tommyjamesallen

Ha! Those blooming bassoons. Good luck with it. I’m sureTim Bachelor will make her sing.

I don’t know where this bass is but I’m in Bath, and have fully restored many basses similar to this. If you’re nearby I’d be happy to take a look for you. It sounds like it could be a pretty straightforward fix up.

That’s nice old German bass and would be well worth repairing properly. I’m pretty sure plenty of people would gladly offer you £1200 for it.

Thwaites sent me a bundle of bows to try out, no questions asked. I ended up buying one. I spent about 2 weeks loosing my mind trying to decide which one though.

Looks nice. German 1900ish. It’s hard to tell what’s happening on the back and ribs as far as what are scratches or cracks, It’s not blockless and it has outside linings, which is good, and lovely flamed maple. It looks like it’s been repaired at some point. So assuming that it’s all sound and stable it would probably be worth 4-5k. if it is full of open cracks it could be 1-2k. Hope that helps. Are you buying or selling?

Thanks neilp. I don't think it's a bridge or nut problem. The bass has fairly recently been restored and has a new Bridge and nut. Before the kaplans it had belcanto A D G and heli hybrid E with no such issues. I reckon I'll try the kaplans on another bass before I write to D'addario. I've got the luxury of 3 nice basses here and a selection of strings. It's not like I've got many gigs to worry about. ☺

So I bought a set of Kaplan light's. And I'm after a bit more advise from you fellow Kaplanees.. One of the things that I notice people say about kaplan is that they are very even across all 4 strings. But the set that I have put on are anything but that. The E and G are very much like belcanto's which is kind of what I was expecting, smooth arco and a strong dark pizz. But the D and A string are soooo much darker than the E and G and have no real pizz. To me they sound like a they're from a different set of strings. I think I would expect the strings to have less sustain as you go down through the strings, that's not uncommon right? Hence people using a spiro for and E or A. But this A and D are just so much darker whereas the E and G are brighter. Can any of you who have used kaplan strings before throw some light on this? Thanks.

Hey. I've got a small selection of lovely, restored old German flatbacks up for grabs at the moment. Also repair and maintenance. I'm in Bath. Tom Allen 07983 629 478. If you want something really special and newly built, go and see Martin Penning in Frome.

Thanks HumblePie. Did you like the Kaplan E or was it a bit dead?

My usual string is Belcanto for both pizz and arco usually with the E and sometimes the A swapped out for a spiro or heli hybrid. I'm quite happy with the way it works, but I'm thinking of getting some Kaplans for another bass, but I'm wondering if the pizz would be similar to the belcanto ( I'm thinking maybe a shade darker) and whether it's pointless buying a whole set if I might end up not useing the E and swap with a spiro and add it to the pile of unused orchestral E strings? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

Try some solo strings and tune them down to orchestral tuning. It can work really well.