Greensboro’s Bass Violin Shop
If you take an ailing bass fiddle into Bob Beerman’s shop for repairs, you feel as if you are entering an operating room. The instrument is gently laid upon a table in the back room then one employee examines the patient while another hovers with a clipboard jotting down its diagnosis. Beerman is the veteran surgeon with Tony Morton and Cody Rex serving as his attending physicians. Rachel York is their intern. Bob’s wife, Teresa Rasco, serves as the musical hospital’s president. Their team is a time-tested, well-oiled machine.
Beerman has an eclectic musical past that eventually led him to his role as chief bass surgeon, operating on acoustic basses from across the eastern United States. “I started out playing folk guitar in the 60s,” the Greensboro native explained. “I was in a trio (two guitars and a vocalist), but I also played electric guitar in a little rock-n-roll band. I started playing bass around age 24. I went to Coastal Carolina College in Conway, South Carlolina and while there, I took a music theory course. The teacher had a beach band at Murrell’s Inlet and needed a bass player. He let me start to play electric bass with the group. If you play guitar, you kind of have an idea of some of the notes. In 1975, I bought my first upright bass in Myrtle Beach from a retired school teacher. It was an old Kay for $250. I immediately fell in love with it. It still had the Red-O-Ray strings on it.”
Beerman played bass in his teacher’s band for a couple of years. His mentor saw great potential in his former student and suggested he attend North Texas State University to expand his musical knowledge. “I went to study jazz as a post grad student, but not going for a degree. Jazz was kind of new to me. I spent three years there in jazz bands and taking lessons in improvisation. That’s where I got most of my training as a jazz bass player.”
That is also where Beerman met his future wife, Teresa. “I moved in next door to her,” he fondly recalled. “After three years, we fell in love, got married and moved to Seattle in 1980. Like Hank Snow, ‘I’ve been everywhere, man.’ We were both looking for some place that supported music and the arts. Seattle in the 1980s was the place! I ended up playing jazz there for seven years. The last year I went to the University of Washington to take some classical bass lessons because I was interested in learning more about classical bass. I ended up being in the school orchestra, number two of two basses. It was really exciting to me and I fell in love with classical music there for a while.”
The couple eventually moved back to Beerman’s hometown so he could obtain a master’s degree in classical bass performance from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. “I played in the Greensboro Symphony for around eight years. I enjoyed it very much and still played some jazz gigs, but I was more interested in having a good time. You had to be almost perfect and I would step in little holes now and then. It was embarrassing. It wasn’t the music I grew up with and I felt like I came into it a little late so I bowed out of that. I started listening to old time music in about 1995. The same year, I started working at Artley’s Violin Shop in Gibsonville for six years. He helped me that first year. I learned a lot from Dr. Artley about setting up and repairing instruments. He did violin, viola, cello, and bass. In 2001, I decided it was time to open up our own shop for basses only in Greensboro.”
In a leap of faith, Beerman opened the Bass Violin Shop. “I felt like that there were enough folks who played to give us a little bit of business, but I had no idea we would have so much business! Bob Gollihur, who recently passed, specialized in basses and products. His webpage listed all the luthiers’ names and locations; so all of a sudden there was Bob Beerman in Greensboro, North Carolina! That didn’t hurt because there was really no one else just doing basses. Gollihur told me on the phone that there were a lot of bass players in North Carolina. He had had enough contact online to let me know there was going to be a lot of bass activity.
“In 2001, we opened our own little one-thousand square feet shop on Gate City Boulevard. The first couple of years I found my way through various repairs, fingerboard dressings, and doing basic set-ups. We got too busy to handle it all. A young guy, Gael McKeon, came from Chapel Hill on an irregular basis and then decided to work full-time and moved to Greensboro. He stayed with us for about eight years. I was beneficiary of a lot of his experience at David Gage’s bass shop in New York. He brought some of those ideas and practices to our shop which helped tremendously. I also showed him a few things. We didn’t do everything the same way. It was a mutually beneficial time.”
In 2011, the Bass Violin Shop moved to its current location on Cedar Street in Greensboro. The almost 3000 square foot building originally housed a kitchen/bath showroom. “We pretty much gutted it and converted it into the space we have now,” explained Teresa. Her husband continued. “When Gael left, we hired Sanders Trippe, who had worked at Roscoe Guitars. Sanders quickly transitioned to the double bass and was a great addition to our team.”
Beerman’s current staff is also hand-picked. “Aside from my wife Teresa, who is president and business manager, Tony Morton is the next longest worker here. He also came from Roscoe Guitars, just a block away. Like Sanders, he was well-versed in making electric basses and guitars, very high-end stuff. He brought his talents here and converted them over to working on acoustic basses. He has grown into a very excellent luthier and craftsperson.
“Then there’s Cody Rex who came from Ohio to get a doctorate in bass performance from UNC-G. He came in the shop one day and I just happened to ask him if he would be interested in working with us. He was thrilled with the idea and has been with us ever since. Cody ended up being the front person, talking with customers, answering questions about the origins of basses we’ve got in stock, and handling sales. His hobby of photography came with him and his photos can be seen on our web, Instagram, and Facebook pages. A couple of years ago, he learned to do bow rehairs and repairs in the back of the shop. He’s been instrumental in taking some of the load off me so I can just go in the back room and do bass work.
“Rachel York is the most recent employee. She does office, artwork, and upgrades to our webpage. Most recently, she decided she wanted to give luthiery a shot. We’ve been going through the processes of working on a bass with her, fitting bridges, sound posts, end pins, and that sort of thing. She’s a great asset to the shop.”
Beerman’s business encompasses both repairs and sales. “We’re more involved with repairs, but sales do better than repairs in terms of making money. But we do enjoy the set-up and repair side, and turning basses in poor shape into basses that are ready to be played. The idea is to take something that is not that well set up and make it much more user friendly and enjoyable for the player.”
Their bass fiddle surgeries are as varied as Beerman’s musical background. “Our clientele is a pretty good mix. We get about one-third bluegrass/old-time, one-third jazz, and one-third classical. We’re not snooty. We don’t want to turn anybody down. We try to do all our work the same whether it is a cheap bass or an expensive one. We do what we do. We’re very thankful for our customers. Having been a bass player for a long time, there’s certain characteristics that we can share: a love of the low tones if nothing else, being part of the rhythm section.”
The Bass Violin Shop indeed has many satisfied customers. Josh Berry, shared, “Tony, Cody, and the rest of the folks at the Bass Violin Shop are the best in the business. I spread the good word about them everywhere I go. People always ask me, ‘who does the work on your basses?’ I’m overjoyed to tell them. I’ve played shows this past season with the Appalachian Road Show, the Contenders, and taught a bass camp in Texas which has resulted in many conversations about how good the Bass Violin Shop really is.”
Another North Carolina bassist, John Fogleman, who has played with the Mark Templeton Band, is a regular customer. “I met Bob 20 years ago when he was working for Artley’s and we’ve grown to become friends. I’d always take my Kay basses to him. I’d have different models so he’d never seen before and give him information on them. He could see what I needed, the playability for slap-style bass. He taught me the importance of having a bass set up properly to get the correct sound and the notes right. Their craftsmanship is perfect. They back up their work.
“When I take my basses out to conventions and festivals, people will play my bass and say, ‘Wow, what a great sounding bass!’ They love how the bass is easy to play and ask who sets up my bass. It’s gotten so popular the Bass Violin Shop has my file with all the dimensions so people can get a custom set-up like I have if they want it.”
If you are in need of bass repairs (rentals or purchase), the doctor is in. Bob Beerman and his expertly trained staff are ready and waiting. The Bass Violin Shop is located at 523 N Cedar Street, Greensboro, NC. Call 336-272-2877 or visit www.bassviolinshop.com or follow them on Instagram or Facebook. It’s your one-stop shop!
