It's easy to work at Upton Bass and daydream about the instrument you might order for yourself one day. This latest Klotz double bass has us all taking note in this regard. It's just gorgeous! Compact, begging to be played, light and responsive, pretty from every angle. Our Klotz copy started as a special Custom Commissions project and has really caught on. The combination of smallish stature and giant sound is welcome in many genres. This high-arched example was built with wild grain and spalted big leaf maple with neck to match. Brass Baker-style tuners are a joy to use,…
View Full Post
(Read part ONE in the series if you missed it) To build our first Victor Wooten double bass we started with tracings of his centuries-old Carcassi instrument. The outline was so asymmetrical, we thought it would be better as a NEW instrument to correct the outline, and we created two mirror images, yielding very different basses, and opened it up to social media for feedback on which outline was preferred. Center is actual asymmetric Carcassi tracing - on Left, mirror image version of Carcassi left side, on Right, mirror image version of its right side... Ultimately we went with our gut…
View Full Post
Upton Bass is proud to have just completed a very cool commission for legendary bass guitarist Victor Wooten! Over the next few posts, we'll walk you through this whole Victor Wooten double bass project. It began with the idea for a collaboration at the 2015 ISB show in Rochester. Victor asked to bring us his 18th Century instrument labeled as a Vincenzo Carcassi, a stout wide-ribbed 5/8ths-time traveler with a strong and clear voice. Victor got this bass from Stanley Clarke! Try to imagine the Italian Vincenzo working by lantern, no concept that this bass would be played by some…
View Full Post
Here's a fully carved round back five-string Bostonian that is pleasing to the eye from every angle. The warm amber finish really shows off the woodgrain with a beautifully arched and recurved poplar back. The low B string is very responsive and playable - even this young it sounds warm and full. What a cool build - antiqued tuners set off the color, a few mother-of-pearl dot markers and finished with a Rev Solo pickup. Every detail of an Upton five string is designed without compromise to balance the demands of the extra string and you can feel it! "Wilson"…
View Full Post