Double Bass How many double basses do you own ?

Mister Cbass

Mister Cbass

Jun 30, 2011
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France
#1
Hello,

All is in the title. If more than one, how many and why ?
As bass player ( and a lot of other musicians), and due to g.a.s. crisis, I own many e-bass.
Of course they are different, used for different styles, back up .

Actually I own one double bass. Not something incredible, But I love it ( a Sebim, Chinese, 3/4 half carved....something I think like the shen in usa).

- Sometime, I think to get a second one. Something better, more expensive (( fully carved) not sure that I would be more happy and not usefull due to my level etc...
- Something cheap but not crap, as a back-up, plywood more 4x4.
- Something with a different setup / strings for rockab....
etc etc...

I'd like the sound of a plywood bass, Cannot explain why and what. Of course I've not test thousand of DB, but I've a curious feeling with plywood bass.
My next db would probably be something like a gewe, stentor, Eastman....

And You ?

Sebastian
 
#3
I have two. My first is a fairly cheap black Chinese import, the second is a Thompson Chinese plywood import, much nicer than the first. It has an ebony fingerboard and tailpiece and really nice tuners. Both are equipped with Krivo magnetic pickups.

A TBer posted weeks ago that he would love to spend his isolation learning double bass.I offered him my first DB to learn on. He is taking online lessons and seems to be enjoying learning.
He left me a drop dead gorgeous 5 string as collateral, I'd never touched one before. After a few minutes trying it, I decided I'd stick with my upright and my 4 string electrics.
 
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#4
AGCurry said:
I'm down to two. One carved, for lessons and arco, and one plywood, for gigs where I play only pizzicato amplified. They're both from KC Strings (Kansas City/St. Louis).
Click to expand...

I wonder the choice of nice plywood ( or not) new or used they are in usa.... In Europe it's a joke.
Yep, Plywood for little gig, bar etc .... A I'd like to get a good plywood for pizzicato.
 
#8
At the moment two..:) :p one roundback and one flatback.. different woods on back and sides...
Bild_12.JPG
some years ago I sold my Larkin EUB...:banghead: :cool:
another one with a removable neck would be great and the icing on the cake... :) :hyper:
 
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#12
3 all carved. First one, a german blockless wonder, probably late 19th, early 20th century. Very light, sounds wonderful, too delicate for me to move it around much. A shame. Then a German flatback from 1930s, I believe, which was an unplayable wreck bought in a junk shop. Pictures in the luthier's section of the more recent neck thickening. Nice somewhat delicate tone. And my main one, German, round back, probably 1930's, also bought as a wreck and self rebuilt. Nothing delicate in its tone.
 
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#14
If you play a bunch of styles it is great to have multiple basses set up differently, though it is a luxury.

I’m fortunate to have one carved set up with high-up guts for traditional jazz, roots, etc. music; one carved set up primarily as a classical arco instrument; and one plywood with Spirocores that I use as a general-use instrument - especially for amplified gigs where you don’t get all the nuance of a great bass anyway.
 
#16
Two, a Mittenwald factory bass from the 1920s that was my second double bass and which I played for at least 25 years. I really loved the way the bass sounds and feels (and still do, to a certain extent) until I got my current instrument, which is a new bass made by Jed Kriegel which I took possession of in March of last year. When I got the German bass, I had been playing a Kay, which sat in its case behind my sofa (in a 650 sq ft apartment in Brooklyn) for a couple of months. So I decided to sell it and within a few weeks after it sold I had to turn down a rehearsal band offer because I couldn't make it from my day gig to the rehearsal space AND go back to Brooklyn to pick up the bass. Taking it in to the day gig during morning rush wasn't an option; if I'd had a bass I could have left there, I'd have had the gig.
Since I moved away from NYC, I've had the opportunity to make a few cats lives easier when they've come through town doing the bass du jour thing by loaning them the German bass. And I still like the bass, so it's not likely I'll ever sell it.

Here they are, side by side....
IMG_20191009_113930379.jpg
IMG_20191009_113944430.jpg
IMG_20191009_114004480.jpg
IMG_20191009_114015844.jpg
 
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