The story of my custom Brook Acoustic Bass

[Brook_fan]

Found some build photos of my old Brook bass that I had to sell.  Thought some people might like to take a look.  I had forgotten about them.

First up, here she is fresh from the workshop, about 18 months ago.

Engelman spruce top, bubinga back and sides, walnut neck.  The tuners were rubbish so these Schaller da Vinci’s, which broke after a few weeks were replaced with black hipshot ultralights.

I loved the trim on this beauty- red purfling and rosette.  It was really classy.

 

 

And they did a lovely Celtic knot inlay for me as a surprise-  Celtic music being my thing

 

 

Here are so tuners again- they looked great, but the distributor said that Schertler had had major problems with them and had to redesign them.  Basically the whole mechanism inside fell apart!!

 

 

In the end I settled on La Bella tape wound bronze strings, they worked extremely well, giving a nice usable balance between having the twang of an acoustic bass, but also having the low end thump of a double bass.

I love in hope that one day I will get the bass back.  I sold it for a fraction of the price that it cost me.  The person who bought it still hasn’t even played it, which I find heart breaking.  

There is one other Brook bass I played before I got my own, and that was once owned by Wal Bassist member here.  It was a 5 string, but a smaller body.  The body of the one above is actually Gibson J200 size, so a big old beast.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed having a look.  

Robboe

 

 

[Teebs]

Lovely bass. Why did you sell it - or am I missing something?

[Teebs]

And are Da Vinci tuners rubbish? - I was looking at getting a set - love the aesthetics, but I can do without disintegrating tuners!

[Brook_fan]

 

5 hours ago, Teebs said:

Lovely bass. Why did you sell it - or am I missing something?

Financial reasons- found myself having to live in the most expensive part of the country on a part time, zero hours contract, and being payed the same rate as someone who is just starting their career, rather than the 26 years I had. 

5 hours ago, Teebs said:

And are Da Vinci tuners rubbish? - I was looking at getting a set - love the aesthetics, but I can do without disintegrating tuners!

I think they did sort out the issues. Best email the uk distributors to check.  But yeh, one day I was just tuning the 4th string down to D and the mechanism just came apart. I was gutted. They do look beautiful though.

Robbie

[franzbassist]

What a beautiful bass.  I especially like the walnut neck.

13 hours ago, Brook_fan said:

There is one other Brook bass I played before I got my own, and that was once owned by Wal Bassist member here.  It was a 5 string, but a smaller body.

Ah yes, a fine bass it was too.  Brook really know their stuff.