Samuel Shen

Sam Shen emigrated from China to Windsor, Canada in 1989 and opened his first violin shop. Sam studied violin performance and business at the University of Windsor. In 1993 he established Shen’s Musical Instruments Co., Ltd. in Suzhou, China, manufacturing violin family instruments for export. In 1998 Sam Shen moved back to Suzhou fulltime to train his staff and to oversee and maintain his high quality standards for instrument manufacture. The shop introduced the Samuel Shen line of basses to the northern California double bass community about 12 years ago and remains the only authorized dealer for this line in northern California.

Sam Shen is dedicated to making fine student and professional grade instruments. I’ve been very impressed with the solidly conceived designs, the clean and accurate workmanship, and the fully seasoned woods used in Shen basses. There is a Shen model for nearly every student budget, size of player, and playing style. I keep a dozen different 5/8 and 3/4 size Samuel Shen models in stock and usually have multiples of the best selling models. Samuel Shen doublebasses are widely recognized as representing an outstanding value in consistently great sound, easy playability, and great reliability to the extent that the shop does not even bother carrying other student level lines for laminated or hybrid instruments. The shop remains the exclusive dealer for Samuel Shen string basses for northern California.