Double Bass A extension!

[Mark_T]

Last night I went to hear the Anthony Marwood and the BSO play Thomas Adès's violin concerto. They used a reduced orchestra with three double basses. Ed Barker played, of course. Dennis Roy played next to him with a 5-string set up with an A extension on the B string.

Sure enough, part way into the second movement, there was a loud (well, mf), low drone and I could see that it was Dennis with the gates all the way open on that low string.

Pretty cool.

 

[chris1125]

Wouldn't it be a g extension? I've always dreamed of something like this...

 

[Mark_T]

Good point - it was only an A, though. This was similar to one of the D extensions that folks have designed for their basses. If you search around on the forums, you'll find some photographs. The wood extended from the nut back to the scroll, but rather than drilling down through the scroll, the string takes a roughly 90 degree bend down towards the tuner about halfway along.

 

[Mark_T]

It appears Dennis has photos of this contraption on his website:

Invalid Link Removed

 

[chris1125]

UOTE=mjt0229;10654562]It appears Dennis has photos of this contraption on his website:

Invalid Link Removed[/QUOTE]

Is that using a low b string? It appears that the string is just a bit to short

 

[Stick_Player]

I can do this with my Moog T3 pedals.

 

[eerbrev]

UOTE=mjt0229;10654562]It appears Dennis has photos of this contraption on his website:

Invalid Link Removed

Is that using a low b string? It appears that the string is just a bit to short [/QUOTE]

It is just a low B string, but it's not too short. if you make the image larger you can see the little nut it passes over on the extension is just in front of the winding. good luck finding a low A extension string (though I have heard of a custom made Ab extension string made for a 5ths tuning player who didn't want to take the extension off his bass!

eerbrev