I'm glad you are putting the Ross-W 5er to work. It was an impressive bass. I just wasn't man enough to carry it around everyday!! 
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Double Bass Best modern five string maker
- Thread starter Calvin Marks
- Start date
This to me is modern playing at its finest!! So wonderful to hear your music and your spirit Paul!!
I guess Stefan Krattenmacher knows a thing or two about how to build good 5-string basses, too. Double basses - stefan johann krattenmacher
Found myself looking at this thread again and saw this... I was in NC for a festival and took that Martin on trial for a week. Great section bass, I sort of made it work in chamber but for solo playing it wasn't great, all of these characteristics being typical of a five string, but I need something more versatile. It's now about $25k, which was still a bit out of my price range. I wound up choosing to commission a bass from Seth Kimmel, but if someone's looking for a pure section bass, this is a solid choice: big, mature, professional sound, and the dimensions were pretty manageable. Not to mention that the folks over at the Bass Violin Shop are awesome- they have a very impressive inventory, and were very generous with their time and knowledge. Highly recommend everybody check them out if they're in the area.Here's a Tom Martin 5 string just arrived at the BassViolin Shop. Only $28k! Lovely looking bass.
Grand panormo. I like larger basses, and I got a chance to play one of his GrandPa models and fell in love with it. Big yet surprisingly easy to get around, big orchestra sound but without sacrificing the chamber/solo capabilities at all. All of his models are great, though!
Peter Elias was (and maybe still is) making some really nice 5 strings. A couple friends of mine that studied with Joel Quarrington in the 90s ended up with them. I think Joel may have been playing an Elias around that time (but I could be wrong about that). At least one of those two that I’m thinking of was converted to a 4 string somewhere along the way.
Can confirm. Seth is really knowledgeable and is a blast to talk with- there's never a lull in the conversation. I own one of his basses and I've played a handful more and they were all fantastic. He was super patient with me as I agonized over wood choices.
When the time came for my bass to be done, my daughter and I drove down to pick it up and he was extremely gracious and kept both of us entertained. Last year, I brought my bass back for a checkup and my daughter came along again and once again had a lovely time even while we messed around with the bass.
He's relocated since then to a larger workshop just outside of town. I'm hoping to maybe pay another visit sometime soon.
In fact, it was some of your posts that encouraged me to look into commissioning from him in the first place. I saw one of your posts with a video string comparison and was amazed at the sound your bass pushed out; took me on a trip to tone town!
His willingness to share knowledge was very welcoming and he was super nice on the phone. When I told him what sort of sound I was looking for (I said... "best way I can describe it is German!"), he immediately knew exactly what I was looking for, Engelmann spruce top with maple back and sides... and a couple days later I made the decision. I've played very few larger basses that have the level of clarity and chamber/solo capabilities that his GrandPa model has. Bass should be done around the turn of the year... can't wait!
When the time comes, no pictures, no bass. As they say, I don't make the rules.
I sometimes wish I'd gone with Engelmann myself, although my bass is really great as is. I love the purfling he did on the first GrandPa bass. That thing was a stunner, with a 1 piece back. I think it might have been maple from the same tree he used for my bass.
It looks like you're about an 8 hour drive from his workshop. You might consider driving up to get it, if you can get the time away. Eugene is between 6 and 9 hours from me (varies depending on traffic/weather), and I'm glad I went down to see him in person.
Yeah, I plan on driving up. Have a few friends at UOregon so I'll have a place to spend the night hopefully. I'll make a NBD post for sure!
Purely out of interest, how would you describe the issue with solo playing? Was the high end muddy, was it slow to respond or was the tone not ideal?
I'd like to preface this by saying that the Martin for sale at the BVS bass is quite good, and I did come close to purchasing it. It would serve most people really well, but it just doesn't fit my needs at this time.
One of the issues with solo playing is the fact that for 99% of bass playing in general, that B string is just in the way. It's more of a reach to play on the G string... which normally might not be a big deal for some, but when you're a college student working up their Vanhal, Bottesini, Bach dance movements, etc. it becomes much more cumbersome. This wasn't really noticeable until after about three days into the trial, so when I started playing it for a few hours a day basically. Had to take a lot of frequent breaks in practice when working on solo rep, which isn't fun.
Onto the sound. Actually, the solo register wasn't bad at all. It was a little difficult to get it to speak and sing how I wanted up high, but that could be more of a setup/string choice thing. I will say that it did get hard to connect notes together up high how I wanted to as well, and the closer string spacing made stuff like the Bach Allemande from suite 3 a little harder, because it's so easy to accidentally play a different string. Generally though, because five strings are built to be played in orchestras, they have a very thick, bottom heavy sound, which doesn't tend to translate super well into the solo register.
I'd love playing that bass in the section, but as a student, I'm doing a lot of solo and chamber music as well and it just doesn't fit my needs right now. It's interesting how much a player's needs can change over time, isn't it?
I'm no expert and have limited experience here but when getting my sound post adjusted a few years ago, I was asked to try it out.
In one position, the bass got quite growly at the bottom end and I really liked it, but the top end lost power and clarity.
He then moved it again and the bottom end felt tighter and less responsive, but the top end really sung, was strong and clear.
So, perhaps with sound post position there is a trade of, especially with a 5 string where there is more bottom end.
I would like to think that sound post adjustment could bring out the top end for someone intending to focus on solo playing for a while.
I stand to be corrected, but this was my experience.
I tried a compromise, but stuck with the slightly more growly and loose low end for Orchestral work.
In one position, the bass got quite growly at the bottom end and I really liked it, but the top end lost power and clarity.
He then moved it again and the bottom end felt tighter and less responsive, but the top end really sung, was strong and clear.
So, perhaps with sound post position there is a trade of, especially with a 5 string where there is more bottom end.
I would like to think that sound post adjustment could bring out the top end for someone intending to focus on solo playing for a while.
I stand to be corrected, but this was my experience.
I tried a compromise, but stuck with the slightly more growly and loose low end for Orchestral work.
