Hi Folks,
Today is special for me, for my first DB made the journey from Connecticut to my waiting arms in Southern California. Her name is Gabby and she's an Upton Standard Gamba.
As mentioned in earlier posts, I've gone from nearly 35 years of lead guitar, 8 years of electric bass and now on to DB. I'm thrilled!
Gabby comes with the Upton solo finger board and my benchmark strings are Evahs.
I was fortunate in that I had Chris, from Upton, play Gabby for me over the phone. He stated that she has a beautiful arco tone, especially for a plywood bass. Once I got a hold of her, I discovered this for myself. I brought one of my Upton Bows (French,from having studied cello 12 years ago) glazed with Oak Rosin and brought bow to string like I'd done it a million times. Gabby sang out a beautiful fundamental G that vibrated the floor. At that folks, was the first time I had ever played a note, taht wasn't for tuning purposes, on a DB.
As I read here in TB, the sensation of feeling your bass vibrate against you is a thing of beauty. Needless to say, I experienced that for the first time today.
I know it was a huge leap of faith to purchase an instrument sight, and ears, unseen. Like many of you, I have been long aware that musical instruments are such vastly personal things and that we can spend a great deal of time and effort searching for just the right one.
I feel that I've found in Gabby, a dear and treasured friend that will grow with me in the passing years and will lead me into the rich world of the DB.
Here she is....
Photo one comes from Upton. The fine folks there are using Gabby's photo for their website promotion since she is one of their first production Gambas.
The second is my son and I hanging out with "The Gabs."
Now, to get started with some formal lessons
