Where are they??

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Jeff Campbell

We're playing Shosti 5 in the Rochester Phil this week - had a concert on Thursday night and one on Sat. I played my old dark bass and had a ball. I sit next to a very nice Gagliano played by Bob Zimmerman - we had a wonderful time playing this great music. And during the concert, not one person asked us who made our basses.

Have fun with Shostikovitch -

Ok, the 5th was great. I brought my Storioni cornerless to the first 2 rehearsals and then for the Friday night 'hurry thru traffic to get on stage in time' rehearsal, I brought the Mittenwald for safety reasons on stage. I was invited that night to play a duet as an encore with the Piano soloist from Aussie land doing Rhap/Blue and ran thru Horace Silver's 'The Preacher' on the break. When he first asked me if I knew the tune I told him I worked with Horace when I was only 17 in 1969 so the tune went well. On Saturday afternoon I came into the office and tested playing Jazz between the Mittenwald and the Storioni. Well, the Storioni 'won' from what I could hear by myself so I switched basses again.

At the dress rehearsal the Princ. Cellist asked "where's that other bass you had?". That's when I knew it made a difference. I had Belcanto's on both basses I think. Or, maybe has the 92 Starks on the Mittenwald. I have gone back and forth on that bass.

Yesterday with a friend at the shop (a Philly Bassist) we tested all of the top end basses including the Mittenwald in a blindfold test for Orchestra playing from inside a sound suppressed room and it beat out the Hart and Storioni for low end spread and power. Not by much but he thought it was the Storioni when guessing which bass was which. The main difference may have been the Strings as I have the Flexocor 92 Starks on the Mittenwald. I still have a couple E/C starks in my private stock. Most of the other basses had Belcantos. I think the Bel's are great but the Stark 92s are the darkest power strings I have tried for Orchestra. The extra tension makes them great for Jazz as well. This is mainly true for basses with strong Tops on them. My former Martini sounded great with those strings as well.

Hey, in that Shoti.5th we both played last season (separately), did you guys use the all down bows (mainly) in the 2nd moovement? We did, Russian style that I picked up from a YouTube of a USSR orchestra. Also, they played all 4s, no 5s or extensions so the played all of the lows up. We were about half n half up n down.

[Jeff Campbell]

Hi Ken,

Nice to hear about your Mittenwald bass. I'm glad you had a good concert with the Shos 5. It's been long enough now that I don't even remember what bowings we used. I always keep copies of our bass parts so I'll have to dig them out and see. I'm still having a nice time with my old bass. I have a pretty tall bridge w/o adjusters. I saw the Pollmann boys at the ISB in SF and asked them a few questions about N & H / Baader. They wanted to see photos of my bass and the other Mittenwald basses I've come across. I sent them a few but have not heard back yet. The next ISB will be here in Rochester at the Eastman School so I'm looking forward to it. It will keep us very busy from then to now. Already had lots of meetings/emails/phone calls, etc. One of these days I'd like to get to your shop and see/hear some of your basses.

Kind Regards,

Jeff

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Jeff Campbell

Hi Ken,

Nice to hear about your Mittenwald bass. I'm glad you had a good concert with the Shos 5. It's been long enough now that I don't even remember what bowings we used. I always keep copies of our bass parts so I'll have to dig them out and see. I'm still having a nice time with my old bass. I have a pretty tall bridge w/o adjusters. I saw the Pollmann boys at the ISB in SF and asked them a few questions about N & H / Baader. They wanted to see photos of my bass and the other Mittenwald basses I've come across. I sent them a few but have not heard back yet. The next ISB will be here in Rochester at the Eastman School so I'm looking forward to it. It will keep us very busy from then to now. Already had lots of meetings/emails/phone calls, etc. One of these days I'd like to get to your shop and see/hear some of your basses.

Kind Regards,

Jeff

Now that is just about close enough to drive to.

I might make it, might.

It all depends on what Basses I have in stock to sell and how busy I am at the shop that month. In 2009 it was in PA and I had my own display there. Of the 6 basses I brought, only one of them are left. I sold 3 of the 4 English basses first, then the 2 Italians and have 1 English left from those 6, The Hart.