I opened my shop here on President Street in 1997. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s I was doing quite a bit of work for the NYC Dept. of Education. Besides working on brass and woodwinds the shop was also repairing and selling orchestral string instruments. I met a young luthier who was working at David Gage string shop in Manhattan, his name was Damon Walker. Damon was and is a very talented string repairman, he really loves the work. Eventually Damon and I developed a partnership. Damon worked here at Brooklyn Brass & Reed for a few years. We became good friends and he showed me a lot about string repair.
Though saxophone is my main instrument I started playing upright bass.Since we had so many of them around the shop I had Damon fix one up for me. I really enjoy playing bass.
About 10 years ago Damon moved down to the Raleigh/Durham area in North Carolina. He opened his own repair shop called Doctor Bass. He recently moved to a new location.
My upright bass was in bad shape. The neck was pulling out of the block, I needed a new bridge and nut. I made some calls to string shops in the New York area but they all seemed too busy to work on my bass so I decided to take a road trip and take my bass down to Damon Walker aka Doctor Bass. On January 19th I drove down to Durham. It’s about a nine hour drive. It was great to see Damon. I met his wife and his daughter. I really enjoyed seeing his shop, he’s got a great space in an industrial park.
Damon looked at my bass and decided that he is going to re-set the neck, put a new bridge and new strings on the bass. He will also put a new nut on it. He said it might need a new fingerboard but will let me know when he gets to that.
I left the bass with the doctor. I told him there is no rush. I will go back down to pick up the bass in April.
I have been practicing electric bass since my upright is in the shop. Trying to learn the fingerboard a little better. I was very inspired by a customer that visited my shop a while back. Her name was Ruby Farmer. She is a 15 year old bassist who lives in Brooklyn. She came to the shop to try out a plywood bass I had for sale. It was a 3/4 size Engelhardt bass. Though she did like the bass her mother wanted her to get an upgrade since she already has a plywood bass. I agreed and said that they should visit Upton Bass.
So after listening to Ruby play that plywood bass I was inspired to take may bass to Damon Walker.
Last week my friend Tim Lefebvre was in town. He is a fantastic bassist, plays upright and electric. He stopped by for a visit. Always good to see him. Went out for a few beverages with him and Mahlon”Buddy” Hoard.
But getting back to my bass I am looking forward to driving back down to Durham N.C. to pick up my bass, bring it home and start practicing.
