I have worked on one bass each from two Vancouver luthiers of the previous generation.
Fred Carlsson (if I'm recalling the spelling - could be one 's') made a dark blood-red bass with violin corners and quite rounded arching in 1963, I think. It's been more than 10 years since I saw it, and memory is a bit hazy. The varnish was almost opaque, showing little of the grain beneath. Ribs were of very twisty but non-flamed wood, showing a lot of cracks. The varnish was glassy-hard, like a baked enamel or something, amazingly tough stuff. Bass was pretty solid arco, not so interesting pizz. I made a C-extension for it and put on new tuners, as the originals were something like recycled Kluzons. The work generally showed considerable understanding of the craft, if a little provincial in execution. Not to say he didn't have skill - lots of confident work in evidence, just not really a mainstream sort of instrument. I know nothing else of this maker.
The other was a well-known restorer in the 1960's through early 1970's called Sidney Orpwood, who I think had a workshop and storefront on East Hastings Street somewhere. Apparently self taught, many of his restorations showed either a disdain for tradition or ignorance of same. His bassbars were most obviously his own. These were often of Douglas fir, quite dense, and cut lower than most integral bars in the middle, then tapering not much towards the ends. About twice as deep at the middle as at the ends, then were at deepest about 1" deep. Also slightly narrower than usual, and slightly shorter end to end. This frequently led to some arching collapse over the following decades, though not usually catastrophically. His gluing was solid, and in one case where a bass was badly crushed in a car accident he pieced together dozens of splinteres to make the belly whole again, with very little new wood added. His varnish was a sort of signature; honey-amber in colour and a classic soft oil varnish texture, it was slightly muddy, but had sufficient clarity to see the wood well. An unfortunate penchant for stripping instruments and re-varnishing... but at least he did it well, unlike so many would-be restorers who paint on any old thing after abusing the wood beneath.
Sidney is known to have made only 3 basses, and of these I've seen and worked on only one. This was his last, completed in 1971 after some trouble with the belly seams starting in 1969. The belly was made in 3 planks, not the usual bookmatched 2. The centre plank went from f-hole to f-hole upper circle, and the holes are more widely separated than average. It was absolutely flat between the glue lines going across the arching, only curving into more of a barrel shape towards the end blocks. The arching then becomes arching-proper at the glue lines, suddenly dropping down rather dramatically towards the outer edges. Varnish was the same golden-amber. A rather large 7/8ths size bass if memory serves. Also made his own tunable tailpieces, on this and some other basses, using a massive piece of ebony and individual brass frets for each string riding on small brass threaded rods with brass knurled knobs on the top edge of the tailpiece to adjust tail section string lengths. Very convenient to accomodate the rule of 2 octaves and a 5th above open string pitch, allowing for variability of silk weight and other factors in string construction from brand to brand and string to string. Unfortunately a bit of a boat anchor in mass.
The belly of this one bass I've seen has suffered quite dramatic collapse, to the extent that the inside toes of the bridge feet cannot meet the belly even though they've twisted the adjuster shafts considerably under string pressure. This, after several attempts at re-fitting the feet to accomodate the collapse. The middle under the bridge has apparently gone down more than 1/2" from original contour. I was given only a brief opportunity to attempt gluing of one open section of belly joint on the upper bass side. Was able to make it stop buzzing and stay closed, using a few small cleats put in through the f-hole. Sound was quite massive, if a bit chaotic. Used primarily as a pizz instrument, and not often I think.
My sense of Sidney Orpwood generally was of a conscientious and hard working luthier with a pragmatic attitude towards instruments. He made them work, not worrying too much about how tradition dictated things ought to be done. For the most part he seems to have succeeded. I've met a few players who knew him, and liked him, and the word 'interesting' has come up a few times in talking about the man. Wish I'd known him but I was about 11 or so when he died.
Earlier it was stated that Reid Hudson had probably not made any basses. Not strictly true. Reid worked on a bass many, many years ago, but did not complete it I think. I saw the ribs on the mould a couple of times in visits to buy wood in the 1980's. Later, he worked with Zak Stolk to first make a new belly for an old bass, then later helped Zak make another bass or two when Zak was getting established. Zak is another modern Canadian bass luthier not previously mentioned here, I think. His basses are now approximately equal to those of Peter Chandler in terms of finish, refinement in the carving, and inconsistency of sound, with some succeeding very well and others not quite. This continues what he said about his own work when I met him in the early 1990's at a showing of Island makers' work. He had a number of fiddles there, and two 'cellos. One was more refined in finish, but didn't deliver even or particularly good tone. The other, just recently finished and still smelling of lavender oil, positively bursting with sound. I played it for half an hour in a hallway of the church where that show took place, and only pressure from the lineup of eager 'cellists waiting forced me to let it go. While rather ugly to look at, the thing just begged to be played. I asked him what made the difference. He couldn't say, and expressed frustration that he didn't know what he had done right, or done wrong in the other case. He sold that 'cello easily that afternoon to a young teenager, for $4,000 - at the time I think the most he had earned for an instrument by FAR, considering his average violin price was about $300. Tends to make rather large basses.
