Maker & Restorer of Violins, Violas, Cellos & Double Basses.

 

My individually made ebony and maple fingered bass 'C' extensions and the mechanical extensions, can be fitted to most double basses with little difficulty and without the necessity to cut into the scroll. They are held on by 2 small wood screws.  The nut is adjustable as illustrated in the photos shown. An aluminium pulley is provided at the end of the extension to reduce string friction so  aiding tuning.   The string  passes through a small hole drilled in the scroll to facilitate an ’easy’ line for the string which greatly assists   tuning also. In most cases the extension string is attached to the ’A’ string tuning machine as this is found to work the best. The extensions are varnished to match the finish of the instrument.        The fingered extensions  can be made with however many keys/gates a player requires. The work takes  about 5 days to complete and  costs in the order of £380 for a single gate/key extension plus the string. Please contact me should you require a quote for the supply and/or fitting of a  mechanical extension.  It is a straight forward matter to remove unwanted keys/gates or to have additional ones fitted, the extension themselves are  also easily removed and should a client wish an additional 'E' string nut can be made to simplify changing between having an extension or not,  some clients prefer a complete 4 string nut for this purpose which is also an option. This is what a client had to say after having an extension fitted:-   Dear Martyn I just wanted to let you know that my bass is sounding really amazing since you did the bridge and soundpost. I'm also enjoying my new low notes a lot. Last Saturday I did Mahler 3 which has several very tricky low bits (probably not the best introduction to the joys of a C extension!) and it worked very well. The cellos particularly appreciated my low C's! Thanks so much for your brilliant work and for getting it done so quickly. Best wishes Philippa
In addition to the fingered extensions I make I can offer a 'Fawcett' model mechanical extension which I mount on a custom made ebony and maple mount similar to my other extensions, please see photo right. Please contact me for details.        As well as providing a maintenance and repair service on existing extensions, I also offer a fitting service for clients supplying their own mechanical extensions.
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