I noticed the soundpost in my recently-acquired Holbein was splintered at the bottom, so I called a luthier I found (looking on Bob G.'s site) about 10 miles from my home. He said he'd take a look, just bring it down. So I did.
The guy had a half dozen or so basses sitting around his workshop in various stages of disassembly/reassembly. Some very old instruments, from the looks of them. So he looks at the soundpost, pulls it out, and pulls a splinter off along the grain the length of the post. Needless to say, he ended up cutting a new one and installing it for me. He also straightened out my endpin, put a new cable on the endpiece, and dressed up my bridge, too. I helped him out here and there, while his assistant was busy cleating a crack on a different bass. In the meantime, there's another guy there who was playing folk tunes on his bass that he'd just gotten tweaked. Interesting workplace.
So he finishes up working on my plywood bass and plays it a bit. Asks me to play it, says, "it's got lots of bottom to it." Has his assistant play it. The third guy puts his bass down, says, "that sounds pretty good." Luthier blurts out, "yeah, better than I thought it would -- why don't you try it?" Which he does, and likes it. Then he hollers, "Hey -- get my bow!" And after scratching at it a while with less than stellar results, he asks, "Well, you're going to play mostly pizzicato anyway, aren't you?"
LOL!!! Well, I guess I can't have everything!
The guy had a half dozen or so basses sitting around his workshop in various stages of disassembly/reassembly. Some very old instruments, from the looks of them. So he looks at the soundpost, pulls it out, and pulls a splinter off along the grain the length of the post. Needless to say, he ended up cutting a new one and installing it for me. He also straightened out my endpin, put a new cable on the endpiece, and dressed up my bridge, too. I helped him out here and there, while his assistant was busy cleating a crack on a different bass. In the meantime, there's another guy there who was playing folk tunes on his bass that he'd just gotten tweaked. Interesting workplace.
So he finishes up working on my plywood bass and plays it a bit. Asks me to play it, says, "it's got lots of bottom to it." Has his assistant play it. The third guy puts his bass down, says, "that sounds pretty good." Luthier blurts out, "yeah, better than I thought it would -- why don't you try it?" Which he does, and likes it. Then he hollers, "Hey -- get my bow!" And after scratching at it a while with less than stellar results, he asks, "Well, you're going to play mostly pizzicato anyway, aren't you?"
LOL!!! Well, I guess I can't have everything!
