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  #1  
Old 06-14-2007, 11:19 PM
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Cool Show your Extensions!

I had two extensions back in my early days in the early 70s and recently started putting one on every suitable Orchestra Bass that goes through my hands. If you have an Extension on your Bass, come and share it with the rest of us. To get the ball rolling, I will show the few that Arnold made for me and the most recent and first Chromatic Bollbach Extension as well. I will list them in the order that they were made (Morelli, Martini, Prescott, Gilkes and Bisiach.)

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Old 06-25-2007, 08:37 PM
Flint Buchanan Flint Buchanan is offline
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Mine's not as fancy as yours, but it does stay in tune well. Using an original Flexocore right now.




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Last edited by Flint Buchanan; 06-28-2007 at 12:08 AM.
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  #3  
Old 06-27-2007, 10:23 PM
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Matthew Tucker Matthew Tucker is offline
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Apart from yours and Ken's Morelli extension, I must say that its a pity the others turn a beautiful graceful scroll into a telegraph pole. I'm sure they work really well, but Ken please don't do that to the Storioni, even though it's already been cut!
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Old 06-27-2007, 10:52 PM
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Cool Cut?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker View Post
Apart from yours and Ken's Morelli extension, I must say that its a pity the others turn a beautiful graceful scroll into a telegraph pole. I'm sure they work really well, but Ken please don't do that to the Storioni, even though it's already been cut!
NONE of my Scrolls were Cut for the C-Extension. The Ebony is Cut to fit around the Scroll.

The Storioni, IF I still have the Bass when the Hart is done, WILL get the same Chromatic Ext. from Arnold AFTER he restores the Scroll back to as original as possible. If it gets sold before then, the new owner will do as HE please I'm sure..
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Old 06-28-2007, 12:05 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Smith View Post
NONE of my Scrolls were Cut for the C-Extension. The Ebony is Cut to fit around the Scroll
I know you wouldn't cut a scroll Ken, I didn't say that. And I'm not rubbishing anyone's craftmanship, least of all Arnold's and Jeff's.

But you have started a thread "Show your Extensions" and I've presumed that is so that feedback is received?

So to MY taste, those chromatic extensions DO turn an elegant scroll into a telegraph pole, so from ME at least, the feedback isn't gushing
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  #6  
Old 06-28-2007, 01:19 AM
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Cool telegraph pole?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker View Post
I know you wouldn't cut a scroll Ken, I didn't say that. And I'm not rubbishing anyone's craftmanship, least of all Arnold's and Jeff's.

But you have started a thread "Show your Extensions" and I've presumed that is so that feedback is received?

So to MY taste, those chromatic extensions DO turn an elegant scroll into a telegraph pole, so from ME at least, the feedback isn't gushing
Ok, I get it now. I thought you were assuming that the Scrolls were cut for my Chromatic Extensions as well.

I don't know what your Bass playing experience but let me try and explain in short when I use the Chromatic style. When playing in an Orchestra and a single note or two comes up below E, it is much easier to pre-set the the Stop to the lowest note needed and finger anything in between.

In the Philly Orchestra most all the players have the Chromatic while some of the older Extensions on the Basses are Mechanical/Chromatic. Only one Bass that I have seen has only the E-Latch and that is the Asst. Princ (3rd Chair). The Princ. has a Chromatic and the Assoc Princ. a Mechanical. All of the new Extensions the guys get there are the Chromatic.

I have used all 3 types and the Chromatic is the best of the 3 I feel. Only on fast passages would the keys/mech. be slightly better but equally noisier. The first time I saw the Philly Orch was a christmas Show with my family. There were only 4 Basses that night all with mechanical Exts. and almost every time they used, set or locked the keys, I could hear it from almost 100 feet away if not more.

The best way to play the low notes fast is with a 5-string Bass. The Chromatic can still be fingered just as easy as the E-latch fingered Ext.

So, no matter how it may look, it IS the most popular Ext. that I have seen and my personal favorite. Imagine octave jumps like in the Brandenburg or the Trout and you can quickly set your lowest string to E, Eb, D, Db or C to play any quick octave jump or run you need. Kinda cool I think! Next best thing to having a 5-string and one less string to jump across from not having the 5th B-string as well.
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  #7  
Old 06-28-2007, 08:31 PM
Bob Branstetter Bob Branstetter is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Smith View Post
NONE of my Scrolls were Cut for the C-Extension. The Ebony is Cut to fit around the Scroll.

The Storioni, IF I still have the Bass when the Hart is done, WILL get the same Chromatic Ext. from Arnold AFTER he restores the Scroll back to as original as possible. If it gets sold before then, the nee\w owner will do as HE please I'm sure..
Many years ago (long before I started making extensions in my own shop), I took my personal bass to a well known bass shop 700 miles from my home so that I could have one fitted by what was reputed to be one of the best bass shops in the country. I nearly cried when I was handed the part of the scroll that was cut away to install the extension. Because of the shop's reputation, I didn't even think to ask if they were going to cut the scroll. Thank God, that barbaric practice is no longer done by most reputable shops today.
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  #8  
Old 07-29-2007, 06:27 PM
JoeyNaeger JoeyNaeger is offline
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I just got my bass back from Robertsons last night. They put on a beautiful extension with snakewood capos. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten a chance to play the bass much yet, but I'm very excited about it.
Here's a picture
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  #9  
Old 09-22-2009, 11:19 AM
Vince Jesse Vince Jesse is offline
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Default C extension

Hi. I'd like to throw my hat in the ring here. I've worked on other people's extensions but never made my own from scratch. Some people have been inquiring so I figured it was time. It's solid ebony, fitted to a new Romanian bass. It's screwed down to the neck under the nut but not the scroll or cheeks.

It functions well. I would have done a couple things differently but next time I'll avoid those mistakes. Next time I'd like to make a two pulley extension that avoids the hole through the scroll (if the dimensions of the bass permits)

It's installed on a bass for sale so I think I'll wait to add capos or a fingering rail until the customer knows what he wants.

Hopefully the pictures work.

Any thoughts?
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  #10  
Old 11-19-2009, 01:10 PM
Vince Jesse Vince Jesse is offline
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Default update

Here are some shots with chromatic stops now in place. I made the brass parts on my little Clausing mill.
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  #11  
Old 03-28-2010, 12:01 AM
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Thumbs up nice..

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vince Jesse View Post
Here are some shots with chromatic stops now in place. I made the brass parts on my little Clausing mill.
Sorry for the late reply. The hardware reminds me a bit of Arnold's as well as Jeff's brackets. The Fingers look nice and similar as well.
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  #12  
Old 03-28-2010, 12:10 AM
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Thumbs up Jacquet goes Chromatic..

Here's some pics of *my Jacquet we took a few weeks ago but were just loaded in recently (*in the process of being sold at the time of posting.)



I have to count carefully how many Chromatic C-Extensions Arnold has made for me. Jeff made 2 so far and will make a 3rd for the Mougenot when it's fully restored...

Ok, counted them.. Arnold has made 6 of them so far including my Panormo school Bass which was just re-photographed to show the extension. I will post that one as soon as Mike loads in the new pics.

Of the 6 from Arnold, 3 of them, the latest made have the adjustable brackets. All of Jeff's do as well. The Hart bass actually has Jeff's brackets but the extension and fingers by Arnold.
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  #13  
Old 04-06-2010, 09:48 AM
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Thumbs up as promised..

My son Mike just loaded the Extension pics last night. the full body shots to follow when he comes back from school in a week of so as the pics are loaded here into my computer.

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  #14  
Old 06-18-2012, 06:14 PM
Bryan Leinwand Bryan Leinwand is offline
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D extension
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  #15  
Old 06-22-2012, 08:36 AM
Joshua phelps
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Default Extension $

Ken

Is it really as labour intensive as they say to make a proper extension? I saw you said you were making them in your shop now, did you make the one for the hart? It looks great.
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Old 06-22-2012, 08:38 AM
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"labor" sorry my auto spell thinks we are in europe
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  #17  
Old 06-22-2012, 10:10 AM
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Lightbulb

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joshua phelps View Post
Ken

Is it really as labour intensive as they say to make a proper extension? I saw you said you were making them in your shop now, did you make the one for the hart? It looks great.
I never said I made them in my shop, sorry.

All my extensions are by Arnold or Jeff so far.

Compared to other extensions I have seen, these are the best so far. I have tried other extensions from various basses that come thru the Orchestra and basses that come in here and sometimes, I feel sorry for them. The one with those 'easy to install' Capos cannot be flipped with the back edge of your fore finger on the fly. More likely with these and others with sharp points, you will hurt yourself. Using a full hand or two hands even to hold your bass and flip or close a capo makes a 5-string bass look more appealing.
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  #18  
Old 06-22-2012, 11:19 AM
Joshua phelps
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Default Woops

I guess I read than incorrectly, still a nice extension though.
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  #19  
Old 08-05-2012, 04:56 AM
Bryan Leinwand Bryan Leinwand is offline
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No one noticed that my odd D extension is actually made from a single fingerboard with the extension cut out.
Half size string length with added 2 notes on a 1/8th size bass. Tuned A D G C with a low G.
Bass bar and soundpost modifications were necessary.
The bass sounds great.
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  #20  
Old 08-06-2012, 06:03 AM
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Thomas Erickson Thomas Erickson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryan Leinwand View Post
D extension
That's... unusual, at least!

Got any more pics? What do you use the bass for?
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