Double Bass Question regarding Estle Louis basses

[tb-player]

Today I had a very nice conversation with one of the guys at Gollihur Music. I explained that I have been looking for an inexpensive ply that can setup well and be used for outdoor bluegrass jams, jazz trio or the local Irish jam. After we talked a while, he sufficiently piqued my interest. Gollihur isn't too far away, so I'm going to have a nice little road trip to put my hands on the bass. Based on our conversation, my hopes are high... especially as it pertains to setup. But based on the price, my expectations are realistic. I'm also prepared to come back empty-handed if it's not what I want. Of course, whether or not I buy the bass, my brother lives around the corner and we've already made plans to have lunch at Louie G's Roast Beef in Sewell, NJ. So it's gonna be a win either way... lol.

But yeah, before I make the 2 1/2 hr drive, I figured I'd come here and see if anyone on TB has any experience with these. I found a couple of threads from 2011 and the comments were all positive. Curious to get some more recent thoughts, if anyone has ever put their hands on one. TIA.

 

[lurk]

I had a student who bought a entry level ply. It needed some minor set up work and new strings - he put on Zyex lights at my suggestion. It was a great bang for the buck all in all. He has since upgraded to a carved bass and moved on to college and a new teacher. I hope he kept it. When I was busier I would have loved to have it as a backup instrument. Even, attractive, sound and easy to play. IMO superior to Upton basses and many older Kays. Not as nice as the really nice Kays or American Standards that I've played, but they go for much higher prices.

 

[tb-player]

I had a student who bought an entry level ply. It needed some minor set up work and new strings - he put on Zyex lights at my suggestion. It was a great bang for the buck all in all. He has since upgraded to a carved bass and moved on to college and a new teacher. I hope he kept it. When I was busier I would have loved to have it as a backup instrument. Even, attractive, sound and easy to play. IMO superior to Upton basses and many older Kays. Not as nice as the really nice Kays or American Standards that I've played, but they go for much higher prices.

Thanks. That seems to be the consensus. I’ve owned a nice Kay. And I’ve been round and round with Upton. It’s been hit or miss. Recently Upton raised their prices on ply basses to over $4k. My Upton was a decent bass. But I suspect it was not $2200 nicer that this. I guess we’ll see.

 

[tb-player]

I ended up coming home with the Estle Louis laminated bass. The fine folks at Gollihur were great to deal with. And the bass really is decent. It’s setup well. The tuners and endpin seem nice. I could see myself eventually replacing the bridge for one that’s easier to adjust. But for now, it sounds good and plays well. Plus, because they didn’t have to ship it, they gave me a nice discount and even threw in a new, padded gig bag.

After spending a couple of hours with it, I would say it’s not as well made as the New Standard La Scala ply I had a few years ago. But it’s definitely comparable to the Upton standard laminate… and less than half the price. I’m sure someone could argue that the Upton ply is a teensy bit nicer. But I can easily say it’s not $2k+ nicer. Not even close.

I’d certainly recommend this for someone who is looking to get into playing upright. It’s also appropriate for someone looking for an inexpensive backup or, like me, someone who needs a beater for outdoor gigs and the like.

Here’s a few photos. The finish is a nice shade of amber.

 

[5stringDNA]

Thanks for the review. Nice flame on a bass of that price. Did you happen to play any of the Estle Louis Hybrid or Carved models or the Juzek while you were at the shop? I like my Shen, but am considering a hybrid or carved for better arco tone and the Gollihur stuff has been tempting.

 

[tb-player]

Thanks for the review. Nice flame on a bass of that price. Did you happen to play any of the Estle Louis Hybrid or Carved models or the Juzek while you were at the shop? I like my Shen, but am considering a hybrid or carved for better arco tone and the Gollihur stuff has been tempting.

I didn't. They really didn't have much in stock, that I could see. I think the normal process is to place the order, have the luthier set it up, then ship direct to you. I happen to have family who live not far from Gollihur, so I worked out a deal for one he happened to have in stock.

I will say, it's been a couple of months and I just dropped it off at Bob's House of Basses for a new adjustable bridge, a string change and a slight neck plane on the E-string side. The stock strings are pretty cheap. The bridge that came on it is fine, but it didn't easily adjust. I was also getting a little clank on the E string. Upon closer inspection, there was an ever-so-slight bump in the neck on that side. So yeah, I'm dropping $500 on this bass for upgrades. Still totally worth it, especially considering the killer deal we worked out. I'm looking forward to picking it back up next week.

 

[turf3]

It looks a lot nicer than the average Chinese bass with that awful thick Simoniz finish. At least this one looks like a proper oil varnish finish. Also decent color, not one of those weird colors they so often are.

 

[tb-player]

It looks a lot nicer than the average Chinese bass with that awful thick Simoniz finish. At least this one looks like a proper oil varnish finish. Also decent color, not one of those weird colors they so often are.

It's surprisingly nice for a sub-$2k Chinese ply bass. Looks great in person and the tone carries nicely... much better than my old ply Kay.

 

[turf3]

So, pizz playing, bluegrass, jazz, much the kind of thing I do. What strings have you put on it and how do you like the way it sounds with your selected strings? So far, knocking on wood, I've not had any issues outdoors with my carved bass, but it's very heavily built. I have toyed with the idea of a well-set-up ply for bluegrass festivals. I've got the truck, I've got the travel trailer, I've got the wife who's willing to go with me. I just need the little dog to travel with us, and the retirement, and I'm going to be off on the bluegrass festival circuit. I'm going to be passing up the East Coast this spring and I could make a detour to Golihur.

 

[tb-player]

So, pizz playing, bluegrass, jazz, much the kind of thing I do. What strings have you put on it and how do you like the way it sounds with your selected strings? So far, knocking on wood, I've not had any issues outdoors with my carved bass, but it's very heavily built. I have toyed with the idea of a well-set-up ply for bluegrass festivals. I've got the truck, I've got the travel trailer, I've got the wife who's willing to go with me. I just need the little dog to travel with us, and the retirement, and I'm going to be off on the bluegrass festival circuit. I'm going to be passing up the East Coast this spring and I could make a detour to Golihur.

I just dropped it off at the luthier a couple of days ago. I’ll get it back next week. The new strings are E/A: Spirocores, D/G:Obligatos. With the new bridge and a little love on that neck, I’m sure it’ll feel even more like home. I’ll let you know.

I will say, the crappy Chinese strings that came on it felt better than I assumed they would. It was a little surprising.

 

[SMonroeB]

We have one. It is now 6 or 8 years old. I'm not expert but our local bass teacher thought that it was very good. It looks very nice and has a strong low E. I absolutely hate a weak low E on any bass!
It sounds good to me and some of my double bass owning friends thought that it sounded very good. Mr G. is absolutely the nicest person to deal with and he has dedicated his life to the bass. He is trying to carry on his father's legacy and he is doing a great job! In case you didn't know, the bass model is named after his father.

 

[tb-player]

So, pizz playing, bluegrass, jazz, much the kind of thing I do. What strings have you put on it and how do you like the way it sounds with your selected strings? So far, knocking on wood, I've not had any issues outdoors with my carved bass, but it's very heavily built. I have toyed with the idea of a well-set-up ply for bluegrass festivals. I've got the truck, I've got the travel trailer, I've got the wife who's willing to go with me. I just need the little dog to travel with us, and the retirement, and I'm going to be off on the bluegrass festival circuit. I'm going to be passing up the East Coast this spring and I could make a detour to Golihur.

I just got the Estle Louis back from the shop. The luthier at Bobs House of Basses did a fantastic job. Sounds and plays great. For what I’ve spent on the bass/bag, upgraded bridge & strings and neck planing, I’m almost at the cost of a ply Shen, which is probably comparable or a little better made. I’m still half the price of an Upton ply. For what it is, this Estle Louis feels like a decent deal at this point. It will definitely serve its purpose.

 

[inhalement]

Wanted to share my experience with getting an Estle Louis as it's quite similar to the OP's. The factory setup was quite strange, the soundpost was in a weird position with respect to the bass bar, both bridge adjusters were spinning freely instead of adjusting, and most importantly the string action was weird. The fingerboard arch is quite flat, so to compensate, the bridge arch is much higher to make playing arco easier, I guess more of like an orchestra/neutral setup. The string action between the G and D string was quite weird, from 4mm to 7mm with the adjusters at the lowest setting (!) So I took it to a luthier, he took 1/2 of the material off of the nut, moved the soundpost, shaved the bridge more evenly, and fixed the adjusters. Especially for anyone looking to play jazz with it, an external setup after the factory setup is a must. There are some buzzes near the heel but I don't usually play hard enough to notice them. If it bothers me in the future I might take it to get some neck work done. Also, the cheap strings that came on it were pretty bad. Overall not a bad deal, considering it was only 150 for the extra setup work and now it's extremely more comfortable to play.

 

[lurk]

Wanted to share my experience with getting an Estle Louis as it's quite similar to the OP's. The factory setup was quite strange, the soundpost was in a weird position with respect to the bass bar, both bridge adjusters were spinning freely instead of adjusting, and most importantly the string action was weird. The fingerboard arch is quite flat, so to compensate, the bridge arch is much higher to make playing arco easier, I guess more of like an orchestra/neutral setup. The string action between the G and D string was quite weird, from 4mm to 7mm with the adjusters at the lowest setting (!) So I took it to a luthier, he took 1/2 of the material off of the nut, moved the soundpost, shaved the bridge more evenly, and fixed the adjusters. Especially for anyone looking to play jazz with it, an external setup after the factory setup is a must. There are some buzzes near the heel but I don't usually play hard enough to notice them. If it bothers me in the future I might take it to get some neck work done. Also, the cheap strings that came on it were pretty bad. Overall not a bad deal, considering it was only 150 for the extra setup work and now it's extremely more comfortable to play.

Did you get it from Gollihur?

 

[inhalement]

Did you get it from Gollihur?

Yep. Right off the website

 

[lurk]

Yep. Right off the website

Sorry to hear that. I had a student who got one from them and it was a great bass for the money and did not have the problems you described other than the substandard strings.. This was several years ago.

 

[Mark Gollihur]

Wanted to share my experience with getting an Estle Louis as it's quite similar to the OP's. The factory setup was quite strange, the soundpost was in a weird position with respect to the bass bar, both bridge adjusters were spinning freely instead of adjusting, and most importantly the string action was weird. The fingerboard arch is quite flat, so to compensate, the bridge arch is much higher to make playing arco easier, I guess more of like an orchestra/neutral setup. The string action between the G and D string was quite weird, from 4mm to 7mm with the adjusters at the lowest setting (!) So I took it to a luthier, he took 1/2 of the material off of the nut, moved the soundpost, shaved the bridge more evenly, and fixed the adjusters. Especially for anyone looking to play jazz with it, an external setup after the factory setup is a must. There are some buzzes near the heel but I don't usually play hard enough to notice them. If it bothers me in the future I might take it to get some neck work done. Also, the cheap strings that came on it were pretty bad. Overall not a bad deal, considering it was only 150 for the extra setup work and now it's extremely more comfortable to play.

Surprised to hear that - especially that the "adjusters were spinning freely." I'm not sure that's even possible, as they are one-piece/solid adjusters and bear the full weight of the string tension at all times! That said, I hope you can understand that providing a great setup is certainly a goal, but we have them set up with a fairly "general purpose" setup unless we're asked for something specific.

I'd also really like to know more about how the soundpost was in a "weird position relative to the bass bar" as that's something I've not heard before. Can you maybe drop me an email (you can respond to any email that I (or our website) have sent you - I'd really like to address this further, and appreciate your feedback and opinions very much.

 

[inhalement]

Surprised to hear that - especially that the "adjusters were spinning freely." I'm not sure that's even possible, as they are one-piece/solid adjusters and bear the full weight of the string tension at all times! That said, I hope you can understand that providing a great setup is certainly a goal, but we have them set up with a fairly "general purpose" setup unless we're asked for something specific.

I'd also really like to know more about how the soundpost was in a "weird position relative to the bass bar" as that's something I've not heard before. Can you maybe drop me an email (you can respond to any email that I (or our website) have sent you - I'd really like to address this further, and appreciate your feedback and opinions very much.

Sorry for the confusion, and if my review came off as harsher than intended. I'd like to reiterate that it was a great deal even with the additional setup.

That being said, the adjusters that came on it are 2-piece brass adjusters. By spinning freely, I meant that the disc was spinning freely on the threads instead of adjusting the height. My high school's bass had a similar problem. And I acknowledge that it is my fault for not reaching out and specifying what type of playing I'll be doing and assuming the setup. The luthier I took it to said something along the lines of "the distance from the f-hole to the bass bar should be a similar distance as the other f-hole to the soundpost". Not sure how true this is, any additional information would be appreciated, but either way he moved it a significant amount farther from the f-hole. I understand there are many factors with the soundpost so I don't want to sound too critical here.

 

[Mark Gollihur]

Sorry for the confusion, and if my review came off as harsher than intended. I'd like to reiterate that it was a great deal even with the additional setup.

That being said, the adjusters that came on it are 2-piece brass adjusters. By spinning freely, I meant that the disc was spinning freely on the threads instead of adjusting the height. My high school's bass had a similar problem. And I acknowledge that it is my fault for not reaching out and specifying what type of playing I'll be doing and assuming the setup. The luthier I took it to said something along the lines of "the distance from the f-hole to the bass bar should be a similar distance as the other f-hole to the soundpost". Not sure how true this is, any additional information would be appreciated, but either way he moved it a significant amount farther from the f-hole. I understand there are many factors with the soundpost so I don't want to sound too critical here.

Thanks for the follow-up.

As to the soundpost, I'm not sure where that luthier got that impression, as far as soundpost placement. I know that there are several schools of thought where luthiery is involved, so I won't say he's WRONG, but rather that his philosophy differs from most luthiers I've spoken to. But almost universally, luthiers agree that the soundpost doesn't have a "fixed position" - if it did, it would be glued in, like the bass bar is. Moving the sound post (North, South, East, West) can adjust the tonal character of an instrument. It's not always exactly the same effect, but I've often heard it described as "the closer to the bridge foot, the more 'focused' the sound - the further away, the more 'blurry' the sound gets." So if you have a particularly strident bass, you might move the soundpost a little further from the bridge foot - if your bass is a bit dark, moving it closer may provide more clarity.

As for the two-piece bridge adjusters, that really surprises me - they've always used single piece adjusters on those basses. This is definitely an Estle Louis bass we're talking about, right? Now, the Juzek carved basses I also sell (from Metropolitan Music, owned by the Juzek family) do indeed come with two-piece adjusters - but I've never seen my Estle Louis distributor's luthier team set up one of our E.L. basses with them. They've always been the solid aluminum adjusters with the black wheels and indents for easy turning.

 

[inhalement]

Thanks for the follow-up.

As to the soundpost, I'm not sure where that luthier got that impression, as far as soundpost placement. I know that there are several schools of thought where luthiery is involved, so I won't say he's WRONG, but rather that his philosophy differs from most luthiers I've spoken to. But almost universally, luthiers agree that the soundpost doesn't have a "fixed position" - if it did, it would be glued in, like the bass bar is. Moving the sound post (North, South, East, West) can adjust the tonal character of an instrument. It's not always exactly the same effect, but I've often heard it described as "the closer to the bridge foot, the more 'focused' the sound - the further away, the more 'blurry' the sound gets." So if you have a particularly strident bass, you might move the soundpost a little further from the bridge foot - if your bass is a bit dark, moving it closer may provide more clarity.

As for the two-piece bridge adjusters, that really surprises me - they've always used single piece adjusters on those basses. This is definitely an Estle Louis bass we're talking about, right? Now, the Juzek carved basses I also sell (from Metropolitan Music, owned by the Juzek family) do indeed come with two-piece adjusters - but I've never seen my Estle Louis distributor's luthier team set up one of our E.L. basses with them. They've always been the solid aluminum adjusters with the black wheels and indents for easy turning.

Sounds like the luthier team decided to switch it up that day then, unless I got sent the wrong bass Here's what I'm working with:

I'll send out an email with my order number, I realize this was probably in email territory a couple posts ago