Double Bass Bass Horrors - A lament for Bijoux

[arto alho]

My gig bass also has had an accidental neck amputation,
along with a crack from the neck block down to the upper eye of the f-hole. That wasn´t funny, but now I remember one funny incident about the repair process:

when my daughter was around 2 years, she was somehow convinced that there was a fish living inside my bass ( why a fish, never got any explanation ). The bass was standing in a corner of our living room, and one night I caught her feeding crackers to the fish through the f-hole....

Later when the top was popped for repairs, there were still some crunches inside.

R2

 

[John Sprague]

My wife's late father was playing a wedding gig once, when a sudden brawl made its way thru his bass, blasting it into pieces.

The bass went away to a luthier for a couple of years, and it was a very special Xmas for her family when her brother walked the bass down the stairs, catching their father by complete surprise.

 

[a. meyer]

Apocryphal, but a good story: I know a guy with an old French bass, the top of which has dozens of cracks. Clearly, something very bad happened to the instrument at some point. The story he heard about it was that it was once played in the Ice Capades orchestra pit, and one day a skater lost it and sailed into the pit, skates first, and went straight through the bass! He didn't say if the bass was being operated at the time.

 

[Bijoux]

Here is an old one. Back in 1991 when I was 20 I started taking lessons from a couple of guys the Played for the Orchestra in Caracas-Venezuela where I was living at the time. Anyway, I am not proud of this, but I was practicing in the roof of my buiding and I had a borrowed French bow on the music stand, when suddently a wind blew it off the stand and the bow broke at the tip. Anyway I freaked out, the bass and the bow belonged to the Orchestra and it was expensive stuff, I remember the bow alone cost about $1000. Anyway, I noticed that the break was clean, and I thought I might try to glue it. Well, I glued it back together with super glue, and when I looked back at it, I myself couldn't tell where it had been broken. I kind of still feel bad about it sometimes, but on the other hand they were also spending thousands of dollars in instruments and such, although I never told my teacher, I sometimes wonder if he would even care.

 

[Paul Warburton]

Bijoux, I had to go over to Bob Ross' house yesterday because he had a French bass that I wanted to see. I couldn't help but seeing your bass. I've seen alot worse!
I think our boy Bob will bring it through with no problems. Of course the obvious thing is will the repair bill come anywhere near the value of the bass. If you love the sound of this bass, that makes it priceless. Unfortunately for you, you'll have to pay to find out. I remember looking at, and playing this bass at your house a few years back, when you were trying to sell your basses. I thought of buying this one...remember?
Anyway, just wanted to wish you luck and you, of course, know it couldn't be in better hands!
Keep us posted.....

 

[Bobaree]

This isn't so much a horror story as some of the ones I've read here but a story none the less. I go to my teacher's house one day and his bass(which was resting on the floor) had bite marks all around the lower bouts. I asked him what happened, he starts laughing pointing to his two young daughters and says " ever since they started teething they won't stop chewing on the bass"!

 

[Bijoux]

. If you love the sound of this bass, that makes it priceless. Unfortunately for you, you'll have to pay to find out.

Paul, thanks for your message, and yes that bass did have a great sound, very even in all ranges, and great projection. Since the accident, I must have played about 12 basses of equal or lesser value, and the treth is that is gonna be hard to let that one go. Although, now I am waiting on the insurance company to tell how much money they are going to give me, and there is even the possiblity of Bob Ross carving a new top! and that would be fun. Also, we were talking last night, and depending on how much money they give me, it would also make sense to pay you visit. I haven't done that yet because I don't wanna go bass crazy!