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Old 08-06-2007, 06:04 PM
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Drake Chan Drake Chan is offline
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Join Date: 01-23-2007
Location: Fresh Meadows, NY
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Ruben Gutierez? Of Brooklyn Brass and Reed? Isn't that the same Juzek that he had been trying to sell on eBay for 5 years or so, advertised with "no cracks on its face" and "sound that Juzek's are famous for"?

I remember seeing the Juzek on eBay for $500, "reserve not met" and wondering if I was getting a excellent deal. I would never buy a bass without trying it out, so I arrange to try out the bass. He tells me he wants at least $4000 for the bass and claimed to have an offer from Indonesia where the guy basically gave his credit card number and told him to charge whatever for it. I guess that he made up that story given that it too him multiple relistings and five years to finally sell the bass.

But I was only a doe-eyed 17 year old who had heard that Juzek basses were pretty good basses. In fact, the NYC's All-City High School orchestra featured several Juzek basses, all sounding absolutely magnificent. They had not been setup in years and had a lot of grime on them from the crappy "bass bags" that were used to transport them to the annual concert at Alice Tully Hall. But they were such magnificent basses that even with my limited experience, I knew that they were good basses. I offered to buy one but was rebuffed by my orchestra teacher, a bassist who knew that they couldn't get better basses for the money.

This tangent has a purpose. When it came time to try out $4000 Juzek, I had in mind what it should have sounded like. I was completely disappointed. It had a murky sound that was vaguely deep, but with absolutely no clarity. It did play well at all for such an "expensive" instrument. I was (and still am) no Ken Smith and could not spot the value in the bass. Ruben set it up by himself, doing all the repair work, "restoration", and putting on old strings. So I guess there's a reason why I was disappointed by it.

But given how good the bass has turned out (if it is indeed the same bass), all I can say is that I have no talent in finding basses. I can only hear what I can hear. So kudos to the AES shop for turning what I deemed a disappointment into what sounds like a pretty good bass.

One silver lining though; I had an old plywood bass of my own that was hard to play, and I was looking for an easy playing, good sounding bass as an upgrade. Ruben happened to have his personal bass on hand that was setup by a local luthier, Damon Walker. That bass played absolutely perfectly, like a dream. Of course, I had no idea that basses could be "setup" at the time to play like that. I really was young and naive then (not much different now). So I had my old plywood bass setup by Walker, and that worked pretty well until the old endpin snapped.
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