_Written for mediocre john, posted here for posterity_ I enjoy and connect with a lot of objects. Some would call this materialism. That may be true, and certainly some of my hobbies are less justifiable than others. One of the particularly justifiable categories of objects I enjoy are musical instruments. Specifically, stringed instruments. Specifically, upright basses and guitars, as those are the instruments I've spent the majority of my life playing. I can enjoy the qualities of an upright bass or guitar in a very experiential way, as opposed to an observational way as one would with art, watches, etc. There are a number of things that make an upright bass particularly interesting. Primarily: its history, its construction, its materials, its features, its sound, its playability, its condition and restoration status. ## Construction ### Shape A bass can be constructed in all sorts of ways. There are all sorts of shapes: Gamba, Mirecourt, Violin, Rogeri, I suppose you could call Karr a shape, Pear, and more. The shapes are of varying complexities to construct, and the most standard shapes are Gamba, Mirecourt, and Violin. In most cases, you're looking at if a bass has *sloped shoulders* or _cello shoulders_ and if it has _violin corners_ or _gamba corners_. The following bass has _sloped shoulders_ and _gamba corners_: [ The following bass has _cello shoulders_ and _violin corners_: [ Violin corners are considered higher end, as they're slightly harder to construct. However, as a pricing factor, they do not dominate the price of the bass. Practically, I prefer violin corners as they make the bass much easier to carry. They're like handles that you can grab onto when carrying a double bass in the standard way. This is the standard way to carry a bass: [ The shoulders of a bass do not impact the price at all. Sloped shoulders tend to be better for playing solos, and cello shoulders are better for orchestral basses. This is purely ergonomic: with sloped shoulders, it is easier to reach more of the bass. In reality, most basses have sloped shoulders. The degree to which they are sloped changes, but most are sloped. Basses have other aspects to their shape: fingerboard extensions, rounded or flat backs, curved upper backs, D or Eb necks, size, and more. However, these are less important to me (except the D or Eb neck -- a bass should always have a D neck :) ) The thinner the top of a bass is, the more resonant the top is. However, it is also more fragile. A bass with a thin top that maintains its structural strength is incredibly difficult to craft, and would typically be highly sought after. ### Methodology Basses can be constructed either as laminate plywood, slathered in lacquer; oiled carved wood; or a hybrid of both. This factor correlates directly to price and sound. Plywood sounds bad, and the lacquer that is used on plywood looks and feels bad. It is a high, nasally sound without any low fundamental bass tones. Basses constructed out of fully carved wood sound the best: warm, rich sounds with open fundamental tones. Hybrids capture a lot of the carved sound, but use plywood for the parts of the bass that do not contribute to the sound as much. This saves some money. The front (or "top") of the bass vibrates the most, and therefore any good sounding bass will at least have a carved top. ## Materials Good bass materials include maple, willow, and spruce. It is rare that you'll find a carved or hybrid bass incorporating woods other than these. A spruce-topped and maple-backed bass is the most traditional construction method. These cuts of wood are often bookmatched, however a single slab of wood is often used in higher end basses. Basses can be varnished, lacquered, or oiled. Oiled basses feel the best to my touch, but older varnish feels very similar to oil. Generally, only cheaper basses are lacquered. The lacquer serves as a protective coating for less careful students of the instrument. ## Features ### Saddle An extended saddle will put more of the weight of the string tension on the bottom of the bass, and not the top of the bass. This frees the top of the bass up to resonate more. An extended saddle looks like this: [ ### C-Extension There's nothing I could write here that would be a better writeup than [this article](https://doublebasshq.com/gear_posts/what-are-double-bass-extensions-and-how-do-they-work/). A C-extension allows the double bass to fully match the range of a cello, but an octave lower. Being able to produce these extra-low notes leads to some of the most epic musical moments in playing bass. ## History It is not uncommon to see basses from the 1800's, and also not entirely uncommon to see basses from the 1700's. This is shocking to most people -- it's not every day you find yourself in the market for such an old and delicate object. Bass players are a small community, and a nice bass is often owned and taken care of by one or two people for their entire lifetime, and then passed along. Some basses from the late 1700's have only had a handful of owners! Because of these factors, the ownership and playing history of a bass is often known. This matters more to some and less to others. Personally, I connect deeply to old objects. I am overwhelmed with a sense of awe and historical connection when I visit historical sights, like the Great Wall of China. In a similar vein, I feel a deep connection to old instruments, as I'm writing myself into a chapter of this bass's life. I've played many basses that are older than the United States. Never owned one, but I've always been overwhelmed by the circumstances and history that the bass must have survived by now. Basses are delicate instruments! It is incredible that any survive for so long at all, especially as something that is often used every single day. Basses that have survived this long have, without exception, been loved and taken care of. It is always preferable to know the maker of a bass. There are plenty of old basses around where the maker is either an unknown person, or the maker's name is not even known. These bum me out a bit, as you'll never truly know who made it. Additionally, these are harder to appraise accurately. ## Condition and Restoration ## Sound At the end of the day, basses are meant to be played. Basses have to sound good. Old basses often sound good, new basses *sometimes* sound good. This is due to a few factors -- old basses that sound terrible have likely been turned into scrap wood by now. Basic evolution playing out on a small scale. And, secondarily, historically, builders didn't have the shortcuts that modern builders have available to them. There was no CnC machining, plywood, power tools, etc. A luthier crafting a bass had only one option to stay in business: produce a quality product, by hand, painstakingly. What makes a bass sound good? This is a subjective topic, and I'll present my stance. A bad bass will sound nasally. This means an emphasis in the upper midrange of the audible frequency spectrum, around 2kHz-3.5kHz. It will also lack lower fundamental pitches, and have an emphasis in the overtones. A good bass will have a slightly scooped sound (lower midrange frequencies) with a strong fundamental pitch, and slight emphasis in the more appealing overtones along the harmonic series. As you transition from the lower registers to the higher registers of a bass (above a C3, or the lowest C on the G string), some quality basses will lose their sound quality. They can sound great in the lower pitches, but become nasally in specifically this range as you play up the G string into the highest pitches the instrument can produce. A good bass will make this transition cleanly, and produce an almost cello-like sound as you get into this range. [This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v90f3k55HEw&t=820s "Mikyung Sung | Double Bassist Profile") shows just how good an excellent bass can sound in the hands of a great player. ## Playability The proportions of a bass and how that shape sits against the player's body is unique to each bass/player combination. A bass can have more or less of its weight in the scroll (near the top) or the body (near the bottom). Most ergonomics around a bass are individual to the player in this manner. However, there is one really important quality that is inherent to a bass itself: how it speaks. This is the most difficult aspect to put into words, as it is 100% a *feel* thing. A bass that is properly resonant will initiate its sound in a predictable way immediately. A lower quality bass will run through some other sounds, squirrel around a bit, and then get around to playing the fundamental pitch. Think of it like a slight stutter. You learn to play around this and force the bass to speak, but a nice bass will immediately open up and fully resonate with a nice, round sound.