Well, there's no call for this big old basses around here, sir. We can sell you a nice Korean made guitar though...
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Double Bass Inexpensive Basses in U.K?
- Thread starter junglejim
- Start date
droo said:
I strongly recommend to visit Peter Tyler to everybody is looking for a DB in England (and not only). I bought my French bass from him, brought it to Italy, and couldn't be happier. I also bought two other basses from him in the past, that then were sold afterwards.
He's a very kind guy, and I believe he also offers one month free trial period. He generally has a good stock, in every price range. What I often found not great in his basses is just the setup thing...but it's so up to personal taste
I try to visit Peter once a year, when it happens to me to get to London. It's always a pleasant trip.
Good luck!
I feel obliged to point out though, that he is not by any stretch of the imagination, based in London!!
Bruce Lindfield said:I feel obliged to point out though, that he is not by any stretch of the imagination, based in London!!
Sorry Bruce, you're right. But I think 1 hour of train from central London is nothing if you're hunting for your everyday work companion
ciao, Stef
basstef said:Sorry Bruce, you're right. But I think 1 hour of train from central London is nothing if you're hunting for your everyday work companion
ciao, Stef
Of course you're right - but I was just pointing out how strange and different the DB-buying world seems, after having played BG for 20 years or so...
It's like you have to enter the realms of an arcane secret society....
Rather than just walking into a shop!!
Doug Ring said:
No, you have to go the lair of a wise sage, schooled in the mystic arts of Ye Olde Contrabasse and he will assess your readiness to be set on the path of spiritual enlightenment...
And he's never heard of interest-free credit!!
basstef said:I strongly recommend to visit Peter Tyler to everybody is looking for a DB in England (and not only). I bought my French bass from him, brought it to Italy, and couldn't be happier. I also bought two other basses from him in the past, that then were sold afterwards.
He's a very kind guy, and I believe he also offers one month free trial period. He generally has a good stock, in every price range. What I often found not great in his basses is just the setup thing...but it's so up to personal taste
I try to visit Peter once a year, when it happens to me to get to London. It's always a pleasant trip.
Good luck!
Have you got an email address for this guy? I on the hunt for some good advice, and a nice new bass.
Craken said:Have you got an email address for this guy? I on the hunt for some good advice, and a nice new bass.
You could PM basissten, who has corresponded with him..?
I thought I'd revive this thread, having read through quite a lot of threads on the forum, because my needs are fairly similar to the first poster's. I'm looking a little lower - up to around £1000, really, as it's my first double bass and my 6th instrument (though I hope it'll become my first or second). I realise that I'm not going to get a wondrous instrument for this price, and I'm expecting a few replies along the lines of "if that's all you can spend, wait until you can spend more"; but it's really the most I can afford to put in now or in the forseeable future (it's only this much due to unexpected Christmas generosity from my parents). I do get the impression there are some not-entirely-horrid options in my price range, though.
I'm intending to at least initially teach myself, though I'll discuss it with any local double bassists I can track down and will certainly consider lessons (they'd be my first formal lessons since piano when I was 10!); with a view to playing primarily jazz, folk and rock; possibly stretching as far as pit bands for musicals (something I've done before on bass guitar) but probably not to classical to any significant degree. One of my concerns is that, in folk groups, I may on occasion want to play in places like cold, muddy fields; so resilience is a factor, as is unamplified volume; the combination of which is inclining me towards a hybrid.
Options I'm aware of online:
- Any of Stentor's Chinese range: some people on this thread have said positive things about the Conservatoire, which I see signetmusic.com have available for £910. They say "A set up charge may be applicable", which is promising, but I don't know whether this actually means they can offer a full set up or if it just means they'll put the strings on for me.
- Strunals from Thomann (as far as I know the only people supplying Strunals to the UK); the this thread, which I believe from other threads to be a Strunal, is a hybrid for just under £750. Presumably in complete factory condition, requiring substantial attention from a luthier.
- Gligas from Elida - though according to this thread they start at £1000 for even their lowest-end laminate.
- Carlo Giordano's rockabilly bass - a long shot, and I'd expected to reject this out of hand due to the low price, but a lot of people on http://www.rockabillybass.com/ seem to consider them good, and Cremona House (Invalid Link Removed), which seems to be one of the only online places offering anything resembling setup, offers it as their only sub-£1000 bass - £450 fully set-up - so it's maintaining a vague presence in the back of my mind.
I'm expecting that anything I order long-distance, particularly the Strunal, I'll need to get set up locally, and ideally I'd buy, perhaps second-hand, from a specialist dealer or luthier in person. I'm having immense trouble finding one, though. I'm in Durham, in North-East England; the nearest place that I can find with a decent range of basses is Turners in Nottingham (a mere three hours' drive), but even they only really seem to have about one bass (a Gewa) under £2000. Newcastle Music has a Zeller and the Stentor Student, but I haven't heard especially great things about either and their website suggests they don't do particularly extensive setup. I plan to contact Peter Tyler for a stock list, but Maidenhead really is a very long way away; I'd only really want to go all that way for reasonable confidence of leaving with a bass.
It really does seem to be far harder to buy basses in England than in the US - if I was in America I'd most likely be off to Upton (Hawkes laminate $1800 = £923), but finding anywhere with even a comparable range, let alone comparable prices, in England seems extremely difficult. I had considered importing, but after you add 3.5% import duty, 17.5% VAT, customs charge, shipping... the prices look rather less attractive.
So, any thoughts on options I've identified or haven't? Many thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer!
I'm intending to at least initially teach myself, though I'll discuss it with any local double bassists I can track down and will certainly consider lessons (they'd be my first formal lessons since piano when I was 10!); with a view to playing primarily jazz, folk and rock; possibly stretching as far as pit bands for musicals (something I've done before on bass guitar) but probably not to classical to any significant degree. One of my concerns is that, in folk groups, I may on occasion want to play in places like cold, muddy fields; so resilience is a factor, as is unamplified volume; the combination of which is inclining me towards a hybrid.
Options I'm aware of online:
- Any of Stentor's Chinese range: some people on this thread have said positive things about the Conservatoire, which I see signetmusic.com have available for £910. They say "A set up charge may be applicable", which is promising, but I don't know whether this actually means they can offer a full set up or if it just means they'll put the strings on for me.
- Strunals from Thomann (as far as I know the only people supplying Strunals to the UK); the this thread, which I believe from other threads to be a Strunal, is a hybrid for just under £750. Presumably in complete factory condition, requiring substantial attention from a luthier.
- Gligas from Elida - though according to this thread they start at £1000 for even their lowest-end laminate.
- Carlo Giordano's rockabilly bass - a long shot, and I'd expected to reject this out of hand due to the low price, but a lot of people on http://www.rockabillybass.com/ seem to consider them good, and Cremona House (Invalid Link Removed), which seems to be one of the only online places offering anything resembling setup, offers it as their only sub-£1000 bass - £450 fully set-up - so it's maintaining a vague presence in the back of my mind.
I'm expecting that anything I order long-distance, particularly the Strunal, I'll need to get set up locally, and ideally I'd buy, perhaps second-hand, from a specialist dealer or luthier in person. I'm having immense trouble finding one, though. I'm in Durham, in North-East England; the nearest place that I can find with a decent range of basses is Turners in Nottingham (a mere three hours' drive), but even they only really seem to have about one bass (a Gewa) under £2000. Newcastle Music has a Zeller and the Stentor Student, but I haven't heard especially great things about either and their website suggests they don't do particularly extensive setup. I plan to contact Peter Tyler for a stock list, but Maidenhead really is a very long way away; I'd only really want to go all that way for reasonable confidence of leaving with a bass.
It really does seem to be far harder to buy basses in England than in the US - if I was in America I'd most likely be off to Upton (Hawkes laminate $1800 = £923), but finding anywhere with even a comparable range, let alone comparable prices, in England seems extremely difficult. I had considered importing, but after you add 3.5% import duty, 17.5% VAT, customs charge, shipping... the prices look rather less attractive.
So, any thoughts on options I've identified or haven't? Many thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer!
Your last few paragraphs, mirror my experience exactly - so it is much harder to get a decent cheap DB in England than the US - I was searching for 2-3 years and initially settled on an EUB as they were readily available and I could actually get to try several of them, easily!
But I ended up with a Stentor (Elysia - but Conservatoires seem to be pretty good as well - I tried Olie's who posts here occasionally) as the best option - everything else under about £2,500 - £5,000 I tried, just sounded horrible to me and I really didn't want to buy an instrument that I have never played before....so that ruled out Thomann.
It's hard!
But I ended up with a Stentor (Elysia - but Conservatoires seem to be pretty good as well - I tried Olie's who posts here occasionally) as the best option - everything else under about £2,500 - £5,000 I tried, just sounded horrible to me and I really didn't want to buy an instrument that I have never played before....so that ruled out Thomann.
It's hard!
I've had 2 excellent luthiers and 2 world class bassists (Steve Berry and Steve Watts) agree that the Stentor Conservetoire is suprisingly nice for the money.
If you want to hear me playing one, you can on Link Removed
If you want to hear me playing one, you can on Link Removed
oliebrice said:
Yes, I saw your comments earlier in the thread. Where did you buy it and get it set up? And where can one find these world class luthiers? It does seem to be a good option, though after strings and setup it's likely to hit the very top of my price range. One concern is that it's fully-carved; because I'm likely to be subjecting it to relative extremes of temperature, I'd thought that a good laminate or hybrid might be better for me than a fully-carved bass of a similar price. On the other hand, I seem to remember comments from Ken Smith elsewhere indicating that the top is by far the most likely part of the bass to crack, so a hybrid isn't significantly tougher than a fully-carved; and laminates seem to be generally agreed to suffer on tone and volume.
Brian: As a complete beginner, I'm not sure that trying basses out would give me *that* much information; so, while it would obviously be nice, really good advice is probably more important to me at this stage.
Actually Olie said world class players - not luthiers!!
I saw Steve Watts again last Friday playing with Martin Speake's quartet on their European tour - great playing!
If you want to check out Steve's playing - there is some lovely DB on the soundtrack to the film "Mirror Mask" - which is well worth buying on DVD!!
Invalid Link Removed
Steve told me he has been working on two more films since then - one with Michael Caine and another about Real Madrid - I think he can safely be called a world-class DB player!!
I saw Steve Watts again last Friday playing with Martin Speake's quartet on their European tour - great playing!
If you want to check out Steve's playing - there is some lovely DB on the soundtrack to the film "Mirror Mask" - which is well worth buying on DVD!!
Invalid Link Removed
Steve told me he has been working on two more films since then - one with Michael Caine and another about Real Madrid - I think he can safely be called a world-class DB player!!
Bruce Lindfield said:Actually Olie said world class players - not luthiers!!
Oops, that was a misquote - but he did also say "2 excellent luthiers". If there is such a thing even vaguely near Northern England, I want to know about it!
I bought it from Forsyths in Manchester, had it set up (plane fingerboard, new endpin) by George Stepani, also in Manchester, and then recently had more extensive work done (new bridge & soundpost, repair open seam) by John Sydenham in Bruton (south west england).
I've seen some with a horrible metal tail-piece, which seems to adversley affect the sound as well as looking nasty. Mine has a nice ebony one.
I've seen some with a horrible metal tail-piece, which seems to adversley affect the sound as well as looking nasty. Mine has a nice ebony one.
