International travel with a cello or double bass can be a fraught experience – every few months social media is awash with another story of an instrument damaged or destroyed by baggage handlers, and professional cellists routinely have to purchase an extra seat for their instruments. A team of Italian luthiers in Parma is offering a solution for bass players, however, with a collapsible double bass that can travel as hand luggage.

The TravelBass

The skeletal double bass, made from cedar, ovangkol and maple wood, is being billed by its designers as “a perfect substitute for the big and awkward acoustic one” with “the closest sound to the traditional double bass ever.” The bass can be assembled and disassembled in five minutes and transported in a case measuring 88.9cm x 33.02cm x 22.86cm.

“The precise and researched use of different and specific verities of woods makes the TravelBass acoustic chamber free to resonate and quick to respond thanks to the lightweight of cedar wood,” the TravelBass website says, describing the design as consisting of “two foldable wooden shoulders, which replace the exact outline of a classic double bass, which can be also adjusted...