Double Bass Looping a rope around scroll as a stand

[LowG]

I thought I have seen this practice in a bass shop somewhere once; wherein to store a bass one uses a short loop of thin, soft rope attached securely to the wall. Then the bass scroll is inserted into the loop while the weight of the instrument is still on the endpin. The bass is thus standing almost completely upright against the wall, where the loop only tugs relatively softly against the scroll to keep the instrument from tipping over.

Any horror stories about such a storage technique? Nice that one can keep the endpin out and it sure is inexpensive.

 

[Fretless55]

Honestly I used this method for years when I lived in a tiny NYC apartment!
Of course the anchor point must be quite secure, but otherwise no problems.

 

[robobass]

Sounds medieval.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

I’m not a fan of stressing the neck joint.

 

[Hoyt]

I’m not a fan of any storage method that involves storing the bass vertically because of children and pets.

 

[jj.833]

I used similar technique, only the bass is in the bass stand and the rope is just securing it from random push.
Horror story: when my little son was starting to walk, I forgot to tie the rope one morning ... it was very expensive.
Resolution: did I learn? No. Only I'm very careful not to forget to tie the bass.

 

[LowG]

I’m not a fan of stressing the neck joint.

I was worried more about stressing the scroll, but I guess I should consider all aspects. Role playing the technique with an instrument it's hard to imagine much more stress on the neck joint than would occur while playing the instrument - after all, we must keep it from falling over while we play. But clearly we don't play the instrument 24 hours a day 7 days a week! And while playing there are other parts of the instrument in contact with the body, but all the pushing on the neck to press the strings applies much more pressure than I am finding while experimenting with this storage technique. But there's also leverage to consider... the scroll is rather farther away from the joint than the playing area of the strings.

The way the weight is distributing it's as if a rather gentle push is being applied to the narrow part of the scroll. There is already quite a bit of force being applied in the peg box by the strings, so that bit should be fairly strong. Hmm... thanks to all for the discussion.

Beyond kids/pets (not an issue for my situation) has anyone else regularly done this and had any ill effects? Or seen int it employed in a shop?

 

[Michael Glynn]

I've seen it in shops. Usually with bungee cords. Seems to hold things in place well as long as the bass is relatively tight against the wall so it doesn't have room to spin left or right and bang against the wall if bumped. If the height of the cord and the tightness are good the bass should be pretty vertical and there should be very minimal force applied to the neck.

 

[LowG]

Thank you Mr. Glynn! When I saw that you are from Seattle it jogged my memory that the shop where I saw this could have been in that area. Sure enough, I checked out Hammond Ashley Violins' website and there are pictures of basses in their showroom using this exact technique. I visited that shop many years ago, some really beautiful basses were there back then. They seem to be a fairly reputable operation, that they indeed use this technique gives me a good impression of it.

 

[james condino]

That is the method I use in my shop. Girth hitched standing basses may not be perfect, but falling basses are far worse! 'Better to loop in between the two tuning machines than just the scroll; many scrolls are basically very weak decoration....

 

[misterbadger]

Why not use a longer rope to circle the endpin before looping around the tuning machines? Shouldn't that remove most of the stress on the neck since the weight of the bass is then transferred to the end block?