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…
Double Basses with a Restoration Future
Gary has pulled down some basses from the loft which need work but promise to be amazing instruments once tuned back to life! We’ve set the prices to include the full shop restoration, completely redone, down to the last cleat. The finished instruments will be tuned to precision with modern overstand and a complete setup…
A Piece of Kay Bass History and Kay Bass Future?
Gary shows off this piece of American bassmaking history in this new video! This form is a piece of Kay Bass history – it was used to build most of the deluxe Kays, blonde S-7s and S-9s. Perhaps your Kay was built on it? If the thought of a new Upton Kay double bass interests…
Parisian Trio – 3 French Double Basses Compared
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?…
Available Upton Basses!
Updated listings for the end of September! The return-to-school and work season has left us with a lot of Upton upgrades in the works and a lot of re-sorting of customer quivers. Which means – we actually have quite an assortment of Upton basses ready to grab and go! For us, the jewel in the…
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…
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