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The double bass and contrabass
- By daphne ding
- Published January 6th, 2010
- Music
- Unrated
daphne ding
I am an amateur writer. I like writing and share my stuff with others. en, in my article, I always put useful tips drawn from life into my article,so hope these might help you too.
View all articles by daphne dingelectric viola
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,
Upton, Karr-Koussevitsky and Poellmann-contrabass are all famous brands
in making double bass. Our clients are mostly distributed in America
and Europe, such as Lima Music, Bassico and Mastri.Mostly double bass
is as a solo instrument. The popularity of the instrument is documented
in Leopold Mozart’s second edition of his Violinschulë. In addition, it
is used in other genres such as Jazz, 1950s-style Blues and Rock and
Roll, Rockabilly/Psychobilly, Bluegrass, and Tango.
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 electric violin , or a flat and angled back similar to the electric viola 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.
from:a-violin|violin

