Speyer 3/4 Double Bass

Here's my upright bass I purchased from they great people at Prussin Music in Vancouver. I believe these basses come from a shop in Korea by the name of "Speyer Instruments" that has now gone under new management. With this new management, apparently the company has built instruments of lesser quality... or so I'm told by my luthier at Prussin. This one, is from the last shipment of basses berfore the company was sold. It's a Speyer 3/4 fully carved bass, affordably priced at around 4k

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The Bass is fully carved with spruce top, ebony board, rosewood tailpeice and flamed maple sides and back. Construction is really good compared to other basses I've played in it's price range and overall, is a very sturdy, great sounding instrument.

It sets up really well for Jazz or folk with the adjustable bridge, and sounds really smooth and even over all the strings. It took me a while to find the right strings for this bass. I tried at least 6 types before finally settling with Thomastik-Infeld Dominats, a vinyl core string with a detailed, warm and woody sound with good projection.

I'm amazed at how good the bass sounds sometimes, being so young and all, it has a long way to go before it'll really open up tone-wise. When I started shopping for an upright, I bought a poorly made plywood bass made by an outfit called "Menzel". I can't stand playing it, and can't even sell the thing... it just sits in storage. I wish I knew basses of this quality were available for under 5k, because I certainly would have never spent 1500 on my plywood doghouse. For twice that price, you can get a really nice 3/4 carved by some makers!

Summit Audio - TD 100

The Summit Audio Tube Direct is a no frills preamp/direct box made for warming up DI tracks. It is also a great tube preamp. Summit audio is perticulariy well known for their distinct tube character and beautiful transparent sound. And let me tell you, this box rocks.

Upon first plugging in this box, the first thing you notice is the high quality pots and switches on the front panel, all mounted firmly to it's rugged steel chassis. It's got a VERY sturdy overall feel to it.

The unit is SILENT and when used with my bass in active mode, is very quiet. It colors the tone of your instrument beautifully. Very warm, articulate and open, but has a kind of "glassy" sounding warm sizzle with a great 3d texture that I haven't experienced with any other tube gear. I suspect this unit would really shine when re-tubed with some high end NOS tubes like Telefunkens, Mullards, or Brimars.



Technical specs are available here, other than that...

Front Panel-



Rear Panel-



Under the Hood-





Very impressive construction, and even more impressive in the tone department. I have owned other tube preamps (Demeter hbp-1 and vtbp 201s) that have tone sections with eq, but what this box lacks in versatility, it's makes up in simplicity and quality of tone.