Swanson Basses/ Wayne Holmes

As I just wrote in the DB Forum, I bought a Bob Swanson Bass (attachment #1) from Wayne Holmes in Tennessee.

The bass is HUGE - 9" depth; 24" upper bout; 26" lower bout (plus another couple of inches for the wing-tips!!) The string length is a very comfortable 42", and the bass is surprisingly very comfortable to play.

More important, it sounds as good as a bass ten times its price (and more!) Last summer I played a £30,000 Hawkes and a £50,000 Brock "Maggini" at the Contrabass Shoppe in London and this bass would give either of those a serious run for their money.

There's still some minor work to do (The bridge and endpin are original to the bass and are a bit like industrial strength plumbing and there is probably some adjustment to the bridge and fingerboard once the bass settles into LA life.

According to Wayne, he ended up with all of Joe and Bruce Wallace's instruments and stuff from their Pittsburgh shop. A lot of that stock came from Bob Swanson's shop. Wayne's best playing bass is a 7/8 Italian that Joe Wallace played in the Pittsburgh Sym for many years. Joe died and Bruce wanted to retire. George Hofer, Wayne's mentor in repair and restoration introduced him to Bruce - which is how it all came to TN.

The Swanson basses were probably made in the 50s and 60s - and they cover a wide range quality-wise. Of the other two in the photo, the third one was pretty forgettable, while the second, which Wayne basically rebuilt during the months we exchanged emails, is decent - sort of a good shop bass.

As far as I've been able to figure out, there are a few of his basses still in circulation -some with major orchestra players as "B" basses - others, well, not so well off. Swanson was notorious for putting false labels in his basses. One had "handmade in France" on one, the other one was England-both in the 1700's; Mine was ""Handmade in Italy-1775"

That's pretty much the saga. I'll attach some photos here on the one I took and the better of the two left behind.

Louis

 

more pics of the second swanson bass

 

last 2 pics - I've got more if any one wants to see the whole process. The first pic is the second bass, before Wayne started to work on it. It is the most "normal" shape and sound of the three. The other (darker, odd-shaped) one, well, just didn't work for me.

Louis

 

Thanks, Brian. Good luck with yours!

Louis

 

Rod,

I would say contact Wayne directly (www.holmesbassviol.com). The middle bass (i.e. the "normal" one) is decent, but certainly better than anything else you'd find between $2500-$3K.

Still, these basses are idiosyncratic at best, and I would certainly advise spending time with it before jumping in. Also, he's got a slew of German shop basses in various states of repair that he might be willing to let go in "as is" condition if you want to do the work yourself.

As for the "same hands" - I don't know what to tell you. I swear the bass I got is as good as any 30-40K Italian bass (size and looks aside). The third one, a real ugly duckling, is just firewood. The middle bass - decent.

I think Swanson was known as a respected luthier for the Pittsburgh Symphony guys - and I guess he just liked to tinker. What can I tell you.

Louis

 

You're welcome!

 

Bill,

I passed your question on to Wayne. We'll see what he comes up with. I'm not sure "carved/hybrid" applies (Maybe Brian wants to comment). I THINK what Swanson did was build with whatever was at hand, using a bit of this, hunk of that - but I can't say for sure. I'll post when I get an answer.

Louis

 

+1 on the workout - playing "The Gull Wing" is a full body experience - but worth it! I'm glad you got Andy's bass - he thought it was pretty darn good.

Louis

 

So I asked Wayne:

"Would you call these carved or hybrid basses? or something even in between?"

His answer" "Yes!"

He will ask Bruce Wallace and see what he has to say.

Wayne continues:

"I think that it depends on the particular Swanson bass. I am not convinced that he did the same thing, ie, used the same materials every time."

I'd say that was a conservative way of putting it.

LF

 

Rod -

The "middle" bass that Wayne has is pretty standard looking and sounding. I think an audition committee would think that it was a German/Italian shop bass like a Morelli on appearances only. I'm not sure about the sound - I frankly didn't spend that much time with it - and Wayne had really JUST put it together - so a lot of tweaking would be in order.

Still, we're talking about a bass that's less than $3k - as opposed to something four or five times that. I don't think that there's anything in the Romanian/Chinese market that would give you anything close in the under $5K price range. But, again, I'd suggest you spend time with the bass if interested.

One of the advantages to being my age and not playing bass for a living is that I don't have to "audition" for anyone. If they don't like what I walk in with, screw 'em! I wish I could say that to half my producers though, but...

Louis