Kind of bass Paul Chambers, et al played

[Mike Milner]

In John Goldsby's "Jazz Bass" book, he advises that Doug Watkins was killed in an automobile accident in 1962. He was 28. Concerning his bass, the liner notes from a Blue Note release of a side that Doug cut as a leader in 1956 for the Transition label contain a comment allegedly from Doug saying at the time of the session, he was "breaking in a new seven foot Italian bass".
Watkins & Chambers were both from Detroit, and I believe they were cousins. They were both professional jazz musicians at the centre of the hard bop scene at a very young age, Paul before he was 20 and Doug maybe 21.
There are numerous pictures of Paul playing with Miles, if you want to get a look at his bass. According to John Goldsby, Paul used Golden Spiral gut strings.