Double Bass For Sale

At String Emporium, we are the "double bass" experts and sometimes there are so many basses that come in for sale, that there is often no time to take photos and put them up on our 'bass for sale' pages before someone buys it!.  For instance, we got a beautiful John Lott bass which was a classic example of 'musical chairs':  the owner of the bass fell in love with a wonderful Italian bass (always be accident!) in good bass shop and the shop owner called us to see if in fact we might know of someone that was looking for a classic, English bass as this John Frederick Lott.  His customer could not afford to write a check (over $125k!) for his 'new' bass AND the owner of the Italian bass could not afford to wait for him to sell his Lott (for a lot!!...I couldn't resist the pun!)This is such a typical way in which a premium double bass often goes for sale:  So often a player randomly visits his favorite bass luthier/shop to get some work done to his bass (ever so innocently) and while he is waiting on the luthier to get off the phone, or finish his bass, he invariably starts playing basses there!  Young or old, we are all like children in a candy or toy store in these cases.  Sometimes, there can be a whole deluge of fine basses of all shapes, sizes and prices and then sometimes, just that one, magical bass, that has been waiting its whole existance for you to come and try it, only to fall madly in love. 

A Double Bass Musical Chairs Frenzy

Anyone can tell you, almost no matter what the player's level of playing is, the minute you hold a bass and it INSTANTLY makes you better, you're hooked!  If he/she is married, (it's better to start googling for a good marriange therapist!) because you are going to take this bass home!! Musical Bass Chairs!  That's what it is.  Not a lot of folks have say, $50,000 cash in their bank account to sit down and write a check for a new bass, so these same players will then quickly start calling every player they know, every teacher, every orchestra and then pray that someone comes (quickly) and buys their bass, so that they can go back and pay for that one in the shop being held for them (one week!)  This story, like mirrors pointing at eachother, goes on and on and on!  Some simple ideas on how to find a good double bass for sale:First, since the internet, it's hard for anyone to think of old mediums that once worked: Newspapers, bulletin boards (the actual boards on a wall), want ads in the union paper etc...  When Steve (the owner) was a 'kid' just out of college, he desperately needed a good, audition quality double bass.  There were maybe 4 shops at the time (maybe 2 in NYC, one in Cincinnati (the Bass Viol Shop) and while there were middle kind of violin shops that once in a while had a decent bass, that was about it!  So you need a bass, you go to NY and see the sky high (shocking) prices and then you say, WTF!  What am I going to do?  I don't want some new, factory bass with no personality (that we can afford) and I cannot risk going to prison for robbing a bank to find buy that rare, super nice, Italian bass that plays, just by looking at it!  Everyone that has been playing the bass for long enough will have their own personal story about how they found and bought 'that' special bass.  I have a good one that took place many years ago.  (Please read this great Kay Bass for sale story, where I bought one near my house.)