Making the Double Bass: Handbook of Double Bass Making

At the age of 70, Maestro Fabio Chiari entrusts this handbook with the knowledge he has gained in thirty years of instrument making. With more than 600 instruments to his name, including numerous double basses that have been highly acclaimed by the musicians who have chosen them, the Maestro describes his personal double bass construction process in this compendium. Topics covered range from the choice of wood, with particular attention to native and sustainable wood, to the construction technique with parts under tension and the preparation of the varnish with aloe. Finally, the importance of the hand that makes the instrument being clearly recognizable is emphasized, as has always been the case in the Tuscan school. This handbook also seeks to respond to the need for standardization of the modern double bass by defining the measurements of the 4/4 model and other scales, and including in the appendix the master's model with the internal mould, templates, and graphs of the thicknesses of the back plate and soundboard. Maestro Fabio Chiari's style is a natural consequence of all the choices described here, whether they arise from simple common sense, practicality, and economy, or from considerations related to sustainability, the search for innovation, the desire to experiment, or even just an innate and indomitable curiosity. This handbook is not a simple list of manual operations and dimensions to be respected; it is the expert gaze that a philosophical craftsman casts on his professional history. Intertwined with the practical instructions for construction, one can actually glimpse a Weltanschauung in which he believes and to which he has dedicated his entire life, a life spent in the daily practice of creating art. English edition, 198 pages, 100 photographs and charts.