Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Shaw
Your Tarr does indeed look wonderful Ken and I'm sure it sounds equally great. It makes me wonder, though, about the nationality of basses and their uses in different countries. Most professionals here in the UK prefer English basses and if you don't have one, it can be very difficult getting work as other instruments tend not to blend into the section as well. You say that your Tarr could be heard above the rest of your bass section. Isn't this a bit of a problem rather than an advantage?
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Well, depending on how loud I played I could either blend or play over them. There was one other large old Bass, Fussen/German school to my eye and two early 20th century German/Czech school basses in the section. The others were of lesser quality and sound. If this had been a full professional section with better basses I would have blended in just fine but it wasn't. I was free and the Orchestra is close by so I basically just sat-in to play in a large section.
I don't see it as a advantage or a problem but rather a test run of what the bass could do. It was the first time the bass was ever played in USA in the few months it's been here. With the smooth low end depth-spread and clear deep bell tone mids I felt the bass could be played from pppp to ffff without much effort at all. One of the guys trying it on stage mentioned how easy the power came out when playing it.
Also, aren't there a few good Italians and old German basses in use in the UK? How about Hawkes basses? Aren't most of them German made on a modified English Panormo pattern?
Yes, English basses are great section basses but, if you are the only one with a $100k class bass can't you just enjoy the thunder?
