Review: The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound by Chuck Traeger

Reviewed by James Condino

Originally published in American Lutherie #84, 2005 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008



The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound
Chuck Traeger with David Brownell and William Merchant
Henry Strobel
ISBN 1-892210-06-1
www.henrystrobel.com

Every once in a while a book comes along in a particular field that sets a new standard for future titles to strive for. Chuck Traeger’s The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound is one of those gems.

As a regular gigging double-bass player and luthier, I have been waiting for this text since I first picked up the instrument. Failed neck joints, broken scrolls, huge moisture cracks, and the general wear and tear of dragging around a very fragile refrigerator-sized item are part of daily life for the bass player and repairman.

Chuck Traeger, who is referred to as “the Mercedes-Benz of (bass) repairmen” by his longtime friend and customer Ron Carter, didn’t come upon this overnight. He made his first professional jazz recordings in 1945 and played the double bass for over twenty years prior to becoming a repairman who specializes in the bass. His customer base and writing cover both the jazz and classical sides of the instrument. Chuck is a trained civil engineer from Columbia University. As such, his approach is that “there is a reason for everything. I want people to think in a different way about... the instrument, its repair, and setup.” To him it is a specialized art.