Hawkes & Son.. (The Official KSB Hawkes Bass Discussion Thread)

[John Cubbage]

Thank you for this very detailed information about Hawkes basses. What you've collected here is great.

My first experience with Hawkes Panormo basses was at Juilliard. While a student there I received one to use from the Juilliard instrument collection. It looked much like the one pictured in the first posting in this thread. It had dark varnish, external rib linings, flat back, and the large tuning gears. Some wood was spliced into the upper back of this bass, so no H or F was visible.

I worked with a bassist in the North Carolina Symphony who had two Hawkes Panormo basses: One had varnish that was orange in color, external rib linings, large tuning gears, and a round back. His other Hawkes Panormo did not have external rib linings, the varnish was light brown, round back, tuning gears were less large, and had very nice looking wood. The varnish and wood reminded me of a couple of instruments I'd seen from the Vuillaume shop. I do not recall an H or F on the upper backs of these basses.

My latest view of a Hawkes Panormo bass was in a video demonstration from Lemur that was online during this year. Lemur was selling a Hawkes Panormo which sounded quite good over the internet.

Hawkes basses are out there.

-Dr. C.