Upton Bass School brings detailed lessons and insight from our own setup benches directly to you! Our Knowledge Bass is built for every issue great and small, check out a free version of the Upton Bassics care guide, or renew your entire bass setup with our Pro Luthier series! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PXucRl9EmEo No question too great or too small! Browse through our new class area with much more to come!
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We've always appreciated the accomplishments of Abraham Prescott and his thriving early 19th Century New England string instrument company. Separated by an ocean from the violinmaking traditions of Europe, his large resonant basses built of native old-growth Sugar Maple have inspired classical and jazz bassists to this day. In this holiday season we can see his handiwork all around the Upton shop! From a Busetto-cornered 1820s example (available) to our fresh restoration of this 1830s gamba-cornered instrument, previously uncatalogued! This broken attic denizen came to us with in pieces, but with complete three-string originality. After a tremendous effort by the…
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This new Upton double bass is a direct tracing from the Tiny Martin Prescott, a fully-sized Abraham Prescott bass, perhaps one of the last built in the 1840s. That Prescott enjoyed a decades-long career filling Boston Symphony Hall under the bow of Leslie "Tiny" Martin. It exemplifies how a simple ingenious New England double bass is still the perfect design for a huge, remarkably clear low register. Another similar Prescott is still used by Lawrence Wolfe in the same chair. This is our first foray into copying a Prescott design that was not Busetto shape (Concord) or even violin-cornered! (Church…
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Another Santagiuliana double bass build! This pattern is becoming a favorite with its early-era Italian long and broad upper bout. Gary selected some of our most breathtaking figured maple for O239, which seems to go on forever throughout the canted back and wide ribs. Just strung with Gary's Blended set of clear low and flexible top strings, the big sound was clear and lively at first touch, already getting sweeter as it settles in under tension in the loft. This remarkable bookmatched back of maple stretches the full width and length the broad back and ribs. This much quilted maple…
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