We bought the bass this summer within a 2 hour time frame from a vintage guitar shop - and by bought I mean we started shopping and concluded the purchase within 2 hours (hence no time to sign up to TB and learn from all your wisdom).
My son was in a jazz workshop this summer and his bass teachers said at the end of it all that they thought he should get a double bass - he has been playing BG for a while now. My son had noticed a bass the day before at lunch time while looking at BGs in a nearby guitar store. He told his his teachers as part of the "you should get a double bass" conversation and Don Thompson agreed to walk over to the store to look at it. He recommended the bass very highly, said if it was in Toronto he would buy it just to sell it again for the money. An hour and half later I was off work, with a smoking hole in my line of credit, and we were trying to figure out how to get a DB into a Toyota. My son's other workshop teacher, Neil Swainson, showed us how to do that - talk about learning the fundamentals of DB from some of the best players.
The bass is a ca 100 year old 3/4 Czech flatback, subsequently valued by our local luthier (Jim Ham) at 3 times what we paid for it and will still be valued double what we paid once he has done the work it needs. It sounds great even with 20 or 30 year old strings on it and badly in need of a setup (apparently sat in a closet for 20 years). He did put in a new end pin (N-pin installed, old one missing), reset the bridge and tweaked the sound post just so it could be used for practicing on. It should serve my sons gigging needs for many years to come.
Dimensions (inches):
Full Height 71.66
Scale Length 41.42
Upper Bout Width 20.50
Lower Bout Width 25.50
Width at Nut 1.69
Pictures can be seen at the link below. These pics are of it in its current state before it goes to the luthier, later this winter when he has time.
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My son was in a jazz workshop this summer and his bass teachers said at the end of it all that they thought he should get a double bass - he has been playing BG for a while now. My son had noticed a bass the day before at lunch time while looking at BGs in a nearby guitar store. He told his his teachers as part of the "you should get a double bass" conversation and Don Thompson agreed to walk over to the store to look at it. He recommended the bass very highly, said if it was in Toronto he would buy it just to sell it again for the money. An hour and half later I was off work, with a smoking hole in my line of credit, and we were trying to figure out how to get a DB into a Toyota. My son's other workshop teacher, Neil Swainson, showed us how to do that - talk about learning the fundamentals of DB from some of the best players.
The bass is a ca 100 year old 3/4 Czech flatback, subsequently valued by our local luthier (Jim Ham) at 3 times what we paid for it and will still be valued double what we paid once he has done the work it needs. It sounds great even with 20 or 30 year old strings on it and badly in need of a setup (apparently sat in a closet for 20 years). He did put in a new end pin (N-pin installed, old one missing), reset the bridge and tweaked the sound post just so it could be used for practicing on. It should serve my sons gigging needs for many years to come.
Dimensions (inches):
Full Height 71.66
Scale Length 41.42
Upper Bout Width 20.50
Lower Bout Width 25.50
Width at Nut 1.69
Pictures can be seen at the link below. These pics are of it in its current state before it goes to the luthier, later this winter when he has time.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
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