William Calow
William
Calow was born in Tansley, England in 1847. He worked along with his
two sons in Nottingham. He died in 1910. I would expect that most people
would think of Calows work as typical flat backed viol shaped
instruments. This is what he was of course famous for. But as can be seen
in the photograph on the right, he made several Guarnerian shaped basses.
This instrument is a really fine bass that would grace any good section
in an orchestra. And this one now belongs to the Radio Philharmonic
Orchestra in Hilversum, Holland. The varnish is a dark brown oil. The high
corners make it a little hard to reach the high notes, but that is a small
price to pay for such a good sounding instrument. Calows life was a hard
one. On one of his viol shaped instruments was a hand written
account of how bad things were for the family, and if things didn't
improve they would probably be thrown out of there home and starve on the
streets. To make matters worse his son Thomas who William always thought
of as totally irresponsible, but made also made one or two good double
basses, hanged himself from the rafters with a double bass string. The
Calow family made many string instruments but will always be known for the
double basses. The postscript to Williams life was not a good one as he
died in poverty.
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