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Double Bass Maintaining a Carved Bass in a Risky Environment

MaxJohnson

MaxJohnson

Supporting Member
Jan 29, 2009
393
100
Brooklyn, NY
www.maxjohnsonmusic.com
#1
Hello All! I am about to buy a beautiful carved Hungarian Flat-back 7/8 bass, and would like to take all precautions to make sure that it doesn't turn into a Hungarian pile of wood. In my apartment, the heat is often on, because the people who live upstairs control the heat, and are not the kindest with their heating controls. Knowing that a carved flat-back isn't the most durable of basses, I want to know what I can do to make the least amount of damage on this wonderful instrument.

If anyone has a recommendation on a great humidifier/case/anything that would hinder the destruction of this instrument it would be greatly appreciated.
 
#2
I use a 20" window fan that has a wet bath towel in front of it. The bottom of the bath towel sits in a shallow plastic storage tub that has a few inches of water in it. The wet towel and "wick" effect works good and the sound of the fan is less than my backup Honeywell humidifier. I'm trying to find some material other than the bath towel though. I think a thinner material would evaporate more water than the thicker bath towel.

I would be "very" careful not to get water into the fan though. I saw a James Bond movie where the bad guy got electrocuted while in a bath tub a fan got dropped into the water. Not good.

A little testing and my quasi humidifier works good. I use an Oregon Scientific temp/humidity gauge to watch the conditions. If the humidity gets low I turn the fan speed up for a while until a reasonable humidity level is reached.

If for some reason it's very dry I boil water on a portable electric hot plate; however, I found that uses too much electricity so then came the fan idea.

,Contrabbasso
 
#3
changes in temperature itself won't hurt your bass (within normal ranges!). Its humidity changes that cause cracking. But if you are concerned about controlling humidity, you must to be able to measure it to see whether your towel/fan or whatever is actually doing anything at all! So yeah, get one of those small digital temperature/humidity meters for a start. Then you know what you're dealing with. Also it wouldn't hurt to measure the places where you gig. Ideally you want to try to minimise rapid changes from dry to humid and vice versa.
 
#5
The Oasis Case Humidifier (Invalid Link Removed) has been working great for me so far. Today, the heat is on and the relative humidity level in my music room is about 32% but the humidity level in the bass case is around 46%. My luthier, David Petillo, told me recently that 50% RH is ideal. I just keep the bass in it's case when I'm not playing it.

Oasis also make the Oasis Plus which puts out more moisture but I doubt you'd have a problem in NJ using the regular one. You may want to invest in a Hygrometer as well so you can measure the humidity levels in your environment.
 
#6
buy a good humidifier. Forget the cheaper alternatives. I'm a bit of a geek, so I also have a good humidity gage, In Chicago, my basses would be crack factories without an eye on the humidity. And your bass sounds better. (as long as you are dilligent about making sure that your sound post is not too long---a nasty crack waiting to happen). My Golia bass was finished in July a few years ago. So it makes sense that it sounds great in the summer (construction tension is close to at rest). My bass is starting to sound thinner at this time of year. Time to put in the winter post. There is literally 1/4" of movement with my bass ( difference in adjuster height) between summer and winter. Imagine the stress on the top if I were to keep the summer post in year round!
 
#7
I'm thinking about trying the Oasis guitar humidifier in the F hole instead of a dampit, so that when the bass sits for long periods in my hot dry (desert-like) apartment it wont go from a nicely humidified case to a dry wasteland. I'm trying to make the room safe for the instrument as well, but other than buying a big humidifier for the room, I can't think of any brilliant ideas.

Also, wondering what would be the best case, because my standard Mooradian doesn't form fit well, and gets wet whenever there's any amount of rain. New York isn't very forgiving during rainy days.
 
#10
My old former-high school-abused carved Juzek has always developed crack and seam issues every winter. We tried a room humidifier but it didn't seem to help much, maybe because our rooms are very big with high ceilings and the winter humidity is typically 21 in our Brooklyn apartment. Plus I had to fill the tank at least once a day (a Holmes). A drag if you want to go away for a long weekend.

So, last year, I ended up buying three dampits and a Planet Waves guitar humidifier which I gently wedge in the f-hole. I also keep the bass in its case, which is a drag, but I do have a backup ply to practice on.

So far this has kept me out of the luthier shop with the typical annual cracks and seam issues. The main thing is to not overfill the dampits. Just keep them moist so they don't drip and then you'll only have to fill them every third day or so.

My two cents.
 
#11
There are threads about this, because I got the idea about the Quicksteam from them. It's inexpensive, and it works, although best when used in a room with the door closed. It has been dry, dry, dry on the east coast this year. I have been filling it morning & night, about a gallon and a half each time. It was shut down the other morning, I left the door open for one minute while filling the container, and it had dropped 5 points and turned on in that time.
 
#12
I'm fortunate that my bass was made just down the road from me with local wood. So, I'm not too worried about how the weather affects it. It is mighty dry here in London, Ontario.

I sometimes run a room humidifier that I purchased from a hardware store. It puts a lot of moisture in the air, but I worry when I take it out of my house when I do that. Since the filter has gone moldy, I instead place a large mixing bowl of water over the forced-air heat register in my bass room. The heat causes it to evaporate a little faster and it doesn't require any extra electricity. (And my cat likes it , too!)

One of the things I want to do to my bass is get the saddle nut trimmed as many top cracks occur because the spruce of the top contracts against the ebony of the saddle. The two woods have different expansion/contraction rates. (The spruce moves more.)

Upton bass has a Invalid Link Removed.

Maybe your luthier could do something similar.
 
#13
I have five, inexpensive humidifiers going in our modest bungalow (in the USA, Northeast). The bass lives in our Study/Guest Room, with its' own, inexpensive humidifier (maybe $40 for the unit, and $15 for filter, once a year). I also have an inexpensive hygrometer in the room (that I have calibrated recently).

I fill all the humidifiers once a day, before bedtime. It is not a big deal, compared to having a bass rip itself apart. It is also less expensive.

I keep the humidity in the house around 35%, and the bass' room between 40-45%. My wife calls the Study "The Humidor" because of how I am careful to keep the humidity stable.

Having the humidity up higher, as we do, is also supposed to be healthier for humans; less drying in the sinuses, etc.

All to say that it doesn't need to be a big deal, in my modest experience. $70 should pay for a hygrometer and a humidifier, at the local hardware store.

Another thought, before you buy the bass, is to have a luthier check out the back bracing, to make sure that it isn't too tight to the ribs and other blocking inside the bass. I am playing a rebuilt Hungarian flatback, but the ladder bracing got replaced by luthier Jed Kriegel with a single, diagonal brace, so the back can move more freely.

How old is the bass? Has it been through a few winters in its current location/area?
 
#14
...is the way to go. Dampits are OK for travel and bowls of water or other stop gap measures, but a humidifier is the only way to actually force humidity into the air. Other methods rely on evaporation...

I bought a Holmes "Bionare" humidifier for around $70.00 in 2007 when my Upton Hybrid was delivered in November. Here in the Twin Cities - MSP MN, we have many homes with forced air central heating. I keep the vent taped closed in the winter, and the door to the bass room closed. The humidifier has its own hygrometer and automatically kicks in when the RH drops below 45%. It holds two gallons, and I have to fill it about every five days.

The filters cost about $15.00 a pair and they go a year easy if you add water treatment religiously. I change them on New Year's Day and scrub all the reservoir parts with humidifier cleaner. I really like the unit I have - it's tall and slim, (kind of like DRURB ;)), with a small foot print and the peace of mind I get from knowing it's on the job is worth the initial outlay. Mercy, 70 bucks for the humidifier was nothing after dropping $2,750.00 on the bass and now the asking price for that instrument is over 5K!

If the OP can't set aside a room where it's easy to manage RH, maybe building a floor to ceiling, bass sized framework out of 1x1 stock in a corner near an outlet, and stapling plastic sheeting or maybe even that clear shrink wrap stuff from the hardware store that people put on windows could make a little moist haven for the bass. It would not be too hard to fashion a hinged door for such a closet. Unsightly, yes - but so are cracks in the tables and sides of a valuable carved bass! Good Luck!
 

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