Double Bass 6,666! (DB forum thread)

[El Thumpo]

We've reached the milestone of 6,666 threads here on the Basses (DB) forum. Congratulations, everyone!

What kind of bass were you playing in October of 2000--or when you discovered the forum? If you've upgraded since, when and why?

Curious as to why some people stick by the plywood beaters, while others are on a chronic quest to escalate. Just thought this was a good opportunity to discuss long-term relationships.

 

[Ryker_M]

I haven't been here (or musically inclined long enough) to actually have been playing bass for that long.

But I've been playing the same laminated Kay bass that's 40+ years old for the past three years.

 

[balton4]

I was born in 1997, so... Yeah. Started playing in 2010 on a silvertone, upgraded to an epiphone thunderbird in 2012.

 

[El Thumpo]

By the way, the second response to the very first thread was GET A TEACHER. Caps and all.

 

[uprightben]

I still have the carved Gliga that I got got new in 2001. It still plays and sounds great, I see no reason to look for anything else. I recently put a new fingerboard on it with a parabolic profile and a high extension a la Edgar Meyer and its like a new bass (in a good way).

 

[Bullhead]

I found the DB, or it found me, late: in 2008 at age 61, and it is a chief source of joy, as I plan "retirement." (more time to practice and play.) I have a foot in each world. I will keep my first bass, a ply Johannes Kohr (Christopher) K61, and have strong intermittent
GAS from accepting my first teacher's view, "Everybody needs two." I don't buy anything without consulting the forums and come here almost daily to connect with the wisdom and quirky insanity at large.

 

[drurb]

Started about 40 years ago on a Kay C-1. Around the time I discovered this forum, I had an imported hybrid from Upton. Traded it back to them along with my Kay and a bit of cash for a nice imported carved bass. That went back to them when I picked up my Concert from them.

While I had the hybrid and the Kay, I ended up not ever playing the Kay. I was hooked by the carved top. Every step up has really brought more joy to my playing. I don't ever need to upgrade again. The bass I have now is far better than I am. Now, "want" is another thing entirely.

 

[jdepriest]

I started playing EB in the early 80's. I played various school owned UB's in high school and college. I bought a Engelhardt C1 around 1995-96. It was an OK bass till I took it to Jim Ferguson in Nashville. If you live anywhere near there take your basses to him for repair or set up work. When I got it back it had a HUGH sound. I wanted to upgrade for awhile and was in the market for a fully carved but I couldn't find one that could project and was as playable as my C1 in the $5000 price range. About 4 years ago I took a road trip to the Bass Cellar in Cincinnati. I played every bass in the shop in my price range and a few way outside of it. I kept avoiding the Shen's because I had heard some on here say they were a "CCB". They finally got me to try a Shen SB200 Rogeri and it was incredibly. I played a few other basses and finally bought the Shen and haven't regretted it at all. I still have the Engelhardt. I use it to for the occasional outdoor gig and rent it to students.

 

[eerbrev]

When I started here I had a little German bass which I bought in my second year of playing (also my second year of college). I'd been an electric player in high school and decided to go to music school. I upgraded 1.5 years ago to an Upton Concert bass, Opus 74, with a rosewood strip along the back (referred to among friends as the "racing stripe"). Most worthwhile purchase i've ever made. I'm heading into master's auditions now, and all I get is compliments on the sound.

I've also got a ccb that I jam around on, tuned in 5ths. it's a good time, and every time it gets some damage I just fix it myslf (with assistance from my long suffering father! )

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I was playing an old American Standard that was so ugly it won an "Ugly Bass" contest here on TB. I upgraded to a carved Czech bass a year or so later, and then to my current bass a few years after that.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

I still dig your old fugly bass. I wonder where it is now.

In 2000 I was playing a very small bass - a guitar actually. Had no idea what the bass world was like. I got hooked in 2004 with a Christopher Bussetto Hybrid. Then switched to the cleve in 2009.

 

[Jake deVilliers]

By the way, the second response to the very first thread was GET A TEACHER. Caps and all.

Fantastic! Where are the bumper stickers?

 

[Sam Sherry]

Still playing the same twelve notes . . .

Still playing out of tune . . .

Still glad to see folks who were teaching me when I first landed here: Durrll, Dead Pukespray, Hig Donhig, TeeBall, Kaszcktrwqghjmnb . . . and you. It's amazing how many great people still hang here and how strong the place has come since then.

6,666 may be a dubious honor but it's all we get. Now get back to practicing, you!

 

[fdeck]

I was given a battered Kay in pieces, and restored it myself in 1982. That bass got me through lessons in college (non music major) and many subsequent jazz gigs. It probably served just fine as a work horse on the bandstand, but...

My kids started string lessons and I decided to get my arco back in business. That quickly led to a new bow, and eventually to a new bass. I didn't really "need" it for gigging, but definitely for the enjoyment of playing at home.

 

[El Thumpo]

Thanks to all for their initiation stories. Keep 'em coming!

Looks like it's time to tell mine. Back in the 90s, I lived in Manhattan. One day when visiting Brooklyn I came across a yard sale. In the back, obscured by other offerings, was the neck and body of a bass.

It was painted black, with a Lynrd Skynrd sticker where the bridge should be. No tuners, no strings. The person selling it told me he was about to turn it into a planter. I bought it for 50 bucks, and took it on the subway home.

Took off the sticker, stripped off the paint. It was a battered '38 Kay, I learned, top-of-the-line in its day, with real purfling and ebony fingerboard. But I didn't have the funds to fix it up, so I stuck it in a closet and pretty much forgot about it. When I moved to Northern California a few years later, I forgot about the closet entirely--didn't take a single item from it with me, and didn't realize it until it was too late.

Fast forward several years. I get a call from my old neighbor back in New York City. Turns out her job had relocated her to California as well. And since her company was paying for the movers and there was room on the truck, she'd impulsively opened my old storage closet and pulled out the biggest thing she could find. My bass had followed me across the continent, and did I want it?

This, I realized, was fate. Took it to a Bay Area luthier, got it into playable shape, and realized I'd found my instrument.

 

[Steve Killingsworth]

This site's been pretty good to me. I was trying to figure things out on an Englehardt Swingmaster when I found this place. Through TB I got my New Standard in 2004 and stopped lusting after other basses after that. TB enabled me to connect with a couple guys who taught me a lot in a few lessons. It helped me make the acquaintance of some helpful folks. Its turned me on to some great music and players. Its also been provided some good entertainment. I think about the Brandon kid who kept things stirred up for a while, or maybe the guy who was trying to sell George Mraz's old strings. I remember that ugly bass contest too--which one had that purple fungus on it? All the fuquaisms from the early days. I still remember when Paul Warburton came rolling in and Ken Smith went storming out. Lots of interesting folks have come and gone.

All in all its been a pretty good place to hang out.

 

[Jake deVilliers]

Thanks to all for their initiation stories. Keep 'em coming!

Looks like it's time to tell mine. Back in the 90s, I lived in Manhattan. One day when visiting Brooklyn I came across a yard sale. In the back, obscured by other offerings, was the neck and body of a bass.

It was painted black, with a Lynrd Skynrd sticker where the bridge should be. No tuners, no strings. The person selling it told me he was about to turn it into a planter. I bought it for 50 bucks, and took it on the subway home.

Took off the sticker, stripped off the paint. It was a battered '38 Kay, I learned, top-of-the-line in its day, with real purfling and ebony fingerboard. But I didn't have the funds to fix it up, so I stuck it in a closet and pretty much forgot about it. When I moved to Northern California a few years later, I forgot about the closet entirely--didn't take a single item from it with me, and didn't realize it until it was too late.

Fast forward several years. I get a call from my old neighbor back in New York City. Turns out her job had relocated her to California as well. And since her company was paying for the movers and there was room on the truck, she'd impulsively opened my old storage closet and pulled out the biggest thing she could find. My bass had followed me across the continent, and did I want it?

This, I realized, was fate. Took it to a Bay Area luthier, got it into playable shape, and realized I'd found my instrument.

That's an amazing story! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I remember that ugly bass contest too--which one had that purple fungus on it?

Don's had the purple fungus mushroom, mine had the green pukespray.

All in all its been a pretty good place to hang out.

Agreed. It's not perfect, and the rules paul set in place to include more folks take some of the fun out it for others, but it still has its moment.

That's an amazing story! Thanks for sharing.

+1

 

[Anonymatt]

Jsn had a nice ass story! That's one for the NPR or something, amiright?

I lurked on the db forums for about a year before I finally got a doublebass. Now it's been a little over two years and I feel that it's the most significant thing to ever happen to me, apart from meeting the longtime love of my life.

I went over to a building about a block away from my work in the West Village to get my Eberle. The guy was asking $800 for the bass and a Glasser, but I mistook his offer for another ad and gave him $1000. I would've never figured it out, but he was honest about it.

Gosh, I'm young enough that half the crap I ever learned about anything came off the internet. At least I learned to tie a tie from my dad, unlike kids nowadays...

 

[statsc]

I started playing bluegrass in W. Virginia in 1975 on an old Kay. At my first gig (which was also the first time I played UB!) the bridge fell over, taking the soundpost with it. In 1980 I bought a 200+ year old German flatback with 1/4" cracks all over it filled with epoxy for $1000 from a paraplegic bluegrass bass player who said it was getting too fragile to strap to the top of his car! Chuck Traeger completely overhauled it for me for $1500. Several years later George Mraz offered me his bass plus $$ for it, but I declined. Three years ago I bought a used Czech Ease from David Gage for travel, and for those rainy gigs with challenging load-ins. The German flatback is still my main axe and going strong, having survived many freezing VT winters and humid summers and innumerable gigs. I'll never dance with another!