King Mortone

King Mortone

King Mortone is a Double Bass model made by H.N. White, an instrument making company founded in America in 1893 by Henderson N. White.

History

The first "King Mortone" double bass appeared in 1934 when H. N. White decided to make a string bass instrument with the same care and attention as was put into making a brass bass instrument. The string bass's fronts were made from the finest straight grain spruce with very close grain quality, while the rest of the instrument was made of curly maple. Each bass was equipped with an improved geared key mechanism, ensuring rigidity and sensitive tuning. The H. N. White Company claimed that each "King string bass has a greater volume of tone, and carries the vibrations over a longer period of time, than any other string bass...." During the Second World war production had stopped but by this point approximately 1200 basses had been made. In 1946 production resumed and continued steadily until 1965 when the string department of H. N. White was sold to Kay Double Basses. By this point approximately 5000 basses had been made. When Kay had control of King Mortone Basses they stopped production and used the factories to make Kay Double Basses.

"King Mortone" Basses are often considered the some of the finest double basses for jazz ever to have been made especially for the Slap Bass style.

The original H. N. White manufactured King basses are in no way related to the latter day King Doublebass (KDB) basses, The construction, sizing and finishes all differ significantly, with Mortone basses being on the large size (nearer 7/8 than 3/4) with bulbous shoulders, and KDB basses being slim shouldered. KDB have never made any claims about any connection to the basses produced for HN White, furthermore, as Kay owned the rights to the King Mortone name, it would now be the property of Engelhardt Link who produce basses to the Kay patterns using the same model designations as Kay under the name Engelhardt. KDB produce basses in the USA and in China and are primarily aimed toward the rockabilly and psychobilly markets.

Models

The original "King Mortone" Basses were all of the same model. KDB have introduced several models of bass, differing in paint finish and construction:
*Road King
*Sparkle King
*Studio King
*Tiger King
*Slap King

There are also several KDB signature models currently in production:

*Lee Rocker Signature Sparkle King
*Lee Rocker Signature Slap King
*Stray Cats Signature
*Jimbo Wallace Signature Tiger King

Notable players

Willie Dixon

External links

* [http://www.hnwhite.com H. N. White Official Website]
* [http://www.kingdoublebass.com King Basses Website]
* [http://www.americanstandardbass.com/kingData1.html A list of King Mortone basses still known to exist]


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