English 'Class'..

[Ken Smith]

This is not about the 'Class' you took in School..lol

The other day I brought my two prime English Basses to Arnold's for some clients that were coming by to look at along with some other Basses he had in the shop.

The first Bass I played after walking in was a Panormo (or Panormo school/shop Bass). Then I played a beautiful B.S. Fendt and finally I played the Gilkes and Hart that I had brought over for comparison to see how my two Basses stacked up.

Now, this is a group of Basses that have never been in the same room with each other aside from the Hart and Gilkes that usually sit side by side in my shop. Also, they were all made in London within a few decades of each other (est. 1800-1840).

The Panormo was a FULL sized Bass with a sound to match. The Fendt was sweet and classy. It was the 3rd and best Fendt I've played. The Gilkes seemed to put out the most amount of sound but being more of a Strad Cello model rather than some form of a Maggini Bass which the other 3 are, it had a different type of tone entirely. The Hart sounded like the 'Grandfather' of the group. The Panormo is in need of some repairs so it was probably not sounding all that it could but was still impressive regardless.

This was the first time I ever had the pleasure of playing 4 'fit-for-a-King' English Basses at one time. Something I just felt compelled to mention here.