I started building basses in 2000. At first, building a bass seemed like the ultimate woodworking challenge. It is still a challenge, but I’ve come to realize that the woodworking is only the first part of making what a bass ultimately becomes. What leaves my shop is a raw bass whose personality has yet to be discovered. It’s the classic nature vs. nurture scenario. It will take years of playing for this new instrument to come into its own. The player who undertakes this project of developing the potential that’s inherent in this new creation will “teach” it to sound in a particular way, and in so doing is as much a midwife as I am in bringing a new instrument to life.

As a woodworker I’ve always been interested in using local materials. My first four basses comprised what I call the  “Taconic Series”, the Taconic Mountains being the ones I look at every day from my vantage point here in Cambridge, New York. The model for # 1 – #4 is loosely based on the Charles Brugere bass that belongs to Robert Black, a graceful outline with Gamba corners.

#1 – #4

#1 is a Black Walnut round back with red spruce top and maple neck grafted onto a walnut scroll.

#2 is a Black Walnut flat back with red spruce top and maple neck grafted onto a walnut scroll.

#3 is a Sugar Maple flat back with red spruce top and maple neck.

#4 is a Sugar Maple round back with red spruce top and maple neck.

#5

#5 doesn’t qualify as a Taconic Series, but it’s special because Arnold Schnitzer and I collaborated on the building of it as a tribute to our mentor, Lou DiLeone. It is a Cottonwood round back with Engelmann Spruce top and European Maple neck. The model is Arnold’s interpretation of a Testore that was in his shop, a beautiful, flowing outline with violin corners.

#6

#6 is my own interpretation of several Italian basses that have come through my shop. It is a Mahogany round back with Sitka Spruce top and a maple neck grafted onto a mahogany scroll. The Sitka Spruce is from the roof beam of a 150-year-old house in New York City.

#7

#7 is a copy of the Alvisio Piattellini bass I restored in 2010. It qualifies as one of the Taconic Series. The top is Red Spruce from Vermont and the back and sides are Cottonwood from our land here in Cambridge. It has a round back and string length of 40″ (101.5 cm.) The varnish is an old-world recipe for oil varnish which I cooked from raw materials.

#8

#8 is another copy of the Alvisio Piattellini. The top is Sitka spruce which came from an old house in Manhattan. The back and sides are birds-eye maple. It’s a shallow round backed bass with 40″ (101.5 cm.) string length. Oil varnish as described above.

#9

In February, 2014 I finished building #9, a 3/4 size bass which will has a string length of 41-3/4″ (106 cm.) It is an Italian model based on several instruments I’ve measured over the years, including the Piattellini. It has an American Elm back and sides with a one-piece (!) Eastern White Pine top. The pine is very old. It was interior wall panelling in a nearby house that was built in 1785 and dismantled a few years ago. The neck is locally sourced Red Maple. This bass also qualifies as Taconic Series because of the locally sourced materials.

Brian Myhr is the proud owner of #9.  I entered it in the makers’ competition at the 2015 ISB Convention in Fort Collins, Colorado and it won this award:

#10

In June, 2016, I completed a copy of Jeremy McCoy’s 1749 Domenico Busan (click on “Testimonials” and “Restorations” to see photos of his bass.) The copy, McInbass #10, is faithful to the dimensions of the original except for two details: a slight change of angle where the ribs meet the neck, an ergonomic consideration, and the height of the top arching, due to the thickness of the pine plank I used for the top.

This bass qualifies as part of my Taconic Series as all the wood was sourced locally, except for the bridge and the fingerboard.  The neck, back, and ribs are Curly Red Maple. The top is slab-sawn White Pine, from a plank that was once wall panelling in a nearby house that was built in 1785. The varnish is an old-world recipe that came from Simone Sacconi via Lloyd Liu.

In November, 2016, this bass received the distinction of winning a Silver Medal for Tone at the Violin Society of America convention.

The tone judges were Cleveland Symphony Orchestra bassists Mark Atherton, Scott Haigh, and Derek Zadinsky.

#11

In May of 2017 I completed McInbass #11. It is the same model as #9, derived from the Piattellini. It is made from Cottonwood for the back and sides, Red Spruce for the top, and Red Maple for the neck and tailpiece, all sourced locally so it is the 8th bass in my Taconic Series.

In June 2017 I entered #11 into the ISB Makers Competition in Ithaca, New York. It won Honorable Mention Convention Favorite.

The Cottonwood is from a tree that grew in the front yard of the house where my wife grew up and had her swing hanging from a limb. On the label I call this bass the Taconic Swing. The back is a one-piece slab.

#12

In October, 2018, I finished #12, a copy of the original Piattellini. It is similar in many ways to #11 in that it has cottonwood back and sides, and a red spruce top. The neck is curly sugar maple. It is also in the Taconic series. The string length is 39-1/2″ or 100 cm.

#13

In the spring of 2019 I completed #13, my second copy of the 1749 Domenico Busan. It is almost identical to #10 except that it has a two-piece pine slab top, which more closely resembles the original Busan, and the back and sides are black cherry. The string length is 41-1/2″. The pine top is sourced from an old house in Greenwich, NY, which was built in 1785, and the cherry wood was from a farm near my home in Washington County, NY, so this also qualifies as part of my “Taconic Series”. #13 won a Certificate of Merit for Tone at the 2019 ISB Makers Competition held at Indiana University. The judges were Travis Harrison, Nicholas Walker, and Danny Ziemann.

Jack Hill has #13 at his shop near Princeton, New Jersey. $35,000

 

 

 

Certificate of Merit

#14

In the spring of 2020, while the country was in lockdown, I completed #14, a copy of the 1747 Domenico Montagnana. Its top is Sitka Spruce from an old house in New York City that was built circa 1860. I am grateful to the Cuite family of Cambridge, New York, for letting me take my pick from the many 3″ x 12″ x 24′ planks they salvaged.  The back, neck,  and sides are curly Sugar Maple from Arlington, Vermont. The Sitka was most likely sourced in the Pacific Northwest and shipped by boat around the horn to New York.

 

 

 

The Montagnana is for sale at Jack Hill’s near Princeton, New Jersey. jack@jdhillmusic.com.

The price is $45,000.

#15

In 2019 I restored a small half-size bass made by Bernardel in the mid-1800s. It came to me in pieces and neither the owner nor I had any idea what it might sound like. We were pleasantly surprised when we strung it up. It had a big, deep sound and played evenly across all strings. In December of 2021 I completed a copy of it and, again, I was pleasantly surprised.

The Bernardel has a flat back with a gentle bend toward the neck.

The top is red spruce sourced from southwestern Vermont.

The back and sides are birds-eye maple.

                          

The neck and scroll are of locally sourced sugar maple. The tuning machines are by Martyn Bailey.

The tailpiece is curly yellow birch. This instrument qualifies as part of my Taconic Series because the materials, excluding the fingerboard and bridge, are all locally sourced. The varnish is a traditional oil varnish formula, the same as the last several basses I’ve made.

This bass is for sale at Jack Hill’s near Princeton, New Jersey. jack@jdhillmusic.com.

mcinbass@gmail.com