About Paul Bryant

This year, 2008, marks the 31st anniversary of my instrument making, although before 1989 my output was mainly violas (66) and ‘cellos (50) with the odd viol and violin thrown in.

In the last ten years, however, I have been increasingly concentrating on double basses, now numbering in their seventies, almost to the exclusion of other instruments, although I do have a cello on order, and I do like to make one or two violas, which I intend to do more of when I retire.

 I have seen on some bass makers web sites, the claim that bass making is so specialized, that to make a good bass, one must make nothing but basses.  It is therefore reassuring to know that people like Amati, Maggini, da Salo, Gofriller, and Montagnana, not to mention Lott, Panormo, Fendt, and Kennedy, could apparently not make a decent bass!