Gary’s auditions three classic JTL-lineage French double basses from the late 19th Century! These three beautiful late-19th Century French guild double basses are currently available for side-by-side comparison at Upton Bass! Large format J. Thibouville-Lamys (and JTL-related Jacquot) with rounded upper bouts, all are in excellent playing condition and thrive in orchestral or jazz settings.…
New Double Bass Bows from Brazil
We’ve just gotten a beautiful variety of French and German grip Pernambuco bows from the Arcos Brazil collective of bowmakers. New bows going up daily, but here’s a quick selection of several of them with silver or nickel, snakewood and mother-of-pearl accents. We’ve found them to be of excellent quality for this price point –…
The Gary Upton Podcast
Double bass amplification! Gary’s podcast Double Bass & Beyond continues. This fall Gary’s been recording a series where he aims to answer some of your most often-asked-about double bass questions. This week he dives into the topic of amplifying your acoustic bass. If it’s all just being amplified anyway, why not just use a plywood?…
Bass Shop featured in American Trails Magazine
The bass shop was splashed all over the pages of a European travel magazine this week – the travelogue American Trails caters to tourists from Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. They found us in Mystic for a chat with Gary and some great bass building pictures! The full American Trails article can be found here…
Ten Years of the Brescian Model Double Bass – The First Builds
The Brescian Model Double Bass was being designed and prototyped at the same time we were raising our post-and-beam workshop in 2012. From the original Upton Hawkes pattern, our gravitational pull was always towards giant Italy-via-England contrabasses – violin patterns with broad proportions built enormous for lavish orchestra sections. The Upton Brescian Model was our…
Ten Years of the Concord Model Upton Double Bass
The Concord Model double bass was one of our first ambitious design projects once Upton Bass moved into our own post-and-beam workshop in Mystic. It was born out of a long admiration for Prescott basses and a realization Upton Bass had to have a model paying tribute to New England stringmaking history! An homage to…
Bass Hero Quotes – Wall Art from Upton Bass!
Basses take a LOT of tonewood – and as we work and watch the scraps fall, we couldn’t help but think – they don’t all have to go into the wood stove! Here at the workshop we get some nice trim pieces cut outside the lines on our bass backs once joined – they are…
Vintage Update: Affordable Excellence to the Exotic
A quick look at some great double basses new to our Vintage & Used page – a big, light and loud New Standard, a compact German classic and a large-voiced player from Patagonia! Nice to see the aging patina on this familiar New Standard (with that American Standard plywood shape) – this one’s a great…
Biggest Upton Yet – The 4/4 SuperKarr
This striking, amber 4/4 double bass just turned ten years old, conceived for clarity and playability it truly shines in the low ranges. With a 48″ back, what seems like a half-acre of brilliantly tiger-striped Bigleaf Maple furnishes the generous back and sides. Fitted with a fully-gated Low B extension (yup, B not C) we…
Ultimate Uptons
We are in the process of building a new online gallery of some of our favorite Upton double basses of all time! Showcasing premium builds and commissions, this new gallery will display what happens when our talents are really pushed to the next level. Here’s a sneak peek of some of our choices: This very…
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