Last Ever Double Bassist Magazine!! Very Sad!

[Bruce Lindfield]

So I got my new copy of Double Bassist Magazine today - nice Charlie Haden transcriptions etc.

But I was immensely saddened that it has a note saying this is the last ever issue and from the next one it will be incorporated into "The Strad" - for strings!!

This was the one magazine about the instrument I was aware of and possibly my favourite apart from JazzWise.

It will never be the same again!

Anybody want to get up a petition...? Too few of us to count any more?

[Basshole]

You can't petition people to lose money. One would have to presume if publishing this magazine were economically viable, they'd have continued.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Well I think it's a bit different for Double Bass players as this was just about the only magazine, whereas BG players have more choice and bits in guitar mags....

I can't imagine "the Strad" is going to have anything about Jazz players - whereas DB had a large amount ....

Very sad!

[Jason Sypher]

I loved this magazine. I subscribed to it for years. Really high quality. I wonder if I can order all those that I missed over the years. I refer back to them all the time and discover something that I misses or just wasn't ready for at the time. Very sad.

[KSB - Ken Smith]

I find them to be a bit misleading. When it's the dealers themselves writing about old Basses. It's like they are making an appraisal and setting a world market for a Bass they have in stock.

The advertisement of Kolsten and a Gagliano next month! He has a that Bass in stock so now it gets advertised for free whether it's authentic or not. "If it is written, it is true."

This months article by Tom Martin with the John Lott Jr. Bass made for Hart. I don't buy the 'Jr.' part. That is speculation on his part. Also, he claims that Lott Jr. made other Basses. What is NOT in that article about Jr. is his employment and relationship with Withers, his training of Withers and the Withers shop which he was associated. In a book titled '230 Years of Violin Making in Soho' author A.Whone the current owner of the Withers shop recounts Whithers' own notes about Lott Jr. and mentions that the only Double Bass 'Jack' (John Lott Jr.'s nickname) made was for a quartet of instruments.

It was John Lott Sr. (known as Grandfather Lott) that made the Basses. Lott Jr. made Del Gesu violin copies mainly when he made anything. I think that Tom Martin paints such an accurate picture of young Lott's life that anything he says will be believed. One day soon, you will see that very same Bass come to market. A Jr. Bass will fetch more than a Sr. Bass. I just had a Lott Sr. Bass in my shop and I can attest that the Bass pictured in the Article was most likely made by the father who specialized not only in Bass making but also making for other shops like this one with the Hart brand in the upper Back Button.

I wont miss the magazine myself. I find that the articles are too political. I contacted the magazine 3 separate times myself. One was for a back issue on a Hart Bass that was written by Tom Martin. One day I get an Email and the owner of that Hart and sends me a copy of that Article along with a scanned letter from Tom Martin. The Bass used to belong to Tom Martin who also authored the article.

The second time was to subscribe to the mag. I gave all my info and CC #s in the on-line form provided. ZILCH.. never got a single copy sent to me.

The third time was to inform them of a great story they could write about. My rare Samuel Gilkes Bass (an authentic one and not an assumed one, hence the only labeled/branded S.Gilkes we know of) and the Hart Bass, who was the apprentice of Gilkes. Both Basses sitting in my rack side by side, with Master and Apprentice united for the first time ever (Last month they were both performed together on the same stage in 2 Orchestra Concerts). Not a peep! I even called them in person... oh wait.. maybe the call was to the VSA.. yeah.. I called the VSA but emailed DB mag. Ok, I remember now..lol

Still, I am not one of their dealer/writers so I get not even a call back about this rare find. The Hart that I have is a completely different Bass than the one they articled before being that mine is believed to be made by Hart almost 20 years earlier and not by his son-in-law William Valentine who made most of the Bass for Hart.

So, this magazine like many others is not all about the truth in my opinion. Yes, I like looking at pretty pictures themselves but when some of the articles might change the history of some of these Basses and not necessarily truthfully, then I tend to think of it more as a dis-service than an asset.

[Chris Fitzgerald]

That's a bummer about the magazine, as it was one of only two magazines that I read regularly. IT has its flaws, but it was sure nice to read information that was *only* about the bass. I sure won't be buying the Strad anytime soon.

[Basshole]

How about you guys getting together, and publishing something online?

I fear a lot of "legit" rags are going to fold, or succumb to publishing online.

Why not start something? Or, perhaps (since you mentioned petitions) you could petition them to make an adjunct to this "Strad" mag, and make it available to DB players online?

[PaulCannon]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

This was the one magazine about the instrument I was aware of and possibly my favourite apart from JazzWise.

Not entirely true. ISB publishes "Bass World" every so often, which is included as part of your membership to the organization. True, it doesn't have the nice glossy pictures (or the professional writers), but it is a magazine.

I was told if you currently have a subscription to Double Bassist, it ought to roll right over to Strad. I've got another year left on my subscription, so we shall see how much bass actually makes it into Strad.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Yes - I am subscriber and the insert with the latest issue says I will get the Strad in April...

We'll see!

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by Chris Fitzgerald

That's a bummer about the magazine, as it was one of only two magazines that I read regularly. IT has its flaws, but it was sure nice to read information that was *only* about the bass. I sure won't be buying the Strad anytime soon.

Yes - I take on board all of Ken's points - but my interest is purely as a player, for self-improvement purposes and I have no interest in the provenance of old basses and will never have enough money to be a collector/dealer!

I think most DBers won't be buying the Strad and while it might start off with a few bass features - no doubt that as the bass audience drops off - there will be less and less of interest...

It's a shame we are going to lose a great resource for players - so my favourite part was always the free sheet music and transcriptions for Double Bass - where else will we be able to find this kind of stuff...!!??

[bribass]

What a drag! I just renewed my subscription for two years to get the discount. I always enjoyed the interveiws w/ players and the CD reveiws as well as the transcriptions, and workshop articles
etc. I can't imagine that the Strad will serve us as well. I want a refund.
I think an online mag could be an option for them. We should perhaps draft a petition suggesting this.

BG

[MR PC]

It was a nice effort for the publishers to market this journal. I subscribed for awhile. Way to expensive, perhaps they could have downsized the glossy slickness factor and beefed up the detail of the contents more. The articles always seemed lacking. It seemed geared to part of society I don't have much contact with though. Always felt kinda upper class in that way. Perhaps that was just the difference of culture in the journalistic style. The articles always seemed shallow, lacking somehow..... otherwise,I think Ken Smith nailed it pretty well here.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Maybe it was too "British" for you ...? That was a big selling point for me!!

[MR PC]

More like information either being lost in the translation. I don't know enough about British culture for it to be "too British".

[Marcus Johnson]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

Maybe it was too "British" for you ...? That was a big selling point for me!!

Actually, one of the things I liked about it was the fact that it introduced me to players and recordings that would never, ever get any coverage in a US-based mag.

But then, I watch BBC on Dish Network all the time.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Sadly, the BBC has very little Jazz nowadays - although their coverage of the Proms is very good...?

[Rob Hunter]

Damn! I'm a subscriber as well and I must've missed this. I've always enjoyed the magazine: the articles, the ads, the reviews. To my knowledge, it was the only DB-focused publication available. I'll take The Strad when it arrives (my wife's a violinist), but I can't see myself buying it once the subscription runs out.

If a new double bass magazine ever emerges, I hope the good people of TalkBass will let me know!

[Bruce Lindfield]

Yes - same here!

I will get some issues of the Strad, but would like to find another DB-only magazine!

[Don Higdon]

I let my subscription lapse a few years ago. Transcriptions and reviews of recordings were probably useful, but the feature articles struck me as unbalanced, uncritical acceptance of the subject, e.g, that Nwanoku's bass is an Amati.

[Bruce Lindfield]

As I said - I don't really care abour provenance of basses, so much as things like - how good a player is that person, what have they got to teach me - do I like the music etc. etc.

So my view is that a magazine called "Double Bassist" is about people, players,music - if it was called "Double Bass Collecting" - then I would agree!