I'm a bassist.  I decided a few years ago, on becoming a parent, to take fewer gigs, get back into the woodshed and also take some kind of day work so I could be home with my son most evenings until he's older.  This led to my being taken in part-time by a local violin shop which trained me in bass setup and repair.  Realizing its importance to playing (or maybe being an obsessive type individual), I also started travelling to obtain tutoring from the best bass makers, restorers, and bow makers, and dialoguing with numerous of the world's best bassists about their instruments, setup, and needs.  Shortly, bassists started showing up, and basses, and requests for more basses and bass stuff, until the violin shop people were about to go crazy.  Students needed better beginner instruments and setup, and wanted info on bass teachers, schools and festivals; players needed extensive custom work and the latest mods, pickups and strings, to try endpins and tailpieces, new approaches to defeating wolf tones...things that take time, precision, research, and a passion for basses that play without compromise.   Houston obviously needed a place to geek out about the bass and play basses without limits - a town square, a Cremona, a Brill Building.  So, at least until that little boy grows up and I get back to playing full-time, the bass scene has a studio in a funky arts building and me as facilitator of the ongoing bass-geek discussion and jam.  

-Elisabeth