My Cremona adventure

[Cristofre]

I have played electric bass for over 20 years. A few years ago I started getting the itch to have an upright but I did not want to plunk down a lot of money on something I wasn't even sure I would enjoy.

One day I was walking around in a flea market and saw a brand new Cremona upright bass and to my horror the price tag said something like $575 dollars (with gig bag) so I felt the need to bring it home with me before someone else saw it.

Once I got it home and tuned up I tried playing it a bit and realized that the factory setup was terrible. I swear the strings were over an inch and a half off the neck at the bridge end.

As far as I can tell the neck and fingerboard are one solid carved piece of wood, the nut is also carved out of the same piece of wood and is not a separate piece. (It starts to become obvious how the bass was so much cheaper than any I had seen before.)

First order of business was to get the string height at the nut down to a humane level, the G slot was almost a quarter of an inch from the surface of the neck!
Thank god for dremel tools and model files! I lowered the slots until the strings sat about a business card or two's width from the fingerboard.
Just that bit of change made it immensely easier to play.

Then I went to work on the bridge, unfortunately instead of cutting the bridge down some I just cut these long slots in under each string to lower the action there and managed to make the action too low.
So, having ruined the bridge in my over-confidence, I set to searching the internet for another bridge, I found Bob Gollihur's place: http://www.gollihur.com/kkbass/index.html
and ordered a new adjustable bridge and a nice set of strings.

By the way, while I was on the net I came across all these people talking about how terrible Cremona basses were, but I honestly can only guess that they had the same factory setup problems as I had, but not the nerve (or craziness?) to try to fix the problems themselves.

I installed the new bridge when it came and got the action right. Then I put on the new strings and that probably made the major difference in the sound.

So fast forward a few years....
I have been pretty happy with my bass and playing lots of gigs with it, but there were always some buzzes halfway up the neck on the G string, so once again I got this crazy urge to try to fix it myself, after spending a while checking the neck with a straight edge I found where the problem was and went to work with a long piece of belt sander belt nailed to a flat board and various knives and pointy things.

The buzzing problem seemed to mainly be related to the thickness of the "ebonized" paint on the fingerboard. Once I scraped down to bare wood the buzzing went away.

In retrospect this mass produced chinese Cremona really was a piece of crap when I got it and I would not recommend that anyone buy one unless they have 1. A good luthier nearby that can set it up correctly 2. Feel they can set it up themselves.

I don't think that the Cremona basses deserve the reputation they seem to have, but it is obvious that the factory setup guys should be punished by spending eternity trying to play one right off the assembly line...

Once set up, this bass makes a great bang around bluegrass/folk/rock bass.

[arnoldschnitzer]

When I saw this thread title I thought it was going to be a travelogue of your trip to Cremona, Italy. But, alas, I was off target. Sorry to rain on your parade, but those basses absolutely DO deserve their reputation. IMHO the importers/sellers are essentially criminals.

[Marcus Johnson]

Perfect night for a horror story.

[drurb]

1:

Originally Posted by Cristofre

...
Once I got it home and tuned up I tried playing it a bit and realized that the factory setup was terrible.

2:

Originally Posted by Cristofre

As far as I can tell the neck and fingerboard are one solid carved piece of wood, the nut is also carved out of the same piece of wood and is not a separate piece.

3:

Originally Posted by Cristofre

The buzzing problem seemed to mainly be related to the thickness of the "ebonized" paint on the fingerboard. Once I scraped down to bare wood the buzzing went away.

4:

Originally Posted by Cristofre

In retrospect this mass produced chinese Cremona really was a piece of crap

Conclusion

Originally Posted by Cristofre

I don't think that the Cremona basses deserve the reputation they seem to have...

1-4 seem to be good arguments reinforcing that bad reputation!

[accutone]

"In retrospect this mass produced chinese Cremona really was a piece of crap..."

I, like the others, pictured you traveling to Cremona to hand pick a 150 yr. old instrument! Sorry to take your quote out of context, (but after all it is election season. ) I enjoyed the story anyway. The lesson is that $575 is better spent on a Fender than on a Cremona!

[Chasarms]

Originally Posted by Cristofre

. . .I found where the problem was and went to work with a long piece of belt sander belt nailed to a flat board and various knives and pointy things . . .

I nominate this as the new luthiers' creed.

[Jake deVilliers]

What do you mean "new"?

[mje]

A bad setup is only half the story, of course, but it seesm to be pretty universal- probably as these are mostly sold by shops who are not specialists in double bass. I was in a certain long-established Ann Arbor music store last weekend and spotted a db in the bass room. The first thing I noticed was that the strings were indeed a good inch or more off the fingerboard at the end. The second was the name brand ;-)

[RadicalDad]

I had a Cremona SB3 for a couple of years - my first bass. It was a very nice sounding bass, especially considering what I paid for it. The bass had been set up by a local luthier. I'm sure that helped a lot.

I bought a carved bass early this year, and after having it restored, sold the Cremona about 6 weeks ago. The carved bass is SOOO much better than the Cremona, but as is typical when comparing a ply to a carved, the Cremona could punch through the band in a way the carved just can't. I kinda miss the Cremona.

When I first started playing, I rented a Cremona SB2 from the luthier mentioned above. That was an amazingly good bass (better than my SB3). I tried to buy it, but the luthier wouldn't part with it.

I know Cremonas get a bad rap from just about everyone. Maybe I was lucky, or maybe I was smart enough to be sure the bass was set up by a pro, but my experience with Cremona has been quite positive. I might be new to the bass, but I have been playing various stringed instruments for over 40 years. I know a good piece of wood when I play it.

I think Cremona gets a bum rap. No, they don't make an upper end instrument, but for the price, what were you expecting? As an entry-level or student instrument, Cremona holds its own with anything else I've played that is similarly priced.

[Chasarms]

I don't think there is any doubt that a BSO can be set up play half way decent. I think some of these guys around here could make wash tub play well.

I think the summary points about the very cheapest @$500 ebay basses is that the factory setup is VERY poor, so it will take a lot of effort to make them playable, which equates to a lot of $$$. (unless of course you go to your own box of pointy things and get cranking as mentioned above) Far more money than it might take to set up a bass that initially cost more.

So, in the end you have a lesser quality bass for not significantly less than you may have been able to get a better one. Couple this fact with the known design and manufacturing issues and general quality of materials used, and you end up left wanting.

The real message luthiers want to get across, I think, is if you can just scrape together a few hundred bucks more in the beginning, you'll be MUCH happier and are most likely going to save it back sometime down the road.

[drurb]

Originally Posted by Chasarms

I don't think there is any doubt that a BSO can be set up play half way decent. I think some of these guys around here could make wash tub play well.

I think the summary points about the very cheapest @$500 ebay basses is that the factory setup is VERY poor, so it will take a lot of effort to make them playable, which equates to a lot of $$$. (unless of course you go to your own box of pointy things and get cranking as mentioned above) Far more money than it might take to set up a bass that initially cost more.

So, in the end you have a lesser quality bass for not significantly less than you may have been able to get a better one. Couple this fact with the known design and manufacturing issues and general quality of materials used, and you end up left wanting.

The real message luthiers want to get across, I think, is if you can just scrape together a few hundred bucks more in the beginning, you'll be MUCH happier and are most likely going to save it back sometime down the road.

+1!!!!!!!!!!!!! This post is right on the money (pun intended).

As pointed out, one of these Cremonas is a bad deal any way around.

[drurb]

Well, I just have to take issue with some of these comments. RadicalDad, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I think, however, especially for the sake of newbies who might be reading these threads, it is important to respectfully voice an opposing point of view.

Originally Posted by RadicalDad

...When I first started playing, I rented a Cremona SB2 from the luthier mentioned above. That was an amazingly good bass (better than my SB3).

I don't think you could put a Cremona SB2 in my hands, or the hands of many other experienced players, and have me (them) describe it as "an amazingly good bass." Not ever.

Originally Posted by RadicalDad

I know Cremonas get a bad rap from just about everyone.

Quite deservedly so as demonstrated by this thread, other threads, and the $$$ lost by so many unsuspecting buyers.

Originally Posted by RadicalDad

As an entry-level or student instrument, Cremona holds its own with anything else I've played that is similarly priced.

Therein lies the rub. Let's consider the asking price. One of these basses can be had for under $1000. Among most other new basses priced similarly, the Cremona may be as good as anything else. That, however, is not saying much as that group consists of inferior instruments that are not worth the $$$.

Now, let's consider the "true" price. As both you and Chasarms have noted, in order to make one of these playable, it requires substantial setup work. So, now you're talking, at the very least, about $1100 to $1200. When all is said and done, you end up paying an amount just shy of what you could have spent for a decent ply bass that is far less likely to implode and that will, likely, hold its value.

The Cremona is a bad deal.

[Roger Mouton]

You state this well, "a decent ply bass that is far less likely to implode and that will likely hold its value" is a better investment.

Set-up is one thing but what happens to this bass after a month, a year or several years? Is the wood "green"? I would bet they don't use aged wood to make these basses.

A sales rep left one of these basses for evalution at the shop where I get my instrument worked on. It was laying on its side and the luthier took one glance and said it looked like it was about to fold up on itself. His estimate to make it playable? $1,000 minimum.