Double Bass Upton Bass Club

[artfahie]

Couple you hybrid with a Full Circle, Spiro Mittels, and a MarkBass P121J and you'll get a natural sounding bass with huge balls that your group will come to rely on. trust me, I just finished playing tonight with my septet and the guys are lovin' the sound !

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[maxito]

Just did a promo for a show with a local cable access channel. Audio is mono, but still thought it was fun enough to share. Enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/90172347

 

[dickwagor]

I'm a member. Here are links to me playing and discussing my Upton Super Karr bass:

 

[chuck3]

I'm a member. Here are links to me playing and discussing my Upton Super Karr bass:

nice. Love your beginning to Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. I am going to recommend that tune to the jazz guitarist I sometimes play with.

 

[chuck3]

Just did a promo for a show with a local cable access channel. Audio is mono, but still thought it was fun enough to share. Enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/90172347

very nice.

 

[chuck3]

got a call today from Upton about what kind of varnish I want on my Bohemian hybrid/deluxe top.

Boy, that was exciting ... means I am closer to having this bass than I thought!

 

[Sean Riddle]

I'm in the market for my first bass. I'll be heading off to college soon and I have been looking into getting a Bohemian Hybrid. Yet I am leary of buying a bass sight unseen (no offense to Upton). For my first bass, would you guys recommend going the Upton route or bass shopping?

 

[HotRoded]

I don't think you would go wrong with Upton, and pretty much everybody here would probably say so, but remember, you in the Upton club thread.

Still, Bass shopping is always a good idea, will help you make an educated choice, whatever you end up with.

Maybe you can hook up with somebody in your area who has an Upton and who will let you try her.

My Upton is the second Bass I got, it's a laminated Bohemian with a few options. I like her a lot.

 

[koipond]

I'm in the market for my first bass. I'll be heading off to college soon and I have been looking into getting a Bohemian Hybrid. Yet I am leary of buying a bass sight unseen (no offense to Upton). For my first bass, would you guys recommend going the Upton route or bass shopping?

I have a Bohemian hybrid with standard top strung with Evah Pirazzi Weich in Hacienda Heights. It's a bit of a drive for you, but you're more than welcome play it if you'd like to get an idea of the Bohemian sound. The offer stands if anyone else is interested.

 

[LouisF]

I'm happy to make the same invitation for my Karr ti jazzcat - I'm in LA's Hancock Park area.

Louis

 

[funkythumb]

Very nice Richard!!! Sounds great!

 

[jefff100]

I'm in the market for my first bass. I'll be heading off to college soon and I have been looking into getting a Bohemian Hybrid. Yet I am leary of buying a bass sight unseen (no offense to Upton). For my first bass, would you guys recommend going the Upton route or bass shopping?

+ 1 to HotRod comment - this an Upton club thread so we could be biased; however - i'm a noob with the URB myself, and figured I would take some lessons; did some reading here and ofher places. Looked at some Craigslist basses, but once the prices got seriously above $1500 I figured i would rent a bass and take some lessons. 2 months into the lessons my rental BSO suffered a failure on lesson day. Instructor let me use his bass for the lesson.

Wow. That was a revelation. His bass was one of AES early models of the New American Standard Clevland. After that I knew I needed to buy a bass of my own.

I took a day off and went to Upton's shop in CT. Compared an old Kay, two models of Shen hybrid bass that they had in stock and they happened to have an Upton Standard laminate bass that they just finished but had not shipped to customer yet.
The Upton was superior to them all, even my wife heard the difference.

I ended up getting a great deal on a used Upton Hybrid that cost me about what a new Upton Laminate would run. I've since had the bass up to their shop for a general tune up and they installed body bumpers that are made of ebony (recycled fingerboard) instead of the typical plastic ones you see for sale.

Its a great bass that fit my budget and I reccomend Upton highly.

 

[GlassOnion]

Sometimes a swing in the dark is worth it. For my budget buying new made sense. I didn't have the worry of buying someone else's problem. I pulled the trigger and trusted what reviews I could find here on TalkBass. Best decision ever. Well built and wonderful tone. Thanks TalkBass and Upton.

 

[chuck3]

new Upton Bohemian hybrid with deluxe carved top in the house. First impressions are that it is a very solid all-around bass. I love the deluxe top. I don't like the word "deluxe", sorta sounds like a pink Cadillac, but this top is much more solid than the top on the standard hybrid I traded in. Hard to explain the difference in feel, but every note is consistent and the E string in particular is the best I've ever felt on any upright. And every note resonates better.

Great to visit Upton, it was my first time since they've moved. What a great place, and a great collection of basses. Got to play a few of the old special basses there, and they're fantastic. It is just great to go to a place that is about upright basses and nothing else. And that part of eastern CT is one of the nice parts of the USA.

I know the rule, no pic no bass, so here you go:

 

[Eric Rene Roy]

Jeez guys you're practically twins! Your basses came through side by side!

 

[ColonelZulu]

I finally have a good gig to use my Upton Professor Special Deluxe. It's a hospital benefit gala. We will be doing lots of r&b, Motown, and some pop jazz type things (Grover Washington, Van Morrison, Sinatra).

I put some guts on the D and G in light of some Django jams I was doing. I may swap back. It's an outdoor gig and I don't like guts in humidity.

Most of the tunes will be using a BG though.
So, I'm going to use a JamHub to control two separate signals into one amp and PA and have something to drive my in-ear monitor (especially important for the upright).

Wish me luck. Regardless of how I sound, I know at least I will LOOK good.

 

[artfahie]

I play with several groups... mostly (almost always !).... just for fun. We take it a "little" seriously... but as with the attached file of "Pennies From Heaven" we pretty much stick to a straight read from a RealBook... one take... no real game plan. I'm using a hybrid Bohemian with Spirocores & a Fishman for this.... the recording (and myself) could both probably use some tweaking... the recording starts to swing once we get into it. After 15 months of playing upright I'm loving it ! Oh well... at least it's a recording ! (no amp used, just the Fishman into a small portable board). File attached.

 

[marcox]

Hey Upton owners and enthusiasts! There's an Upton Hawkes for sale at a (non-bass-specific) music store a few hours away. I believe the Hawkes model came in both hybrid and laminate versions. Is there anything in the attached photo that suggests one or the other? Am I right in seeing a double-turn scroll, and hence a circa 2007 pre-USA model?

Thanks for any insight you can offer.

 

[Eric Rene Roy]

Looks like a laminated bass made in Europe before we knew we were going to be making them in house (old body pattern, old ff's, European varnish).

What's the serial number? Should be a date format like: 031506-01 which would be March 15, 2006 and the first bass finished that day.

 

[marcox]

Thanks, Eric! I appreciate hearing this info directly from the source. One more question, if I may: was there a standard scale length for these models? Looking at the classifieds and other discussions of Upton Hawkes on TB I've seen mention of 41", 41.5", 42", and other lengths.