Akord Kvint ARS MUSIC. Any opinions?

[Matt Godfrey]

Hi there,

I'm looking at upgrading from a Stentor 1950 and I found a manufacturer called Akord Kvint in Poland, they produce a model of double bass called ARS MUSIC.

Please can I ask if anyone can share any experience they have of this brand and maybe offer an opinion as to whether the purchase would indeed be an upgrade rather than a sideways step.

"The top of the instrument is made of solid spruce, the back and sides are maple. The neck is made of maple, with an ebony fingerboard. The double bass has brass machines and an ebony tailpiece."

 

Many thanks for any help,

Matt

[pete.young]

Akord Kvint is made in Luby in Chechia, not Poland. This is an area of Chechia with a long history of making orchestral stringed instruments.  http://www.akordkvint.com/kontakty/

 

Your Stentor has laminated back and sides. I can't tell from the descriptions of Akord Kvint instruments whether they are all solid wood, but the price would indicate it. A luthier-made solid wood bass would be an upgrade.

 

The UK agent is Forsyth's Music in Manchester, you could try talking to them about it.

 

The only ARS MUSIC model I can find though is a 1/8th size - is this really what you want?

[SubsonicSimpleton]

Before you look at buying another bass, have you optimized what your current bass can offer with a proper luthier setup and decent strings?

 

Although the Stentor 1950 is a "student" model, the ones I've played have sounded pretty decent, and the small 3/4 dimensions make them easy to live with. Stock factory setup however isn't good, and people often get sticker shock over the cost of getting a proper setup done, which is a major quality of life improvement in both playability and sound.

 

The most important bit of the bass for sound production is arguably the top, which is solid spruce on the 1950, so I don't think that the difference moving from one factory produced hybrid instrument to a factory produced ful carved is going to be night and day difference - some full carved basses are actually worse, because they get overbuilt to compensate the risks of using wood that might have only been seasoned for a short time. To avoid disappointment I would definately recommend playing in person before purchase.

 

When you think about upgrading, can you articulate what you want out of the upgrade?

[Matt Godfrey]

Many thanks for the replies.

Reverb.com are lisiting 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 sizes of the Akord Kvint ARS MUSIC basses, all priced at 3,150 Euros.

We paid £500 for the 3/4 Stentor.

It's my wife who plays the bass, she is only 5'2", so we were thinking of getting a 1/2 size to compensate.

Other than the size of the instrument, our major reason for wanting to upgrade is for a better tone.

 

[Beer of the Bass]

Seeking out the Reverb listing, I notice the top is described as "solid spruce" and the back and sides only as "maple". Often omitting to specify solid means laminated, but from the limited pictures it's hard to tell. It's quite possible it's a good bass, but quite a gamble buying blind with what looks like a single stock image that may not even be the one you're buying.  The price also puts you in the range of a few other options - you may find something in the UK, or a solid wood Thomann or Gewa European made bass with some budget left for setup.

[SubsonicSimpleton]

18 hours ago, Matt Godfrey said:

Many thanks for the replies.

Reverb.com are lisiting 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 sizes of the Akord Kvint ARS MUSIC basses, all priced at 3,150 Euros.

We paid £500 for the 3/4 Stentor.

It's my wife who plays the bass, she is only 5'2", so we were thinking of getting a 1/2 size to compensate.

Other than the size of the instrument, our major reason for wanting to upgrade is for a better tone.

 

 

Have you had the Stentor professionally set up(or did the previous owner have this work done)?

What strings are currently fitted to the Stentor? (They can usually be identified by appearance if you don't know what is fitted)

What is your wifes primary musical focus - does she play mainly with the bow, with the fingers or rockabilly slap style?

Where is your wife on the learning curve, does she have access to a good  tutor or access to other double bass players?

What area of the UK are you in?

 

 

[petebassist]

I used to have a Stentor 1950, and its relatively small body and lightness made it a great gigging bass, especially in venues where the load in and out was difficult. I think I'd check the weight and size if I was buying blind, and preferably buy from somewhere I could try out first.  

[Matt Godfrey]

On 24/02/2023 at 20:21, Beer of the Bass said:

Seeking out the Reverb listing, I notice the top is described as "solid spruce" and the back and sides only as "maple". Often omitting to specify solid means laminated, but from the limited pictures it's hard to tell. It's quite possible it's a good bass, but quite a gamble buying blind with what looks like a single stock image that may not even be the one you're buying.  The price also puts you in the range of a few other options - you may find something in the UK, or a solid wood Thomann or Gewa European made bass with some budget left for setup.

There is a 1/2 size solid wood Thomann option with spruce top and maple back for around £1,400.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_double_bass_europe_33_12.htm

 

On 25/02/2023 at 15:39, SubsonicSimpleton said:

 

Have you had the Stentor professionally set up(or did the previous owner have this work done)?

What strings are currently fitted to the Stentor? (They can usually be identified by appearance if you don't know what is fitted)

What is your wifes primary musical focus - does she play mainly with the bow, with the fingers or rockabilly slap style?

Where is your wife on the learning curve, does she have access to a good  tutor or access to other double bass players?

What area of the UK are you in?

 

 

The Stentor was setup when originally purchased, we are the third owners.

The strings look to be flat-wound steel or nickel, but I'm no expert.

My wife plays with fingers, folk/blues/pop, she has been playing for a couple of years, still lots to learn.

We are living in the French Pyrenees, no tutors here unfortunately, just bears.

 

 

[SubsonicSimpleton]

1 hour ago, Matt Godfrey said:

There is a 1/2 size solid wood Thomann option with spruce top and maple back for around £1,400.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_double_bass_europe_33_12.htm

 

The Stentor was setup when originally purchased, we are the third owners.

The strings look to be flat-wound steel or nickel, but I'm no expert.

My wife plays with fingers, folk/blues/pop, she has been playing for a couple of years, still lots to learn.

We are living in the French Pyrenees, no tutors here unfortunately, just bears.

 

 

The bass you link is a flatback made by Hora in Romania, they are quite heavily built and not particularly resonant, so might be an advantage to use with an amp, but likely to be a bit disappointing acoustically in terms of it's ability to produce much by way of volume or bass frequencies.

 

Before you think about shelling out on a new instrument, I would seriously advise that you identify what strings are currently fitted - they do make quite a difference to the sound and also playing comfort. If you can manage to take a pic of the pegbox and the tailpiece(preferably so we can see the string ball ends as well as the silks), it should be fairly straightforward to identify what is currently fitted and at least offer a couple of options that might work well for your wife in terms of string tension and overall sound.

[NickA]

A half size will likely struggle with low notes. My orchestra mate is about 5ft0" and plays a lovely 3/4 Bryant 5 string trouble free, which is quite deep and wide, so going to half size probably isn't necessary.

 

Plus I'd never buy a bass unseen and unplayed.  You need to spend a few hours with it... maybe if you're going to amp it up then a good setup, well fitted pickup etc are more important than changing the Stentor?  I've found getting the pickup right makes a massive difference.