Double Bass and Instrument Services at Upton Bass

Bass Services at Upton Bass String Instrument Co.

Upton Bass String Instrument Corporation provides professional setup, repair & restoration  and appraisal services. This service is made possible with a qualified staff of experienced luthiers that have been educated in stringed in all facets of lutherie. All services are done on-site at out Mystic location.

Instrument and Bow Appraisals:  At Upton Bass, we offer appraisals on any stringed instrument of the violin family. Our set rate for documentation and certificate is Two Hundred Fifty USD for an instrument valued at less that Ten Thousand USD.  For instruments exceeding Ten Thousand USD a flat rate of  one percent is charged.   Found an old violin in grandmas attic?  The knowledgeable staff at Upton Bass String Instrument Co.  is happy to assist you in determining what you have and assessing its value.  We have repaired, restored, appraised and inspected thousands of fine instruments and have the experience to provide you with a concrete assessment of your bass, cello, viola, or violin.

Instrument Setup:  When it comes to the double bass, one of the most important factors is to have a professional setup.  Many variables come together to make a bass play and sound the way it should.  Upton Bass String Instrument Co., as a double bass specialty shop, has set up over a thousand basses in the past five years alone!  Whether you’re a jazz, classical, bluegrass, rockabilly or any other type of bass player we have can make your bass play and sound better. 

On nearly every bass we see, even from prominent bass shops, there are elements that need to be addressed and corrected.  We feel the term “set-up” is so often misused and quoted for someone giving a bass just enough attention to make things “work”.  Our bass setup includes the evaluation of the player’s needs and the abilities of the instrument to meet what the player is looking for within the scope of the given instrument.  Bring your bass in today for a free setup and tonal evaluation by our expert staff of luthiers, all of which most are performing double bass players.

Our luthiers spend time with you to get a feel for not only how you play, but what you play.  Upton Bass setups can include:

* High quality, heavy duty ebony endpins are fit with removable metal threaded rubber tips.

* Top quality French bridges are meticulously fitted, carved, and tonally adjusted for each individual bass.  The top radius of each bridge is custom carved to meet the specifications of your playing style.  Once a bridge meets our standards, it is then branded with our logo.

* English style grade "AAA" ebony tailpieces are hung with our own "HiTec" tailpiece cable.  This lightweight, flexible cable is stronger than steel!  Each tailpiece is carefully tuned for your bass to maximize tone and minimize or eliminate wolf notes.

* Seasoned German spruce sound posts are hand selected of various diameters and fit by us to ensure each bass reaches its maximum tonal capabilities.  Our sound posts fit 100%.  No bevel! No domes!

* Fingerboards of the highest grade (AAA) ebony are dressed and polished to perfection.  Whether your preference is round or beveled, our luthiers can make it play to perfection.

* Ebony nuts are brought to exact tolerances.  Other than the bridge, the nut is one of the most important (and most overlooked by other shops) aspects of your setup.  Incorrect string angles can prematurely break strings and cause buzzes.  Incorrect spacing can make it difficult to play and grooves that are not correct can damage the string as well as take away from your basses tone.  Incorrect string heights can not only make your bass difficult to play, but may cause long term medical problems!

* Each bass is played by our staff.  It is not uncommon to see the entire workshop shut down when a bass utters it's first notes.  If something is not quite right, it is done again until it is.  Simply put, the level and quality of service we offer is second to none!

Repair & Restoration: We  love basses....we all do....right?  That's why you are here!  If you work on double basses, you have to love them.  Working on basses poses lots of challenges, from the sheer size and workshop space required to the unique understanding of the many ways they can be played. 

Basses, unlike any other orchestral instrument, have no set of rules that are universally accepted.  Often, the bass is shunned from workshops and left to be repaired by anyone with some clamps and glue.  Too frequently, we see simple repairs and maintenance work that turns into full blown restoration simply trying to reverse years and decades worth of neglect and poor repair.

At Upton Bass String Instrument Co. our goal is to elevate repair & restoration of the double bass to the grandest level of respect.  We are sure our commitment, knowledge, and the quality of work we conduct on every bass is evidence of our dedication to this goal. 

Upton Bass has done something unheard of in this line of business...we put our work on public display.  Gone are the dark days of secrecy when it comes to the repair and restoration of your instrument! We created a picture portfolio website called www.stringrepair.com initially so that our customers could follow along with the work we were doing on their instrument.  This simple website that was aimed at keeping our customers informed with the progress that was being made on their instrument  has turned into one of the most visited and linked to string repair websites in the world!  It  is talked about in every professional circle, whether it be musician or luthier centered...and it is often that someone sends us a link to a discussion on an internet forum where our methods are being discussed!!! 

And....yeah, we love basses....did we mention that?

Please visit www.stringrepair.com for more information.