Napier musician restores a 200-year-old five-string double bass

A Napier musician might be getting on in years but the instrument he plays is more than twice his age.

Englishman Cliff Howell, 88, has restored a five-string double bass that he's been playing since he was in the army at 17.

"I was playing a viola and the army director of music said 'you'd better hand that in as we need a bass player' and that was that."

He bought the five-string bass in a specialist music shop in London that was dedicated to the enormous string instruments.

Cliff Howell with his restored bass, which is believed to be nearly 200 years old. Photo / Warren Buckland

A stint playing on cruise ships the Oriana and Iberia fuelled his love for travel and in 1966 he made the move to come to NZ.

He's been playing with orchestras and bands ever since and still plays in Napier Tech Memorial Band, Hastings Citizens Band, Hawke's Bay Orchestra and sometimes Bay City Stompers.

Howell said he has no idea who made the bass as there are no visible signs of a maker's mark. A fellow musical expert told Howell he believed it was made by a Frenchman about 200 years ago using Northern Hemisphere wood.

"I don't know what it's made out of and I would love to find out," Howell said.

"Someone said it was made from some type of pine tree but I don't know wood at all."

Since Howell's restoration over the years, the sound has improved 100 per cent, he says.

Howell and his bass are living proof of the old adage that the older they are the better they get.

He describes the tone of his bass as having a mellow but very bright sound.

"If you go through an amplifier you can get a very warm sound, which I like to get.

"Imagine a symphony orchestra without the basses, everyone thinks it's just boom, boom, boom it's more than that."