Corporate Blog-Aileen Music

June 06, 2009 26 Comments

The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument used in the modern symphony orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the symphony orchestra and smaller string ensembles in Western classical music.

Concord,

Lack of standardization in design means that one double bass can sound and look very different from another. In general, there are two major approaches to the design outline shape of the double bass, these being the violin form, and the viol da gamba form. A third less common design called the Busetto shape (and very rarely the guitar or pear shape) can also be found.

3/4-size model is the most commonly available size. Until the 1990s, child-sized double basses were not widely available. Now smaller-sized instruments, such as half (1/2), quarter(1/4) , eighth (1/8 ), tenth ( 1/10) and even sixteenth(1/16) became more widely available. Our factory not only can offer all the size above, but also 1/32-size. It’s our feature and will satisfy your requirement.

The back of the instrument can vary from being a round, carved back similar to that of the violin, or a flat and angled back similar to the viol family.

Double basses are constructed from several types of wood, including maple for the back, spruce for the top, and ebony for the fingerboard.

Double bass is very sensitive to changes in heat and humidity, which can cause cracks in spruce tops. Also, due to environment protection issue, it is really hard to find good top or back for this instruments. Nowadays more and more double bass are made with laminated top/back, especially for school market. Normally, people just buy veneer to make back and top. To have the arched shape, they used hot-press machine to make it. The problem of this structure is obvious. It will be much heavier than solid wood instruments. Also, with the changing surrounding situation and time, the arched shape might be twisted and back to flat. Furthermore, the most negative aspect is that the veneer stops the sound spreading. The sound quality is much lower than solid wood.

Nowadays, after several years hard working and reforming the process, we almost overcame all these problems technically through our unique making method. Our double bass is made with our special laminated top or back. The weight will be same or even less than solid wood. Meanwhile, we can keep almost 70%~ 85% of sound spreading just like through solid top or back. Of course, you never need to worry about cracks and the top/back rebounding at all. Some photos from our factory just for you reference.

Strings

Permalink Comments RSS