Double Bass buying advice - plus any experience buying from 'The Double Bass Room' in Battle, East Sussex?

[TysonsJazz]

Looking at The Double Bass Room is fantastic.  Is there anywhere in N. America that compares?

[SimBass]

On 05/05/2025 at 23:37, neilp said:

Jerome is also an absolutely brilliant luthier, and is currently building me a bass, which I confess to being ridiculously excited about! I'd recommend him over just about anyone

 

Just to update on the set up after my purchase here. Whilst it's hard to tell, it felt like the bass I bought from The Double Bass Room had had minimal set up if at all. I'm sure you could ask for a set up, but it felt very much like I was paying for a bass, not a fully set up bass.

I'm up in the midlands so I then took my bass to Bass Bags in Ripley near Nottingham and they fitted an adjustable bridge, and did a full set up for Jazz pizz for me (and installed my pick up I already had).

The bass always sounded great, not a lot of difference there, but the playability from the set up at Bass Bags made a massive difference.

 

The point being, for anyone who picks up this thread in the future. I don't think the Double Bass Room spend much if any time doing a setup. Your buying an instrument and then you can choose how, when and with whom you get a setup done.

[Burns-bass]

5 hours ago, SimBass said:

 

Just to update on the set up after my purchase here. Whilst it's hard to tell, it felt like the bass I bought from The Double Bass Room had had minimal set up if at all. I'm sure you could ask for a set up, but it felt very much like I was paying for a bass, not a fully set up bass.

I'm up in the midlands so I then took my bass to Bass Bags in Ripley near Nottingham and they fitted an adjustable bridge, and did a full set up for Jazz pizz for me (and installed my pick up I already had).

The bass always sounded great, not a lot of difference there, but the playability from the set up at Bass Bags made a massive difference.

 

The point being, for anyone who picks up this thread in the future. I don't think the Double Bass Room spend much if any time doing a setup. Your buying an instrument and then you can choose how, when and with whom you get a setup done.

This is good to know.

 

Whenever I buy a bass (probably more often than I should) I factor a good few hundred quid into the price to ensure I get the set up, strings and feel I want.

[NickA]

I guess this is one reason the bass room is comparatively cheap; with most dealers you agree a price including all the things you want done; that ticket price should include making everything "perfect".

 

I got lucky in that the people I bought my bass from recognised I knew nothing, took pity, told me what I needed, and included it in the asking price.

 

However, if as Philparker says, the bass rooms proprietor is a top bass restorer and builder ..then surely you just have to talk to them when buying a bass.  Bass Bags, whilst always friendly and helpful are not really "top luthiers" ( I've never found out who actually does the work), so when I broke my bass I took it elsewhere.

Edited 6 hours ago by NickA