Double Bass Should I Buy This Kay?

[Ed S]

Oh good heavens, it is surprising a reputable shop would even put a price on an instrument in that condition. I do not think I would take that for free.

Re: Engles ... Taking it to a camp this weekend instead of my Upton hybrid. ... I've got ZERO qualms about bringing this axe. One of the fun things about such camps is the ability to try other basses. I'll let you know if I run across any I like better.

The cheap PoS acquitted itself quite well. What a hoot getting to vid world class players demonstrating various techniques on my bass! At one point we had 3 Engles in the room - 1 had been recently bought for $700.

Both instructors had quite nice things to say about my bass - and brought incredible sound out of it.

Played a couple of old German flatbacks, a couple of Engles and Kays, a 100 yr old carved, and an over-the-top new build set up w/ crazy tuning. Some nice basses, but like you said, Damon, what I got is great for its purpose.

Curiously, my bass was the only one w/ guts. Was fun comparing it to an Engle w/ a full set of old spiros.

 

[Steven Ayres]

I worked a wedding reception last night that underscored why no one should underestimate the value of plywood.

The venue was an outdoor event space beside Oak Creek in Sedona, with an audience of about 120, and the bass was my '04 Englehardt ES9,which I bought new. We did the sound check at four in the afternoon, in balmy, dry conditions, and the gig ran till nine. As darkness fell the humidity rose markedly and the cold, damp air from much higher elevation in Flagstaff came rolling down the creek thirty feet away, as it always does. After sweating through the setup we were very glad to be in our coats and ties for the conventional club-jazz show. The bass performed flawlessly — it's a really easy player and everyone in the band was very happy with the sound — with only the slightest tuning drift across five hours, allowing me the head space to perform, run sound and keep up with some material I'd never done and a vocalist I'd never worked with previously. With the tip I came home with 500 bucks out of an instrument that wouldn't sell for more than $1800 anywhere in this country.

I've played some carved basses that I would have loved to be able to afford, and often been tempted to sell off a bunch of gear to get into that club just for that acoustic wonderfulness. But music is a business to me, the available gigs here rarely pay anything like this well, and the on-the-ground cost-performance of that plywood bass has been vastly better than even a lowly hybrid that a lot of players here would opine as barely adequate to a student.

 

[Keyser Soze]

I worked a wedding reception last night that underscored why no one should underestimate the value of plywood.... The bass performed flawlessly — it's a really easy player and everyone in the band was very happy with the sound — with only the slightest tuning drift across five hours, allowing me the head space to perform, run sound and keep up with some material I'd never done and a vocalist I'd never worked with previously. With the tip I came home with 500 bucks out of an instrument that wouldn't sell for more than $1800 anywhere in this country.

The proof is in the pudding, as they say.

 

[unbrokenchain]

I worked a wedding reception last night that underscored why no one should underestimate the value of plywood.

The venue was an outdoor event space beside Oak Creek in Sedona, with an audience of about 120, and the bass was my '04 Englehardt ES9,which I bought new. We did the sound check at four in the afternoon, in balmy, dry conditions, and the gig ran till nine. As darkness fell the humidity rose markedly and the cold, damp air from much higher elevation in Flagstaff came rolling down the creek thirty feet away, as it always does. After sweating through the setup we were very glad to be in our coats and ties for the conventional club-jazz show. The bass performed flawlessly — it's a really easy player and everyone in the band was very happy with the sound — with only the slightest tuning drift across five hours, allowing me the head space to perform, run sound and keep up with some material I'd never done and a vocalist I'd never worked with previously. With the tip I came home with 500 bucks out of an instrument that wouldn't sell for more than $1800 anywhere in this country.

I've played some carved basses that I would have loved to be able to afford, and often been tempted to sell off a bunch of gear to get into that club just for that acoustic wonderfulness. But music is a business to me, the available gigs here rarely pay anything like this well, and the on-the-ground cost-performance of that plywood bass has been vastly better than even a lowly hybrid that a lot of players here would opine as barely adequate to a student.

Hear hear (here here?), if I were better organized I could tally all the $ I've made playing my current Kay in the four years I've had it, it's certainly many times the price paid and for sure my main source of income. In that time, it has needed only slight fingerboard dressing. My carved bass generally doesn't leave the climate-controlled room at home where I practice, but has needed the hide glue and clamps four times in the three years that I've had it, and it also has several previously-repaired top cracks. The difference in acoustic arco sound between the two basses is absolutely palpable, but I bring the bow to a gig like maybe once a month, and even then it's amplified through a pickup so the difference is mostly lost. For the styles of music I play, often in earplug-necessitating environments, the ply is a no-brainer. I also drive a beat-up truck so I can haul firewood and materials without worrying about dents and scratches, if someone tried to give me a brand new luxury car I'd turn it down since it'd just be a useless (if beautiful) liability to me. It's a paradigm thing, an investment banker in Chicago would likely be uncomfortable and embarrassed to be seen pulling up in my dirty hillbilly truck even though it's endlessly useful to me, and a world-class symphony player might not understand my love for the Kay. I tend to think the "ply vs carved for beginners" debate, which seems to harken all the way back at least to the ancient origins of Talkbass, is quite well-intending but is mostly the unknown paradigm of the beginner being filled by projections of the adviser. Maybe the new player is thumping old time around a bonfire, or maybe they're going to Curtis in the fall, probably something in between. Anyway, I think I've written too much for internet attention spans.

TL/DR = other basses will likely come and go, Ima keeping my Kay

P.S. that sounds like an absolutely beautiful setting for a wedding, I was out in Sedona in June and now I finally understand what the fuss is about

 

[damonsmith]

We should note that a carved or hybrid bass has not been recommended by anyone in this thread for the purposes of the OP.

 

[unbrokenchain]

We should note that a carved or hybrid bass has not been recommended by anyone in this thread for the purposes of the OP.

Actually I recommended one in case OP has ambitions of serious arco playing, my impression was that Steven was in part addressing that, but maybe not I dunno