What do you want in a bass ?

[Kevin Harrington]

I like Busetto (busseto?) corners. Could be cos I have a great pic of Scott LaFaro looking real cool with his busetto-cornered bass? And Rufus Reid's bass looks great with them too.

The scroll is one of the first thing I notice that will make or break a bass for me (aesthetically speaking only). I like a nice decent sized well proportioned scroll. I'm afraid I don't have the vocabulary to fully describe what I mean but the eyes of some scrolls I've seen are sometimes a little off-centre looking, giving the impression that it's a bit flat to one side. Or sometimes the scroll is just too small for my taste.

Carved heads can be amazing too. Some of them are works of art in themselves. But for me nothing can beat a good old fashioned scroll (with hat-peg tuners) for looks. Except maybe a Gamba-style open scroll...

A nice small design with the purfling below the button can be nice too. Nothing too fancy, I've seen some really nice understated flurrishes.

My old teacher in Cork had a beautiful old French bass that had a lovely curve at the end of the fingerboard. It looked really well on his bass. I can't remember if the tailpiece had a matching (or opposing) curve or if it was straight but I think it was the latter.

Apart from that, I generally prefer darker varnishes (I'm probably not alone there) but I'm not a fan of the fake antiquing process that is now unfortunately so common amoung violin makers.

Anyway, there ya have it, for what it's worth (wouldn't buy many penny sweets I'd imagine!)