Double Bass The Chadwick Folding Bass

[Feral Feline]

Damn! I don't have one yet ('cause I splurged on an AlCoA).

Charlie is a gentleman and a scholar. Answered all my questions when I first met him in Edmonton and his bass was but a prototype; then he showed me around the string booths at Shanghai Music Mess when I bumped into him there and he introduced me to Mr Shen, too... very encouraging and extremely generous with his time.

I wish Mr Chadwick continued success with all his endeavours.

 

[damonsmith]

What endpins have people gotten to work on these? I am about to enter a phase of using it as my main bass while my old bass gets repairs.
I am fine with the carbon pin for travel, I'd like something more stiff for a day to day.

 

[Earl]

What endpins have people gotten to work on these? I am about to enter a phase of using it as my main bass while my old bass gets repairs.
I am fine with the carbon pin for travel, I'd like something more stiff for a day to day.

Just get a 10mm steel rod - it works with that socket.

 

[Jon Mush]

I’m pretty tall and the thinner pins would flex like crazy under vibrato. I had mine swapped by Jake to a New Harmony (I believe). I’m running a Maple drum stick (as high as possible), with the threaded New Harmony bass ball for a tip. It’s lasted forever, and I’m still under 50lbs on the scale.

 

[damonsmith]

That is a great idea!

I’m pretty tall and the thinner pins would flex like crazy under vibrato. I had mine swapped by Jake to a New Harmony (I believe). I’m running a Maple drum stick (as high as possible), with the threaded New Harmony bass ball for a tip. It’s lasted forever, and I’m still under 50lbs on the scale.

 

[Jon Mush]

That is a great idea!

I can’t take any credit...that’s 100% Jake. But yeah it’s awesome. And it’s easy to score an end pin on the road!

 

[VictorW126]

i got a mail from Charlie yesterday. Unfortunately he won't continue making folding basses.

Three months have passed. Do you have any news? I did not plan to buy Chadwick bass now. But the thought was important to me that I could buy it at any time.

 

[GerardSamija]

From his website just now:

New folding basses are no longer available.
I've made folding basses for 10 years, and it's been a great experience, and I'm now looking forward to playing my bass. CFB will continue to supply warranty service, parts, repairs, new cases.

 

[damonsmith]

From his website just now:

Sad news.

 

[lurk]

Someone should buy his design or patent or however it works and continue to make these. I hope to buy one someday and I'm sure I'm not alone. Good for him. A better mousetrap.

 

[damonsmith]

Someone should buy his design or patent or however it works and continue to make these. I hope to buy one someday and I'm sure I'm not alone. Good for him. A better mousetrap.

Some people have complained about them, but, mine has really served me well. I've never paid an oversize fee. I get a nice sound from it. I've played some important festivals with it and I never wished for my "real" bass.

 

[paulunger]

I never understood why these basses didn't take off. It's a real bass, set up the way you want. The price was very reasonable. It's much better than a stick bass or going through the hassle of always renting. Plus you can get in taxis, or throw it in your trunk when you go on vacation.
But for whatever reason, a lot of players didn't give a chance. They were turned off by plywood, maybe? Removable neck seems to be the new craze, so maybe they saw it as a poor substitute for that. "Why spend money on an expensive plywood, when I can just get my bass turned into a removable neck?"
Personally, I don't travel with my good basses anymore. Its too risky and it costs too much. Sure, you might not want to play the Chadwick for a Symphony gig, but for jazz gigs or just general traveling and practicing, it's great. And most of the time there is no baggage charge. I've saved several hundred dollars, if not $1-2K , in oversize charges.

 

[damonsmith]

They were turned off by plywood, maybe?

The hybrid option was only $400 more! Mine is a hybrid and it sounds better than expected. People were worried about it cracking, if it ever does anyone can reach in the back and patch it!

 

[paulunger]

I ungraded to the hybrid as well. I think it sounds great. Very even and quality tone. I think it bows better too.
I played it on a few gigs without telling anyone and no one noticed a drop off in quality from my expensive carved bass. It actually worked better for thumb position stuff and was less prone to feedback.

 

[Sam Dingle]

I ended up selling my folding bass to someone who would use it more. I didn't like it as I felt the neck moved a bit, but it did sound very nice. I think anyone who is known to do any touring would be good with one. Shame they stopped making the hybrid option. I'm sure the right person would pay a pretty penny for one.

 

[damonsmith]

I ended up selling my folding bass to someone who would use it more. I didn't like it as I felt the neck moved a bit, but it did sound very nice. I think anyone who is known to do any touring would be good with one. Shame they stopped making the hybrid option. I'm sure the right person would pay a pretty penny for one.

The neck shouldn't move, that should have been repaired. Mine feels like a normal bass (+ woobly endpin!)

 

[GerardSamija]

I've seen a few removable neck conversions. Generally they're scary. The odd one is well executed, likely to last many, many cycles of disassembly/reassembly. But man, some of these guys just seem to go down to the hardware store and stare at the shelves for a while before grabbing a few items and screwing them onto the neck heel and upper block and then hope for the best. A few screws here and there, dab of epoxy. I've actually had a nightmare about one such job. Poor bassist (actually somewhat wealthy so I'm not too worried about him) had to pay a couple of thousand dollars to a guy who did what looks like about an afternoon's work with chrome-plated made-in-China hardware parts. Spooky. I've had to repair it twice in two years, but haven't the heart to scold the guy who did it... good intentions and all.

But the various Chadwicks I've dealt with have been pretty solid. I've repaired a couple of loosened ebony trim bits around the neck joint, a loose fingerboard holder box in the bottom of one, a loosened brace, and have pulled the pins and relocated soundposts on a couple for better sound, but none of that worried me as the work overall was decent. These are hard working basses, putting in a lot of hours on the road and coming home looking pretty good. I really appreciated his attitude about support and such as well, always making himself available to bassists, happy to help. An excellent guy who did a very good thing for the bass community with his innovative work.

 

[eh_train]

... These are hard working basses, putting in a lot of hours on the road and coming home looking pretty good.

Hey Gerard, I agree that the CFB was a great innovation and am sorry he's stopped making them. They are hard-working basses, made by Shen and adapted to be CFBs.

My experience with the ones I've repaired, though, weren't quite as positive. Two of the 3 that I worked on had frames (for the opening in the back) that came loose. Not too difficult to repair, but surprising that this critical element failed. The other thing that seemed commonly to go wrong were the plastic brackets breaking and becoming unuseable. I did speak with Charlie and he offered to sell replacements. The cost was prohibitive, though, and the customer chose not to pay to replace these parts.

 

[GerardSamija]

Well that's unfortunate! Guess my clients have been luckier than yours. The lightweight materials he used for the interval reinforcements are quite expensive as I understand it. Some modern engineering plastic rods in dimensions similar to these can cost $50/foot or more, though I don't know the particular plastics he used and how that applies.

In the case of a broken frame member, guess I'd go with something like steel-filled JB Weld for the break itself, then once cured do a couple of layers of fiberglass wrap with more epoxy, wrapping that with a cling wrap to keep everything in place and massage out the bubbles, preventing flow to the bottom surface during curing. Such a repair might add an ounce, so not significant for shipping weight. With the huge cut in the back for the cover panel the reinforcements are quite necessary, else the string tension might easily cause distortion to the instrument's shape and even failure.

 

[Ben Rolston]

I never understood why these basses didn't take off. It's a real bass, set up the way you want. The price was very reasonable. It's much better than a stick bass or going through the hassle of always renting. Plus you can get in taxis, or throw it in your trunk when you go on vacation.
But for whatever reason, a lot of players didn't give a chance. They were turned off by plywood, maybe? Removable neck seems to be the new craze, so maybe they saw it as a poor substitute for that. "Why spend money on an expensive plywood, when I can just get my bass turned into a removable neck?"
Personally, I don't travel with my good basses anymore. Its too risky and it costs too much. Sure, you might not want to play the Chadwick for a Symphony gig, but for jazz gigs or just general traveling and practicing, it's great. And most of the time there is no baggage charge. I've saved several hundred dollars, if not $1-2K , in oversize charges.

Maybe it wasn't enough to make it viable as a business, but it seemed like they DID take off. I feel like every touring bluegrass bass player had one for a bit.