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This beautful upright bass has been totally handmade by luthier Marian Pawlik from Krakow, Poland. Jan is an accomplished luthier (bass specialist) and his instruments have been used by some of the best musicians and orquestras. This particular bass is very similar to the one used by the famous klezmer music band "Kroke" bass player Tomasz Lato.

The whole idea here was to build an instrument that would resemble as much as possible an acoustic double bass in terms of playability but making it so much easier to travel with and amplifly as well as making it a perfect "practice" bass that you could play in your hotel room or late night at home without disturbing anyone. All these goals have been accomplished!

As you can tell from the pictures, the neck is 100% traditional (flamed maple with a great piece of the best ebony for the fingerboard).

There's a traditional maple bridge with adjusters.

The headstock is also quite traditional except for the more streamlined volute and the use of top notch German made Schaller individual tuners.

The body consists of a solid piece where the neck is bolted on and that extends down to the special tailpiece. Below that there's a small resonance chamber and that's where the feet of the bridge rest. This is responsible for the acoustic volume (low but enough for practice) and the much needed resonance, of course.

The endpin is of course longer than usual to compensate for the shorter body and it is very robust. It can be completely removed for transport.

There's a body rest that attached to the body with a single bolt and this will give you both the perfect reference for your body as well as serving as a reference for thumb position. Cool!

Removing the body rest and the endpin takes about 10 seconds and then all you need to do is to put those parts inside the case (there's an extra bag inside for the body rest) and your are good to go. If you need to check your bass on a plane you can also disassemble the neck by removing two screws. Neat!

This instrument is called Silent because it was originally created for late night practice but of course it features a pickup for you to use it in a band situation. This is a Realist by David Gage, probably the most standard unit in the market. This pickup can sometimes be a bit boomy with some basses due to the excessive resonance but of course this is not the case here so it's a match made in heaven. You don't even need an external preamp (you can use one if you have one though) so you can simply plug into a standard bass amp and you'll get a great sound.

Compared with other "electric upright basses" which have a solid body, this Pawlek really benefits from the added resonance of the hollow chamber which instantly translates into larger dynamic range and far more natural sound

Current strings are Rotosound RS4000 nylon and the bridge is set for the maximum height, making it perfect for traditional jazz styles as well as Rockabilly. Of course you can install just any other standard upright bass strings on it (we can advice you about that) and make it perfect for jazz, classical or hybrid styles.

To sum up, this is a really well built instrument that plays like a dream and successfully sorts these issues:

1.- Late night practice (acoustic volume is enough for practice)

2.- Easy to travel with (even on a plane)

3.- Get a cool amplified sound in seconds with no feedback

This bass is about 15 years old and it's in incredible shape as it was been worked on by a professional luthier who has set the nut really low and has trued the fingerboard (works great for pizzicato, arco or slap)

Padded gigbag included