2000s Knilling Thinline 3/4 Upright Jazz Bass

I remember when these German-made, Knilling, thinbody uprights came out! One saw them at shows and on TeeVee now and then in the late '90s and early '00s. This one dates to right around Y2K and was bought new by the current owner. She's put a ton of miles on it, playing it regularly for local folksy events for the last couple decades and you can see the love bites via some wear and tear to the finish on the edges and the back of the neck. It's held-up well, however, and my only work on this one was to recut the bridge a hair to give a little more adjustment room to the thumbwheels and a mild setup and restring. It plays nicely and has room at the bridge for seasonal adjustments to set your action to taste.

I restrung it with a fresh set of LaBella Supernils a few weeks ago and they've settled-in and sound and feel great. It bad been strung with an old set of Super Sensitives which had an alright sound but were both very stiff and overly hyped in the mids. The LaBellas make this a great folk, bluegrass, or rockabilly instrument and they warm it up (much like gut strings) which is very helpful considering the thin-depth body gives the instrument a lot of punch and easy handling but limits the depth of the sound a bit. The LaBellas help give it some extra carry on the low E and A that it was missing before for "backup" or "boom-boom" work, as it were...

As for the bass itself? It's very well-built -- it's ply construction throughout the body but features a vintage-feeling, heftier maple neck with true ebony board and tailpiece. It has nice brass tuners that work smoothly and the bridge is nicely-cut and has good, aluminum adjusters. I added side dots to mark "fret" locations for folks with a slow brain on upright like myself.

It comes with all sorts of goodies -- an inexpensive French-style bow which sounds and handles pretty darn well, a grey aluminum-tube-style stand for leaving it "up" at home or at the gig, a very nice gigbag, a Fishman BP-100 pickup, and a spare (fresh) set of Super Sensitive strings.

I took this up to our local jam a couple weeks ago and it could easily be heard (and felt) in a "wall of acoustic guitars" (5 or 6?) plus a low-volume electric that was being played. It's slightly disconcerting playing this because a lot of the volume is "out front" where the player can't hear it so well.