[Dixielandjazz] Optimum sound from Double Basses - was Luckyhorse

[Allan Brown]

Hey Steve,

I've got that book - and I concur with all you say. It is an amazing book and I spend many a happy hour leafing through it. 

I hope you don't mind me indulging in the story of my bass.

Whilst at art college my pal Jerry (who now makes those electric double basses) and I discovered a bust up student bass in a locker. We asked if we could have it and when permission was granted we decided to divide the spoils - I took the body and Jerry took the neck and fingerboard. He went on to make a body and I a neck to compliment our respective halves. (The art college joke being that had a splinter come off the original bass, someone would have stepped forward to make a whole new bass around it.)

 Luckily the landlord of the digs I was in at the time had a workshop and he let me use it and his tools. So I set about carving a neck, armed with nothing but my ignorance. I was, however, given invaluable advice by a local double bass maker that I discovered and he also gave me some old metal tuning pegs that I managed to fit to my freestyle headstock. The scroll was an ugly, ungainly thing which I've since improved. I was also unaware of the arcane art of shaping the fingerboard and scooped out far too much wood in the middle of the fingerboard to prevent buzzing, when I should have been raising the bridge.

The body is made of plywood, but underneath the horrible orange lacquer lay a lovely grained wood. So I sanded it all down but I didn't dare open it up to move the sound post and bar to the other side of the bass in order to make it truly left handed. Getting the neck and the body together was nightmare as the block the neck sat on was the cheapest of the cheap and was wafer thin as the bass must have been dropped at some point in the past and the neck must have sheared off taking most of the block with it. In the end I just had to screw the neck on in a move that would have Chuck's toes curling in his boots. And that's how my bass stayed for over a decade. It looked pretty but it was just too difficult to play.

Despite the frustrations I really enjoyed making it and a couple of years ago I was thinking of having a go at making a new bass, including the body this time. Whilst researching I came across Chuck's book and it totally opened my eyes to what's involved in getting the optimum sound out of a double bass. I figured that rather than making a new bass there was probably a lot I could do with the existing bass. So i took it Jerry who's set up scores of basses now and we pretty much stripped it right back. We pulled off the fingerboard and re-glued it. He totally re-shaped the fingerboard and we hacked off the scroll, which I re-shaped and we pegged and glued it back on. A new bridge and a set of new strings and it sounded like a totally different instrument - and so much easier to play. (But not easy enough!)

I just don't realistically have the time or a suitable workshop to do it at the moment but at some point I've love to give it another go. There are a couple of good books out about how to make double basses and Chuck's book is a bible. My father-in-law is also a fantastic carpenter and has made several classical guitars as well as two astonishing lutes. So I feel I really should be doing something with this knowledge and expertise that surrounds me. 

Pass on my gratitude and appreciation to Chuck, should you speak to him. That book is a wonder.

All the best,

Allan


On 30 Jan 2010, at 17:16, Stephen G Barbone wrote:

> 
> On Jan 30, 2010, at 11:23 AM, Allan Brown wrote:
> 
>> Every time I follow a link to the music being produced by members of the DJML I'm blown away. I, however, have little to show or impress with. In fact the only record I have is a poor video from the one gig I've played in about 15 years. I'm playing my homemade/ hybrid left hand double bass and you can see me staring intently at the silver markers I painted onto the side of the neck, in an attempt to play vaguely in tune. It's not Dixieland, but I hope you enjoy it. The band is called Luckyhorse and Simon the singer wrote the song.
>> 
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSDLe7DO32E
>> 
>> I've since had a pal set my bass up properly, and given how much easier it plays now I'm amazed I got anything out of it at all. (Should anyone be interested he makes fantastic electric double basses http://www.bespokebasses.co.uk/ )
>> 
>> Allan Brown
>> 
>> (Thanks again for all the banjo feedback.)
> 
> Hey Allan:
> 
> Sounds good.
> 
> For the ultimate information about how to set up the Double Bass for optimum sound, see Chuck Traeger's Book written a couple of years ago.
> 
> "Setup and Repair of the Double Bass For Optimum Sound: A Manual for Players, Makers And Repairers."
> 
> Also see his "Coda to the Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound" which was just published. Valuable tips on setting up the sound post as well as the peg Two simple adjustments which will improve the volume as well as the quality of the sound even allowing you to customize the sound for the type of band.
> 
> Both are available from Amazon and highly recommended by Bass players such as Ron Carter, whose basses Chuck has repaired and set up over the years. Traeger has also taken care of Basses for members of the New York Philharmonic and restored antique Basses for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City,
> 
> He is retired (at 84) now, but was the house bassist at Nick's in Greenwich Village NYC during the 1950s, playing with Pee Wee Erwin, Phil Napoleon, Billy Maxted, Tony Sbarbaro and others there. He also played at Condon's and all the other jazz joints in NYC.. He is one of the few musicians still alive, (along with Bob Wilber) who played with Bunk Johnson, Sidney Bechet and Hot Lips Page.
> 
> He opened up a bass repair shop in NYC in the 60s or 70s which was widely acclaimed by Luthiers as well as musicians. More info: see:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Setup-Repair-Double-Optimum-Sound/dp/1892210061
> 
> Amazon sells the book for $68.07 USD, and the Coda for $24.50 USD.
> 
> BTW, I don't get money for recommending his books, however I will admit to being a friend of his for about 58 years or so, and playing in bands with him during the 1950s and early 1960s. Great player, super intelligent person, very knowledgeable about Basses.
> 
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
> www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband
> 
> 
> 
> 
>