Christopher Basses
 

I'm the proud owner of a Christopher 500 series fully carved, spruce/ebony violin shaped double bass. It took me a while to get the set up right, but now it really seems to be singing. I've got Bel Canto strings on. Are there any Christopher owners out there who want to talk about these basses?

I guess not.

Richard,

I have a good customer who plays a nice shiny Christopher. I don't know the number or model but he gets a great amount of tone from that bass. He uses Helicore strings and has the height of his strings a bit high by my standards. The neck is a bit thick and it is heavy bass overall. The finish is very nice with not a flaw anywhere. The fingerboard is high quality ebony and is dressed well.

They are a nice instrument similar to some Shen models and X Sun.

Thanks Ken,
It was getting a bit lonely on this thread. Luthiers in NZ seem to like setting up basses too high - none of the local ones play a bass, could be the reason. After mine came back from three luthiers, I read Ken's (Smith) advice and wound my adjustible bridge right down. It's not a perfect set up now, but it's pretty good. Mine is a 503 violin shape - 2nd to top model. They do have a thick neck, but I'm really enjoying playing mine. It has a good tone and seems to love the Bel Canto strings. Mine doesn't seem too shiny, but I seem to be scratching it quite a bit - my bass gets a lot of playing and moving around.

I took my Christopher out on a gig tonight - it was very, very slightly amplified. The room was big and empty. The bass filled the space. I really like my Christopher.

I've had a busy week at work and only got to put my hands on my Christopher for about 10 min. last night. I wish I could have stayed longer as it felt so good.
Hey, this thread is mainly me.

who me??
 

Richard, not everyone who reads the Forum has something to say. For what it's worth, my practice bass is a Shen which actually belongs to my son. Since he rarely plays DB, he leaves it at home so I can use it to practice with. Otherwise I have to bring something else back to the house.

I try to get my hands on a bass every day even if only for a few minutes. I keep this practice bass at home downstairs near my personal TV. If while watching tv a cool song comes on in a movie, I jump up and play along with it. Lots of Sinatra tunes in the movies today and stuff like that. :cool:

Ken, you need to keep a good bass at home.
Home is where the bass is and, of course, the wife.:D

good bass?
 

My Shen is a good bass. It's just not worth the price of the house.. lol

It is as good as many basses in the 5-10k range. Depending on the sound you are looking for. I once used this bass in an Orchestra concert as it was in town a block from where my son was and didn't want to haul a bass down there. I borrowed it from him and it worked just fine.

Thanks for your concern though..

I have two double basses at home - nowhere else to keep them.
I've just restrung my plywood A D G C.
I only did it for a bit of fun, but it turns out that I'm enjoying playing solo stuff on it. I used to have a bass guitar tuned like that, so I don't have a problem switching to the different notes. I might take this tenor bass busking. Who knows?

Just about to put the Weichs (normal tuning) back on the plywood.
I thought someone might want to know.

Speaking of.. I just found this on YouTube.. This was the Concert.. I'm the guy on 1st...;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze_AYnyJdwo

Come on Ken, stop pulling my leg, that guy on first bass is far too young and good looking... ah, it is you!
What was the camera man suffering from?

cameraman...
 

I just found that clip. Perhaps there is more to come one day. I have no idea who shot that. I actually have a CD of the entire concert I think that was shot much better but it's not on the web as far as I know. It was a special event for the Temple Univ. Science & Technology dept. Normally the Temple Orch. does this event but there were booked elsewhere so they invited this Orch.. The conductor who's a great guy is also the program director for Temple Public Radio, WRTI so he got the call.

This is an Amatuer Orchestra that I play in when I'm not busy elsewhere. Get's me out of the house and a chance to catch up from my 15 year retirement from playing bass and practice some of the Rep..

In the last few years I played maybe half the Concerts they have but still they keep me on 1st when I'm around. Out of the 4 main concerts they have this year, 3 series concerts and one Scholorship concert, I can only do one of them, the Scholorship. I am booked with two other Orchestras this year, my regular Orch. and another I sub in on occassion but was just offered the season so I took it. Still, when available, I go to the rehearsals of the Concerts I can't make to help out and get out of the house for the evening. I usually skip their Dress rehearsals so the guest artist doesnt get the wrong idea when I'm not on stage for the concert.

Ken, you pop up more than the guy in the Where's Wally books - is he really called Waldo up in your parts? I hope you wear a striped shirt when you go to these rehearsals.

pop up?
 

Explain please.. pop up? where?

Well, talking about popping up, I've just been playing my Christopher violin shaped bass. Those Bel Canto strings make it nice and warm - I can't see myself ever wanting to change them. I'm playing at a carols evening tonight and was thinking about taking my plywood, but the Christopher sounds too good to leave at home.

Oh, the popping up thing - I was referring to you showing up in all those bass sections. In the book, 'Where's Wally?', each page has a huge scene with things happening all over the page and you have to spot Wally. I had this image of you turning up in different bass sections and someone in the audience playing 'Where's Ken?' - well, it loses a bit in the explaining.

I should probably be worried that it made perfect sense to me. :eek:

No Dave, you're okay - you're from Nashville. Ken is from Perkasie.

oh..
 

Well, speaking of, I just returned to the office with Mr. Martini from doing a Christmas Concert with yet another Orchestra. Same conductor that's in that clip. He asked me to help tonight because they had no one. Actually, there was only one Cello there from their roster and two subs so the low strings were sight reading for the most part. I have Flex 92 Starks on the bass with the discontinued Stark E/C of which I bought up the last batch a when that news came my way.

2/2/10
 

The Christopher is sounding great. Maybe, though, I have it set up a little high in thumb position - though only by a smideon.
Hey, we've almost been together for a yeat now - 1st anniversary coming up!

Christopher 5-String
 

Just playing my Christopher 500 series Busetto fiver for a bit. Giving thanks (after all it IS Thanksgiving evening!) It's sounding better every week! My wife always complains about the low B; it seems to keep her awake! Happy Thanksgiving to all - give thanks for your families, your health, and your talent!

I've tried those Christophers and they sound great to me.
I tried basses from the 500 and 600 series - quite similar, methinks.

In case anyone is interested, I am the proud purchaser (if not quite yet the possessor) of a new Christopher 401T (i.e. carved Gamba flatback). It's a biggish 3/4 size (on some websites it appears to be listed as a 3/4-7/8), dark matte stain, nicely put together and with Rubner machine heads and an adjustable bridge. It's strung with Corellis (I'm assuming from their gauge and tension that they are the 370M, but waiting on confirmation of that), and sounded loud and rich played pizz.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to play it under the bow. The vendor (an experienced bassist, but not a luthier) loosened the strings (in his defense, it was only a little) in order to lower the bridge and the sound post dropped. He thinks it may have been on the short side, but will obviously be getting it back to his luthier. Good that it happened in his shop while he was messing with it!

I compared it with a Stentor (see other thread), and a German carved bass from the 60s (looks very much like the vendor's Hofner from a similar time). Much bigger and "fuller" (I guess more pleasant combination of harmonics??) sound than either of them, at least pizzicato. There were a number of other Chinese and Korean basses there, but these were not really in the same league (or price bracket!)

I'm looking forward to its arrival, probably in a week or so, and if I have anything further to add, especially regarding how it plays bowed, I will.

Well done Shane!
I'll look forward to hearing it.
Let me know when you're taking it to a gig.

Cheers, Richard. Have a gig at Meow on 1/7/11; hopefully I'll be comfortable enough with it by then to play some relatively straightforward country in a new band I seem to have got myself into.

Apparently the strings on the bass are Corelli 370TX, the "heavy" tungsten set. If these are the heavy ones, I'm not sure I'd be able to see the light gauges. Have a good rep as a bowed string, so looking forward to trying them.

Do the strings have black wrapping, with a red stripe, at the tailpiece?

The Corelli strings I have in my string drawer are 370 TX 'FORT TIRANT'. Nice and punchy when bowed and similar to Weichs, slightly less stiff for pizz. In other words, the Weich pizz is a little better.

I can't remember what they look like (except that they're shiney!), but I'll let you know when the bass arrives. It'll be good to compare the feel against the Weichs I have on my EUB. If memory serves, they probably did feel a little "softer" under my fingers than the Spirocores.

Thanks Shiney.

I mean the person, not the string.

It took a little longer than a week, but the Christopher's arrived, nicely set up and sound post in situ! There are pictures available, if required -- they're from the vendor's website (www.bassbass.co.nz), but they are of this very bass (he's had it for a couple of years; not a high turnover item in this country, I'm afraid).

To Richard -- the strings have a dark green wrap at the tailpiece, and are blue, black, purple and gold at the tuners (E to G). That doesn't seem to match your description of the 370TX. They are very soft played pizz, but are easy to bow with a light touch, even for this rank amateur. I'll keep them for a while, but can see myself returning to Spiro Weichs, especially if my bowing improves.

I've also collected a Realist Soundclip pickup -- I liked the idea of having a removable pickup with flexible positioning. I've had a very brief play with it into my TC Electronic RH450 and BFM Jack 12 cabinet. Seems to match up well with the 1 MOhm input impedance on the amp without a preamp, and a pretty natural sound (at first audition) with the EQ all flat.

Well, I have a lot of practice to do, so it must be time to walk the dogs ...

Congratulations on the new bass Shane.
I hope it's going to live in the living room. Train your wife to expect it in there - my wife accepts two basses in our little living room.

Back from a quick walk.

Thanks Richard -- it's in my "office", a standard-size bedroom, along with my large desk, an electric piano, my EUB, 2 bass guitars, 2 electric and 2 acoustic guitars, bass amp rig and electric guitar amp, a trumpet and a cornet, a ukulele, a couple of bookshelves and a filing cabinet, and all my recording and live sound gear. No bed.

Maybe I could move it all into the living room. So the dogs can pee on it.

You've got a trumpet!
I just got my old school trumpet out today and started working on building up my chops. I took up trumpet about thirty years ago and got quite serious about it and, although I still pull it out for school prizegivings, haven't worked on it for many many years. I spent last summer (well a little bit of it) watching fancy trumpet players on YouTube and sort of got the bug again. I thought it might be nice to practise a second instrument, so I have my trumpet at school so that it doesn't interfere with bass practice.
I've always had this thing about trumpet. I wish I'd kept my Bach Mercedes - the best trumpet (for me) I ever owned.

Yeah! My trumpet is just a Yamaha student model, but I have a 1948 Conn 80A cornet (Bix Biederbecke played this model for a while) which I love. I'm even less good on it than I am on bass, can't reliably get above G on top of the staff, but it's good fun.

Miles, Chet, Freddie, Dizzy, Clifford -- love 'em all. Never really into Maynard and the rest of the screamers. Maybe it's screamis envy, who knows.

Enough about trumpets, how's that Christopher sounding Shiney?

Well, I like it! I find it difficult to describe adequately, having played few basses against which to compare it. I can say it's a lot more like yours than it is like the Stentor, open-sounding rather than "thuddy", and I guess I can expect it to open up some more as time passes. To be fair, it is already 2 years old, and the Stentor was brand new, but I really don't know how much difference that might make. Over and above all that, though, it's much better looking!

Perhaps I should bring it around to yours at some point, Richard -- it'd be good to hear it played from out front. It gets its first outing this evening at rehearsal, and I'm looking forward to playing it in context (even if it is country).

Yes, bring it round. Name the time.

Shane, did you find out about those Corelli strings? I had a friend who tried them and they're lighter than Spirocore Weichs. I tried them on his bass.

Hi Bin -- I'm waiting on confirmation from Savarez (?spelling), the makers of Corelli strings, but I believe they're actually 380Ms. They're not awful under the bow, but are way too "flubby" for pizz at more than a lazy pace, and the E string in particular seems to roll under the fingers. I have ordered a set of Evah Pirazzi weichs from Gollihur's, in no small part on the strength of positive reviews here, not least from our fearless leader himself. Spiro weichs would be another safe bet, but I have those on my EUB, and thought I might as well try something different; they're about the same price.

It's good to see you using a semicolon; not many people use them these days.
Rolling E string = no good.:(