short one around The first pin I
bought I kept whacking inches off of it too, finally my
teacher saw the result, proceeded to scold me about it
being too short, and sold me a pin she thought was
a more proper height....

BUT, turned out I decided that I liked sitting for
orchestra anyway, and guess what... that short pin
is just perfect for that I was going to put the
old end pin back, but it weighs such a bloody ton
that it feels awful, and when playing in a cello style
the angled pin still helps IMHO.

[DaveAceofBass]

Originally Posted by jfv

Be sure and keep the short one around The first pin I
bought I kept whacking inches off of it too, finally my
teacher saw the result, proceeded to scold me about it
being too short, and sold me a pin she thought was
a more proper height....

BUT, turned out I decided that I liked sitting for
orchestra anyway, and guess what... that short pin
is just perfect for that I was going to put the
old end pin back, but it weighs such a bloody ton
that it feels awful, and when playing in a cello style
the angled pin still helps IMHO.

That was actually Barrie Kolstein's suggestion too! He said, "Well, now you'll have one for sitting and one for standing!" (although the short one may still be too long for sitting) I finally got the other one just right, and after hacksawing off what I needed, my trusty bass repairman in Greensboro beveled it to a smooth end like it was originally. The new length is about 2" longer than the shorter one, but it makes all the difference in the world. Finally, I have the ideal bass setup with my new Kolstein Guarneri bass--which I'm very happy with! I just slapped on some Corelli strings and a B-Band Statement, and it sounds killer!