Oreste Martini (1893-1957) learned his craft from the great Mantuan maker Stefano Scarampella. After his tutelage under master Stefano Scarampella, beginning at age 14, Martini was producing his own instruments by his early 20s. He began his career with a focus on double basses (reported to be a double bassist himself) but went on to…
Double Bass Repair & Restoration
An inside view of Upton Bass String Instrument Co.'s Instrument Repair & Restoration Workshop. Our sister website, www.StringRepair.com was originally created to communicate with our clients about the progress of their project, as well as to better display our double bass repair & restoration capabilities in conjunction with UptonBass.com. StringRepair.com was launched in 2005 and was one of the first active repair blogs on the web, opening the door to better transparency to the client from the back room of the workshop.
Today, Upton Bass String Instrument Co. continues to offer world-class repairs of all instruments in the violin family, and our active repairs are showcased below and on the following pages.
While StringRepair.com is not actively updated today, we keep it up as it's become a great reference source for many workshops worldwide. We hope you enjoy the collection!
Prescott Scroll
#TBT correcting the sins of past “luthiers” who cut into the scroll to mount an extension.
Mittenwald Double Bass and a trip down a rabbit hole…
THIS IS AN ACTIVE REPAIR, BE SURE TO CHECK BACK OFTEN! This is one of the great Mittenwald basses we have had through the shop. The varnish is to die for, and tone is even better! But, these things we like to haul around are BIG and AWKWARD, and sometimes you bump it on things. This…
American Standard Delaminations…
This American Standard double bass came in with a “loose” bass bar and arching deformations around the bridge/soundpost as well as the lower bout. Upon an internal inspection, the bass bar had not let go, the laminations had failed. We took off the top and were able to easily remove a layer of wood. Testing…
Too Much Tension…After & Before
For a change of pace, let’s start off with the finished pictures! This old bass has been restored, badly, numerous times before…with the most recent restoration utilizing a lot of epoxy and wood filler! The bass was brought in because it was feeling too tight, and the owner wanted to look at setup items…
Brass Plates as Braces
This French-made double bass had a past scroll fracture that failed after the crafting of an extension for it. We began by using water to completely disassemble the scroll…which wasn’t hard! The original repairs were simply glued, there were no reinforcement grafts added. We began by making a simple caul, shaped to the back of the…
Milano 1766
Milano 1766
Brooklyn Taxi Disaster Double Bass Renewed
This was a very customized double bass, based on French Mirecourt designs, with violin corners added, in a very J.T. Lamy French red much beloved by Brooklyn jazz phenom Max Johnson. Hard to categorize with our current models (former-Professor-quasi-Brescian?), this bass serves as another example of – if you don’t see exactly what you dream of…
Baroque Bass Removable Neck Conversion
If you’re going to travel safely with something as big as a double bass, you need to reduce the footprint of the instrument and make it easier for TSA & Airline workers to handle. This Baroque bass was brought in to us to have it’s neck converted to a removable neck to meet the owners…