This week’s bass of the week is a beautiful custom made
fully carved concert deluxe. We made this one for Carole, a smaller player
looking for a not so small orchestral sound. Her last bass was just too big and
wasn’t very manageable or playable. After auditioning a few 5/8ths size basses
and not getting enough sound she realized a real solution was needed.
As many people would be, Carole was nervous about buying a
bass before seeing it. There is a strong relationship between an instrument and
the musician, which is hard to judge when looking at pictures online. After
learning of our award for tone and watching a few
YouTube videos about the Upton Bass ways she was confident in a positive
outcome.
We had few specifics as far as what Carole was looking for
such as string size, body size etc. This bass was a first for us in a couple of
ways. It was the first time we did a solo maple concert, and also the first time
we did the solo pattern with violin corners.
The reason we kept the full depth ribs was in order to
achieve orchestral sound we didn’t want to lose any air volume. We still wanted
to keep it playable by making a really narrow upper shoulder. This created a
nice deep bottom end with a bloom to the notes.
All of the wood we used was domestic big leaf maple. Being
a softer maple compared to it’s European varieties it really did well tonally.
Keeping the ribs full depth and using the big leaf maple gave this instrument an
incredible sound. We treated this instrument as if we were getting ready to
bring it to the ISB 2011, and feel confidently that it could beat last years
instrument. Our staff was very impressed and proud of this instrument.
After Carole came to our Stonington location and tried out
her new bass she sent us an email saying “I am very happy with my newly made
Upton Bass. It turned out perfect for me. The bass is so responsive and
incredibly easy to play. This instrument exceeded my expectations and I would
certainly recommend having a bass built at your shop. Thanks for this
outstanding instrument.”
