Small 'Italian" bass at Quantum Bass Center

[Jeremy Darrow]

Has anyone seen or played this bass? I'm looking for something small, and this bass looks interesting Thanks!

[Nathan Levine]

I've been interested in it too. I imagine it might really be lovely to tune in fifths low G to high E with Genssler's wrapped gut strings and play Bach on it. 10k for something so specialized has me pausing before doing anything expensive and rash.

[tyb507]

Is it me, or do the pics not seem to match the description? Doesn't look like a 160 year-old bass...though the pics aren't very detailed.

[Jeremy Darrow]

I'm thinking it could make a nice chamber/recording bass. But the big brice drop makes me think twice. If it is Italian, and 150+ years old, I think it was underpriced to begin with, even for an unusually small bass.

[Jeremy Darrow]

Originally Posted by tyb507

Is it me, or do the pics not seem to match the description? Doesn't look like a 160 year-old bass...though the pics aren't very detailed.

Agreed.

[Nathan Levine]

They can't prove that it is Italian so thus can't justify a higher price. It does have a kind of Venetian look to it though, so maybe... I bet it sounds good regardless of who made it.

[Jeremy Darrow]

I sent them an email with a few questions. I'll share what the shop tells me. A friend I'm Houston tells me they are a good shop.

[Adam Attard]

Quantum is great- the woman that runs the shop, Elizabeth, is really nice to work with. (I buy rosin, and bought a pair of Laborie endpins from there)

My roommate at school is a bassist from Houston- he was just there lately. I'll ask what he thinks.

[Nathan Levine]

Here is what Elisabeth told me a few weeks ago when I inquired about it.

"Thanks for your interest in the small bass. We wrote the string length in the description wrong - thank you for bringing it to our attention! We re-measured it today and the correct string length is 40 7/8". We have had this bass strung with various different strings and even with standard tuning, the open E tends to not be as strong as the top 3 strings, except when we recently put on Spirocore Mittel. It LOVES those strings and it's sounding great right now, all across the register. It's my opinion that this bass was made deliberately in this size, not as a child's bass or with an altered string length, but that it was most likely made for A-D-A or G-D-G tuning, so I think your idea of G to E would work very well with it. I think the Genssler gut strings would be an excellent choice for it. I use Gerold's strings on both of my own basses, and I have played on his gut strings. They are truly superb and I think would allow this bass to sound at its full potential. "

[tyb507]

Originally Posted by tyb507

Is it me, or do the pics not seem to match the description? Doesn't look like a 160 year-old bass...though the pics aren't very detailed.

I just realized I was putting the wrong picture with the description...looking at the pic above it, not below! Some Italians got outer-linings, right?

[Jeremy Darrow]

I haven't seen an Italian with outer-linings. But Ken Smith says that he has, so in my mind the linings don't automatically count it out. Nathan is obviously right, they can't verify that it's Italian, so they price accordingly. That's a very respectable way to do it.