Kolstein Extension

[Masters2010]

First off, I was wondering what everyone thought of extensions. Of course I'll ask my teacher about it, but I wanted to come here first. I play solo stuff along with orchestral works, and thought it may come in handy. I was planning on maybe making a trip down to Kolstein to play a bunch of basses and bows, and I thought this might be a good time to do it.

I have a Kolstein Fendt, and as everyone knows, there are passages too low to play in normal orchestra repertoire. Does anyone know if Kolstein makes chromatic extensions or is it only fingered? I was looking at the basses on his website, and the only extension pictured on one of the basses made by him was fingered, so I'm not sure. Has anyone seen one of his extensions?

[Jake]

I don't know anything about Kolstein extensions. Based on the reputation of the shop I bet they are pretty good. I personally do not like extensions at all. With the option of having one or not having one I would prefer to not have one. If you have one, you know some conductor is going to ask you to play something really hard on it. I just think they are more trouble than they're worth. Even though it sounds great when a few guys have them in a section (I'm glad those guys are willing to do it), they are just not for me. I currently have an extension, but I am not going to continue using one.