Por JM Garc\u00eda<\/p>\n
Bass player Dave Marr ran a hand over the instrument, stepped back and turned to his friend of 40 years, Dave Millard.<\/p>\n
\u201cFeel that, I think it feels good,\u201d he said on a Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cFeels good,\u201d Millard agreed.<\/p>\n
Nearly 10 years after they started work on it, years that were interrupted by the \u201cstuff of life\u201d as Marr put it, he and Millard have nearly completed a hand-carved double bass \u2014 a task they had somewhat serendipitously decided to take on in 2006.<\/p>\n
That year, Marr, a furniture maker, had bought an eight-foot piece of claro walnut. The board \u2014 a variety of intermingling browns, reds, black, purple and yellows \u2013\u2013 caught his friend\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n
At the time, Millard, a musician and a luthier, had been building and restoring stringed instruments for more than 30 years. He had never, however, built a double bass.<\/p>\n
\u201cDave had this big board,\u201d Millard, 75, recalled. \u201cWhen I saw it, the curl in the board, the wave, it was just inspiring. It was wide enough for a bass. I\u2019d been thinking of building one for a while. I thought, \u2018Maybe it\u2019s time to step up and do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Marr, 61, agreed. \u201cLet\u2019s do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Marr wanted an instrument with a design similar to an 18th-century French bass. He liked its look \u2014 the elegantly cut scrolls and f-holes and sloping shoulders. It was also smaller and easier to play. Millard designed it. Marr\u2019s shop, set up for furniture, had the equipment to cut the board. Since meeting in 1980, they had hung out and played in bands together. But they had never taken on a project like this.<\/p>\n
It took them until 2009 to get started. Marr was spending up to 14 hours a day building furniture and Millard had his own work as a luthier. Then the landlord of the house Millard rented decided to sell it, causing Millard to lose his home and his shop. Both men were also caring for their aging parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what happened,\u201d Marr explained, \u201cLife just got in the way. We\u2019d do a lot of work on it for a few months and then set it aside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding time was one challenge. The bass itself presented many others. It took them a year to build the machine necessary to shape the wood into the form of the instrument. The hard board took hours to bend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sides of the bass are three pieces and it all had to match so it looks like one uncut piece,\u201d Millard said, \u201cand then there\u2019s the back and it has to slightly bend. Everything had to be done in a certain, precise way or it wouldn\u2019t sound right.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the scroll \u2014 the decoratively carved beginning of the neck and one piece of the instrument used to judge a luthier\u2019s skill \u2014 Marr and Millard chose the head of an owl after Millard decided Marr\u2019s first choice of a cat was too difficult to carve. Some scrolls depict the head of a woman or a lion. No bass player they knew had an owl. But the glass they used for the eyes broke when Millard cut it. He reached out to a German company for glass he could shape.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing, not even the smallest thing, was simple,\u201d Millard said from his new shop on E Street. \u201cI had to make it up as I went along.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the years passed, they wondered sometimes if they\u2019d ever finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, God, if aliens landed there will be so much confusion I won\u2019t have to work on this bass anymore,\u201d Millard joked.<\/p>\n
However, they persevered and this year, on March 13, as Millard looked on, Marr held the bass for a trial run. Neither had any idea what it would sound like. They could guess, but they would not know until Marr played it. All that work, he remembered thinking. What if it sounded terrible?<\/p>\n
Marr leaned into the bass, placed his fingers on the strings and began to play. A clear, resonant sound filled the shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sound was very clear with a little edge to it, a clear round sound,\u201d Marr recalled. \u201cI was ecstatic. Dave nailed it. I was so happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
They still have to apply another layer of varnish and make a few modifications, but their 10-year effort has come to an end. Marr intends to bring the bass to Cafe Bar Europa where he and Millard play at 6 p.m. the first two Sundays of the month.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter all that had gone down and the barriers I had to overcome, it was a relief to finish it,\u201d Millard said. And then with a laugh, he added, \u201cIt\u2019s like having a kid except this was an extremely long gestation period.\u201d<\/p>\n