Welcome to Resonance

RESONANCE Presented by Bass Upfront Every instrument has a maker. Every maker has a story. And every story is tied to a place, a tradition, and a culture that shaped it long before the first note was ever played. I'm David Sutkin, and this is Resonance. A journey to the workshops, villages, and cities where the world's instruments are born. My focus is the bass, the instrument that built my career and my community, but the bass doesn't exist in isolation, and neither does this series. To understand the low end, you have to understand the whole orchestra of craft around it: the luthiers, string-winders, drum builders, and instrument makers whose traditions shape every corner of the music world. Over the years, that obsession led me to build one of the largest private collections of rare and historic basses in the world. Instruments with their own stories, their own makers, and their own place in this history. That collection is part of what pushed me to make this series: every bass I own is proof that the object is never just the object. It's a person, a place, and a tradition, all held in wood and string. Over the course of this series, I'll be traveling across continents, going deep with bass builders specifically while exploring the broader culture of craftsmanship that surrounds them, because no instrument, and no craftsman, exists in a vacuum. In this inaugural episode, I explain why I started Resonance, why craftsmanship deserves the same spotlight we give the music it makes possible, and why I believe I'm the right person to tell these stories, with the access, the relationships, and the respect this world demands. This isn't a travel show. It's not a music show. It's both, and neither, it's a series about the human hands and cultural histories behind every sound we love, told through the lens of the instrument that started it all for me. Resonance starts here. Links: https://linktr.ee/resonance.cmc