Double Bass Weak A string

[Calvin Marks]

Such an interesting bass. Could we have some history?

I bought it from the principal bass of the Milwaukee symphony.

The bass is supposedly made by a violin maker named Philbrick in the early 1800s in America. It was a three string bass and I have the original tuners. The bass was in pieces and left in a closet for over 50 years in Nashville. It was put back together and overhauled by Josh Henley a few years ago before a Heartland C extension went on.

The sound is gigantic for an instrument its size.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

No. The sound post placement was okay, the bridge was originally almost on top of it.

That explains a lot soundwise.

The post on my bass was too close (but not as close as yours) when I got it and moving it away opened and softened the sound since the high side bridge foot could drive the top a lot better afterwards.
Also I no longer needed pickups on both sides of the bridge then.

 

[David Potts]

Years ago we had a supposedly William Forster bass here with the same sort of outline but bigger. The front was arched from north to south but almost flat east-west between the F holes. The sound was big, dark and very English. The modelling of the back was very similar. It came here with Charles Gray, the featured bass player in the Boyd Neal Chamber Orchestra, in the early 50s. Afterwards he returned to Sydney to lead the SSO section. Several owners later the bass went back to England with the dealer, Peter Georgiadis.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

I know that bass for some reason. It’s too gorgeously weird to forget.

 

[Calvin Marks]

Problem solved: Spirocore A string