Page 1 of 1

Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 8:36 am
by headbanger

Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:13 am
by opticnerve
The invisible man? :)

Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:27 am
by headbanger
Interested observer with the camera...

Look familiar?

Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:56 am
by opticnerve
I don't see a link Gerry... :?:

Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 10:42 am
by headbanger
Try that

Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 10:44 am
by opticnerve
Thanks Gerry...but still no link. Strange. :?

Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 10:51 am
by Grey
Here, I fixed it for you.


Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:03 am
by cjj
Hmm, seems like I've seen that before...
viewtopic.php?f=98&t=404205&p=736199

Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:29 am
by cassius987
headbanger wrote:Interested observer with the camera...

Look familiar?
Indeed. I wish someone had demoed the octobass when I was there!

Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 12:28 pm
by johnhall
Matthew Hill, one of the original curators at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. This was shot on opening day.

There's two clips on this on YouTube, the one above shot by someone else that shows me filming this! Mine is here:



Matt's own site is pretty interesting as well:

http://www.organology.org

He currently is residing in New York City as he finalizes his thesis for a PhD in organology with specialization on the electric guitar- supposedly the first degree of its kind.

Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:45 pm
by johnallg
Well, this sure fits into the LOW end forum. :lol:

Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:04 am
by FretlessOnly
Looks like he's using a French bow with a rather unorthodox hand-grip. I can understand unorthodox, but a German bow would allow for a more "not-so-ridiculous-looking" bowing grip. That said, coaxing a clean, rich bowing tone out of a low E is not a trivial exercise. I can't imagine how tough it is on those cables.

Re: Interesting bass but who is that man?

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 11:59 am
by johnhall
I don't know much about acoustic instruments like this but I do remember him explaining that the bow, which was made by the maker of the bass was very special, in order to work properly with the also very special strings. There are some other stories about people who have tried to bow this instrument, such as a professional classical musician that was working for some famous movie score composer, and was simply unable to make it work. They hired Matthew to come play the part for them. He was also hired to play it by someone who has issued a sampler kit of the instrument as, again, the other person was unable to make it happen.