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Double Bass German Cut away spotted

Paul Warburton

Paul Warburton

In Memoriam
Aug 17, 2003
9,424
663
84
Denver, Co.
#1
Watching the CBS Early Show this morning, jazz singer Tierney Sutton and her back-up trio did some nice stuff!
Of course, checking out the bass player right away, I was shocked to see him playing a German cut-away. Naturally they didn't introduce the section, so I have no idea who the players were, but they all sounded really nice!
Rather than go through repeating alot of stuff about German cut-away basses, I thought i'd just bring it up because it seems we have a whole slew of newer members as well as younger newbies who may have never seen or heard of these. They are mostly German basses made in the 40s/50s that, on the basses treble upper bout there is a cut-away pretty much like a cut-away guitar. The Framus Company made a bunch of these. They felt very uncomfortable to me because of the obvious missing bout designed to make the upper positions more accessable.
I'll look for some pictures and if you're really interested, search under German cutaways. And, to further impress and spike your curiousity, this guy had a fingered C extension on his axe! :confused:
 
#3
Paul Warburton said:
Watching the CBS Early Show this morning, jazz singer Tierney Sutton and her back-up trio did some nice stuff!
Of course, checking out the bass player right away, I was shocked to see him playing a German cut-away. Naturally they didn't introduce the section, so I have no idea who the players were, but they all sounded really nice!
Click to expand...
If that was Tierney's regular rhythm section, that would be Trey Henry on bass. I've seen a photo on Tierney's website that show Trey playing one of the David Gage basses with the lower section of the body (from just below the center bout) cut away. I'll see if I can get Tierney to send me Trey's email address so I can find out some more about this cut-away.
 
#4
I live in Switzerland, but i often travel to Germany and to Scandinavia where i saw and played a bunch of these old Framus cutaways....it could be the set-up, but my Kay sounded way better
(i know our Paul is not really a Kay fan)and the construction of these basses always seemed really fragile...but of course, i know i have a Kay that sounds really good for a Kay( luthiers and players tell me).
Besides that, with a Framus i always got the feeling i was playing a big Gibson guitar :p
 
#5
Bob Branstetter said:
If that was Tierney's regular rhythm section, that would be Trey Henry on bass. I've seen a photo on Tierney's website that show Trey playing one of the David Gage basses with the lower section of the body (from just below the center bout) cut away. I'll see if I can get Tierney to send me Trey's email address so I can find out some more about this cut-away.
Click to expand...

Bob, I checked Tierney's site and there was another bass player in there besides Trey named Kevin Art. I couldn't see if he was playing the cut-away because of the angle in the picture, but he did have an extension. Where do you know these people from Bob? Trey's little bass of Gage's looks pretty out.
By the way guys, Our Branstetter is going in for a knee replacement on Monday that'll include a bunch of good drugs, but unfortunately, several days in the hospital and some intensive therapy for many weeks after. Good luck Bob and we'll be thinking about you, and hoping they operate on the right knee or left one....or, I guess it doesn't matter since you're going to have both done eventually, right?
Anyway good luck Man! :bawl:
 
#6
Paul Warburton said:
Bob, I checked Tierney's site and there was another bass player in there besides Trey named Kevin Art. I couldn't see if he was playing the cut-away because of the angle in the picture, but he did have an extension. Where do you know these people from Bob? Trey's little bass of Gage's looks pretty out.
By the way guys, Our Branstetter is going in for a knee replacement on Monday that'll include a bunch of good drugs, but unfortunately, several days in the hospital and some intensive therapy for many weeks after. Good luck Bob and we'll be thinking about you, and hoping they operate on the right knee or left one....or, I guess it doesn't matter since you're going to have both done eventually, right?
Anyway good luck Man! :bawl:
Click to expand...
Tierney has been one of my favorite singers for years. When she came into our area for series of concerts, I got a chance to hang with her. She refers to me as her official Kansas/Missouri "Loose Canon."

About the knee. It's the left one and I hope I don't ever have to do this to the right one. It took me too long to get up the courage for this one.
 
#7
basscrazy72 said:
I live in Switzerland, but i often travel to Germany and to Scandinavia where i saw and played a bunch of these old Framus cutaways....it could be the set-up, but my Kay sounded way better
(i know our Paul is not really a Kay fan)and the construction of these basses always seemed really fragile...but of course, i know i have a Kay that sounds really good for a Kay( luthiers and players tell me).
Besides that, with a Framus i always got the feeling i was playing a big Gibson guitar :p
Click to expand...

As I remember, the cutaways that I ran into were not all Framus' and they were carved. basscrazy, were the Framus' you're talking about carved or laminated, or a little of both?
I agree 100% on the feel of those basses. They made me feel really insecure with the thought of venturing up into the thumb positions, and having everything just fall apart. No support for your wrist and no neck to grab....Argggg!!
By the way, I saw a picture of Mingus playing a Framus...not a cutaway, but it was a Framus. One of the ones with the metal bridges!
 
#9
DonZ said:
are the regular framus basses any good ?
Click to expand...

I don't know, you know how it is....The Mingus picture stymied me...That cat would never do anything he didn't want to do. The other ones were built ok..you can see even the brown Framus looks ok without the cutaway. It has outside linings. That makes them at least sturdy.( Linings are the extra piece of wood that travels around the edges of the ribs on both edges, to give more gluing surface for the top and back plates) All basses have inside linings and some have outside too. Most makers don't like em because they are ugly. I don't like them either, but they work for sturdiness. Obviously there were some good sounding ones....the cat I saw on TV sounded real nice.( this was not absolutely a Framus anyway )
I think, if you got rid of the metal bridges on the regular Framus' they were good and bad, like any bass.
 
#12
Hey Paul, the Framus i played were mostly plywood, but i remember at least one carved, well, like i told you before, it could be due to a poor set up, but i was not very impressed by none, and really strange feeling to play those cutaway ... what i remember was that the construction seemed really poor, at least some of them looked pretty fragile...
And now for our luthier Bob, all the best for your knee, take care and come back soon man!
 
#14
Josh McNutt said:
From reading some biographies, I think Mingus got a Framus EUB free at some point from the company and later tried to get another when he couldn't afford a bass or something.
Click to expand...


Josh, why do you say Framus EUB.? The Framus I remember was totally acoustical...no pick-up. They did have those awful metal bridges...For the life of me, I can't remember if they made regular patterned basses. I mean other than the cut-aways. I'm pretty sure they did.
 
#15
Paul Warburton said:
... I can't remember if they made regular patterned basses. I mean other than the cut-aways. I'm pretty sure they did.
Click to expand...

In the late '70's a friend of mine had a Framus plywood- round back, Gamba corners, no cutaway. Most remarkable thing about it was it had no scroll. Above the pegbox there was a flat rectangular area on the same plane as the top. Bob B. has seen these too.
With gut strings the sound was unremarkable, as I recall.
 
#16
The cutaway bass in Bob Gollihur´s screensaver is mine, BTW, made by Bjärton in Sweden ca 1955 (they even made Ray Brown endorse it!). I bought mine very much for the look (dark sunburst finish, white binding) and I got it for a steal, knowing I can sell it at twice that price.

The Japanese Chaki Co. still makes cutaway double basses (no website that I know of), and I have seen a store here in Sweden selling a black cutaway bass for ca USD1,000 - probably a Chinese bass, I haven´t tried it. You can see it at http://www.jam.se click on "Basar - akustiska" in the left frame and scroll down a bit.

Mikael
 

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