Show your Extensions!

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Jeff Schwartz

Lemur had this bass for a while:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2wWDdPSvnQ

It's the only other D extension I've seen.

Watching them both open that extension, they need both hands to do so. Opening that thing on the fly if at all possible with one hand of the edge or it while playing will definitely cause injury. That Extension would not be useful in an Orchestra unless pre-set to D or E. Also, fingering the E note with the 'flipper' open doesn't look easy as well to get in there close.

If you have an Extension, it should be to a 'C' and nothing less. Why bother at all putting something on? I can tune down and back up as easy or more to D or Eb without any alteration to the bass. I did a rehearsal last week playing the New World Symphony, the 3rd time in a year as I did it with two other Orchestras last season. In the beginning are two low Eb's and I used my C-Extensions set at first to Eb for the start and later down the page I closed it to E for the rest of the piece. Last week I just tuned down to Eb for the start and tuned back up with no sweat being that it was just a rehearsal, leaving my bigger basses at home that I have extensions on.

I think putting on a D-extension is like doing it half way. It makes no sense to me and if you can't change back and forth while playing without interruption, it's not a workable extension in my opinion.