Double Bass Another “is this worth looking at?” thread.

[Aragorn35016]

So got the green light from my wife that I can start looking at carved basses. My market place yielded this bass 2 hours south of me in Tuscaloosa. Called the gentleman who turns out is has been a luthier and bow maker for 60 years. He said he got it from someone named Lawrence Lemay (I assume thats a player) many years ago and he’s bought and sold it a couple of times through the years and kept it up. (He actually said every one he knows of that owned it is dead ). It has a made in Prague label said it’s around 100 years old has a neck block, but was originally a 3 string converted to a 4. He said he added a riser to the saddle, because he said that older 3 string basses can’t handle the tension of 4 strings on the top. Would this be something worth going to look at? I wish I could have gotten better pics, but from my conversations this gentleman is of a generation that does not seem to enjoy or is great at handling digital media .

 

[LouisF]

Lawrence Lamay was a MAJOR bass and bow builder:

Maker Profile - Tarisio
https://www.bassviolinshop.com/product-page/lawrence-lamay-ca-1970
The Bassment - Dennis Roy, Bass Sales & Repair - Bows For Sale - Lawrence LaMay

Even if the bass wasn't made by Lamay, if it went through his hands it is pretty solid. GO NOW!!

 

[jmpiwonka]

That is one heck of a raised saddle!!!

 

[Keith Rawlings]

Looks like a nice bass. I love the dark stain

 

[TroyK]

Is it worth it? I don't know...everyone who owns it dies? Like if you watch that VHS tape in The Ring?

I do like the dark stain.

 

[Aragorn35016]

Lawrence Lamay was a MAJOR bass and bow builder:

Maker Profile - Tarisio
https://www.bassviolinshop.com/product-page/lawrence-lamay-ca-1970
The Bassment - Dennis Roy, Bass Sales & Repair - Bows For Sale - Lawrence LaMay

Even if the bass wasn't made by Lamay, if it went through his hands it is pretty solid. GO NOW!!

G

Is it worth it? I don't know...everyone who owns it dies? Like if you watch that VHS tape in The Ring?

I do like the dark stain.

I said the same thing to the seller, he assured me they all died of old age

The only thing throwing me is that riser on the saddle to raise the tail piece. That’s an odd looking addition

 

[mdcbass]

That is one heck of a raised saddle!!!

How much is too much saddle?

 

[JBarz]

There’s something distinctly thrilling about “the hunt”, isn’t there? It reminds me of being single in my youth, wondering if every girl to round the corner might be “the one”.

Next time I buy a bass, though, I’m going to go to somewhere like Upton or Bass Cellar with $30k in my pocket and all the time in the world to try everything out. I’ve never actually bought one like that. Meanwhile, next time I go shopping for a wife …

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

There’s also a lot to be said for “love the one you’re with”. I’ve often said that whenever my bass doesn’t give me what I was looking for, I blame the player. In the end, a well set up bass is what we all need at the most basic level. And there’s a certain beauty in a long term relationship that simplifies things.

I just celebrated 18 years with my 3rd bass, and 24 years with my second wife. Both are keepers, and when the road gets bumpy, experience tells me that my first glance should be in the mirror.

 

[Aragorn35016]

My new Standards not going anywhere! I still love it, even though I struggle with the shoulders in thumb position. I’m also not committed to buying this bass (though I might) I also want to try a carved bass just to see what the fuss is all about and if I’m ready for one, as I do play a lot of arco.

 

[TroyK]

Chris is right, of course. I've had my bass for about 20 years and as much as she is not perfect, either am I and she feels like home. Generally speaking, whenever I play someone else's bass, whether I enjoy it or not, I find myself looking forward to getting back to home-bass.

That said, my bass has issues with tension, not compensated as much as the one you're looking it, but issues. If I were shopping for another bass, that would be a deal breaker for me. It just gets in the way of too much and I've spend too much time working around that.

 

[Aragorn35016]

I’m kind of talking myself out of it this morning. I don’t know if it’s worth wasting 4 hours of a day to look at 1 bass, especially if it turned into a project bass. I need to keep chugging away with the great bass I have and save the money.

 

[Bruce Calin]

I've had the same main bass since 1964. It was a project instrument when I found it but has been fine since then when it was restored. The luthier who did the work put a raised saddle on because he maintained that it would be better for steel strings, which I believe was the thinking at the time. It was removed years ago, with no ill effects I can detect.

 

[Sam Sherry]

It has a made in Prague label said it’s around 100 years old has a neck block, but was originally a 3 string converted to a 4.

Three-stringers would usually be 50+ years older than that.
Czech basses with no outside lining would usually by VERY old.

 

[Bruce Calin]

Photos of Bottesini show his Testore bass with three strings, but later ones show it with four. It would be interesting to know what else if anything structural was done to the instrument. A bass of that quality and pedigree would have had the best treatment possible, I would assume. I also like to imagine how these old instruments have traveled to get to some of the places they have ended up. A mentor of mine years ago had a story of a Gagliano(sp?) bass that was owned at one time by a player in Waverly, Ne.

 

[Mark_T]

How much is too much saddle?

Is that Jed Kriegel's work? It looks a lot like the one he built for my Arvi, down to the spliced tailgut.

 

[SAlcott]

The raised saddle is easily removed and replaced by any luthier.
.

 

[Bruce Calin]

The raised saddle is easily removed and replaced by any luthier.
.

I still have mine that I took off many years ago when I felt that the strings I was using were okay as far as pressure on the top. I'm occasionally tempted to try it again but talk myself out of it.

 

[mdcbass]

Is that Jed Kriegel's work? It looks a lot like the one he built for my Arvi, down to the spliced tailgut.

Yes, it is. He did the raised saddle because the top is thin. So is my hair, but no help with that.

 

[BassFalcon]

Photos of Bottesini show his Testore bass with three strings, but later ones show it with four. It would be interesting to know what else if anything structural was done to the instrument. A bass of that quality and pedigree would have had the best treatment possible, I would assume. I also like to imagine how these old instruments have traveled to get to some of the places they have ended up. A mentor of mine years ago had a story of a Gagliano(sp?) bass that was owned at one time by a player in Waverly, Ne.

I believe that bass resides atop a staircase in a non-descript monestary, I believe near Venice. That info is in a thread around here somewhere. Someone was gonna be traveling in that vicinity and asked about it. I recently saw a YouTube vid of an interview with the Principal of I wanna say Oslo Symphony who plays another priceless bass, I forget the maker, but it was the oldest bass I’d ever heard of. He tells how it was in New York playing jazz, then survived the blitz in London, and made it to him. I’ll post it if I can find it