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Double Bass What a difference a screw makes!

tb-player

tb-player

Why so serious?
Mar 6, 2019
6,705
29,946
East Coast, USA
#1
You may recall that I recently purchased a beautiful New Standard La Scala upright bass.
CA0BD3DB-5A3B-4D61-AC52-BC52873AC34E.jpeg


In my excitement upon receiving it, I posted quite a few photos here on TB. At one point, I even reached out to Arnold Schnitzer to see if he had any history on the bass (built 2005). A few days later, he directed me to his former partner Wil DeSola. But he ended his correspondence with this...

Jeff, get rid of those phillips-head screws in the tuners! That would never have happened in my shop! Cheers.

I hadn’t even noticed until I went back & looked at the photo:
7AE03F7E-A2A7-4C1E-9652-149E3E3CDBD1.jpeg


So I took his advice & contacted Wil. He was very helpful. He gave me as much history on my bass as he knew. And he was kind enough to drop an envelope full of proper screws in the mail. That is customer service!

I swapped out the screws and am surprised what a difference they make.
5E10883E-4B0D-4287-8814-1E07D789CA2F.jpeg


Who knows when they got switched out for Phillips head in the past 16 years. But I do appreciate the heads up by Arnold and the generous assistance from Wil. It’s a subtle difference, but I really like it.
 
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#3
I never looked before just now, but my LaScala hybrid has flathead screws on the tuner plates. I find this funny, because IRL I consider flathead screws to be the devil and inferior to Phillips head screws in every possible way. If I understand the history, my hybrid is the first one ever made, and still the hybrid picture up on their website.
 
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#8
Chris Fitzgerald said:
I never looked before just now, but my LaScala hybrid has flathead screws on the tuner plates. I find this funny, because IRL I consider flathead screws to be the devil and inferior to Phillips head screws in every possible way. If I understand the history, my hybrid is the first one ever made, and still the hybrid picture up on their website.
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When you get chastised by Arnold Schnitzer himself, you do whatever he says. These definitely have a nicer appearance. He actually told me to get oval flat head brass screws. But that’s not what I was sent. I may get some to compare. It’s just funny that the plate screws were the first thing he saw.
 
#14
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#18
When I was in a classic car club, some members would do that w/ all the exposed screws (of which there were many on 60s Chevys). I never took things to that extreme! (My Corvair was a beater!)
 
#20
i love that this detail is being addressed more commonly these days.

Kieran o'hara pointed that out to me... I think one of the screws on a bass of mine he was working on had been replaced with a phillips head, and he pointed it out.

ever since then it's something I cant un-see... looks much more elegant, and is more traditional/historically accurate.

nice bass!!
 

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