1 mins
MY SPACE
LUTHIER JURGEN PREYER
LOCATION Arnhem, the Netherlands
ALL PHOTOS JURGEN PREYER
I opened this workshop in Arnhem in 2001. Arnhem is in the eastern part of the Netherlands, close to Germany. It doesn’t have the most thriving music scene but we have an orchestra and several jazz clubs, while musicians from the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Netherlands Philharmonic can get here easily. It would also be difficult to run a workshop this size in a city like Amsterdam!
I built the workshop in my garden, soon after moving in; in fact I chose the property for this reason. It measures 42 sq m and contains around 60 basses, most of which are for sale but several need repairing. This past summer had especially high levels of humidity, which can be bad for basses; lots of customers have reported buzzing from their instruments, for instance. The workshop can get very busy, since there are three people working here nearly all the time, and sometimes we have a fourth; every bench will be taken.
I try to build three new basses each year. My own bench is on the left of the picture, and behind it is a top for a five-string bass. These are becoming increasingly popular, especially among German orchestra players. On my own model I’ve made the f-holes quite far apart and the bridge fairly wide, so that the outer strings have more space and the instrument has a more balanced sound. I’ve also made the C-bouts slightly larger.
I made the top from two pieces of slab-cut silver fir (Abies alba), which is very similar to spruce. I finished the bass and then realised that the sound wasn’t as good as I expected, so I ended up ditching this top and making another one out of standard spruce. It may have taken an extra month (and meant the customer had to wait for it) but I never sell an instrument I’m not completely happy with. Now I don’t know what to do with this beautiful silver fir top; maybe I’ll just have to hang it on my living room wall!