Lawrence Wolfe plays Koussevitzky on carbon fiber bass
This is a video of Lawrence Wolfe, assistant principal bass of the Boston Symphony and bass instructor at the New England Conservatory, performing some short Koussevitzky pieces on a Luis and Clark carbon fiber bass and bow. Quite a nice sound, although a player like Mr. Wolfe could make a $500 bass sound fantastic. This is a very impressive testament to the quality of these basses!
(submitted by K2pro)
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14 August 2007, 6:13 pm
Slight correction: He actually wasn’t using a carbon fiber bow. I was at the performance, and when I asked him why, he said his carbon fiber bow was too gummed up with rosin from a previous BSO performance.
He also allowed me to play the bass, which was really interesting. It sounded like what you’d expect a carbon fiber instrument to sound like. It was very hard to hear under your own ear, but from a few feet away, it sounded like a bathtub. Also, the fingerboard was made of the same material, and was hollow, so whenever you put a finger down a little rougher than usual, there was a loud clicking noise, as you can hear in the video.
14 August 2007, 6:46 pm
Hey it’s my old teach Mr. Wolfe!
14 August 2007, 7:50 pm
Thanks for the clarification about the bow and the fingerboard material. Something tells me that bassists wouldn’t want this as a main instrument, but as a secondary/outdoor/extreme situation bass it would probably be ideal.