Sell my bass or not?????

[dlargent]

Hey everyone - want to start out by saying this is not an advertisement for a bass for sale... I'm not a supporting member yet.

I would simply like to get some advice on whether to sell a bass, and then some input on how to sell it. Let me make a long story short:

I bought a new carved Amati model bass ten years ago. Sounded great in the shop - sounded pretty good on gigs. Spent $8k on it.

About a year ago, I pulled out my old Engelhardt, and found that it was way louder and punchier than the carved Amati copy I had been using. Ever since, I've been using this plywood bass exclusively. I love it, and so does everyone else that I play with. In short, the Engelhardt is clearly a better bass for me than the Amati.

Now my building has lost our basement storage space, making our apartment packed with stuff. Here's the question:

1. I want to sell the Amati bass, but would I regret it later? (I'm not sentimentally attached, and I'm not a packrat in general)

2. If I decide to sell, what would be the best way? --consignment in a bass shop? --ebay? --classified ad on TalkBass?

Thanks for your input.
See y'all later,
Doug

[Sam Sherry]

DLarge --

That is some conundrum. I admire your clear-headed approach to it. There are lots of aspects of it which I'm sure your fellow posters will chime in on so I'm going to limit my comments to the balance of dollars and sense.

Bear in mind that you'll lose a lot of money. If you really decided to ditch the Amati you'll have to resign yourself to that fact.

Before you sell the Amati (and cost yourself $x,xxx in the process) it might make sense to really investigate what it is that's keeping it from honking like your beloved ply. Would an investment of $xxx, paid to a DB specialist, for a fingerboard planing, new strings, maybe a new bridge and soundpost let the Amati make you smile? I hear that there are some gifted DB-workers in New York City.

Let's see what everybody else says . . . .

[Marcus Johnson]

1.) Only you can know the answer to that one... and the answer will change on any given day, for the rest of your life. On that you can rely.

2.) All of those, in any combination, are good. The best way will be the one that hooked you up with the person who bought the bass.

[Marcus Johnson]

Originally Posted by dlargent

About a year ago, I pulled out my old Engelhardt, and found that it was way louder and punchier than the carved Amati copy I had been using.

One more thing... I've played a lot of basses, ply and otherwise, that sound loud to the player. I've also played basses that seemed quiet to my ear, that have apparently been cannons out in the crowd. So it might be a good idea, if you haven't done so yet, to have another bassist play both basses while you're in the audience position . We know that good double bass luthiers (and there's a bunch of them where you live) can find tone and volume in a bass that we didn't even know existed. They're like wizards.


PS.... #2 basses can produce a nice rental income when players pass through town. If there's any place you can stash either one, you can probably recoup the cost pretty easily in NYC.

[dlargent]

Hey thanks you guys!

I have brought the bass to several very talented luthiers (Gage, Kolstein, Merchant) in NYC. The bass now has a thunderous low end! Unfortunately, in a jazz band the thunderous low end is no help, because you are competing directly with the sounds of guitar players and kick drum, and the general din of the crowd.

With the engelhardt, there is barely any low end. Or brilliant harmonics, come to think of it. It just honks through in that midrange frequency that thumps and is clearly audible. I've heard it from the audience perspective too.

Perhaps as I'm setting the wheels in motion to sell the bass, I should also ask some of these guys if they could make the Amati sound like a plywood bass. I predict that they would say "You already have a plywood bass, so why do you want to do that?"

[Eric Hochberg]

Did you tell the luthiers you brought it to what you were looking for sound-wise? It might still be adjusted. And as Marcus said, have someone else play it with a band and go out into the audience to hear what it really sounds like.

If you don't like the bass and it's not doing what you want, you might as well sell it. Someone who is looking for the "thunderous low end" you speak of might very well give you all your money back, or more if it's a lot more thunderous than other basses in its range.

To Marcus' point about renting the bass, I did this for a while with one of my basses, and yes, I made some decent money, but every time it went out the door, I worried about the condition it was going to come back in. Not to mention the drop off-pick up hassles...I decided to stop renting it out.

[Gary Lynch]

"my old Engelhardt, and found that it was way louder and punchier than the carved Amati copy"


My my spins thinking an Engelhardt is in anyway superior to a carved bass.

How many types of strings and setups have you tried on your carved bass?