Disclaimer: I am the Uptons’ lawyer and I am Gary’s pal. I promised Gary I would write up my new extension and this is it!
When I was in 10th grade I splurged for the new Herbie Hancock double-pocket LP, entitled
V.S.O.P. The first tune was gorgeous exploration of Herbie’s four-chord classic “Maiden Voyage.” At one point Ron Carter dropped down for a low D and ever since then I wanted to make that noise. That was thirty-one years ago and now I finally can.
The
Upton machine is hand-crafted with a maple “body,” ebony fingerboard and brass wheels. It is designed so that the tension of the C-string itself holds the extension onto the scroll – there are no holes or screws through the scroll. The fingerboard is a full ½" thick at the nut, tapering to about 1/8" at the top. It tapers from the “treble” side toward the player, too, for ease of use. The wood is finished in a very nice thin clear gloss. The capo is easy to flip and adjusts for tension with a supplied Allen wrench. The capo holds the string firmly and playing pizz the difference between a regular, at-the-nut open E and the capoed E is modest if that.
My extension was installed at the Upton shop and that is a good thing. I once tried to put a Stenholm machine on a bass and it was a major pain – I’m pretty handy but precision-fitting the extension to the scroll went on and on and I never got it right. The Stenholm fit by filing epoxy; trying to sculpt the wooden Upton extension at home would have been The Project That Never Ended. Thank you for your experience and care, gentlemen.
One cool feature is that the wood leading from the nut ends in a point, which on my bass is dead in-tune low D. I’m a beginner up there and the reference is extremely helpful! The Uptons chamfer the curve between the two points, which makes it much more comfortable to grab then trying to hang onto the entire scroll.
What’s it like to play? Well, it’s wicked cool to honk a low D and
make it growl! It is a happy thing to work through a bossa and drop just one low C at the right place (and look over to see the drummer grin too). It is nothing but fun to gliss up from a low Eb to F. At this point I am playing capoed almost all the time; it has not been a major distraction to think, “Here’s a good spot,” flip the capo and make it go. The string-height goes up with the extension open and so far my preference is to spend the bulk of the session at normal tension. Plus, running the capo means that it’s less likely I will over-use the low range and “burn it out” musically. On the other hand, yeah, it takes some thought and some work to use an extension. For jazz, the “hand-fingered” unit is cool and organic. For a steady diet of Beethoven I could picture how a mechanical machine would be worth looking into.
For the punch line I turn to Dr. Seuss: “Have you tried these things? You should. These things are fun, and fun is good.”
