New "old" bass?

[Hannes Beyer]

Hi!

I just bought this bass and I really would appreciate your opinion about its origin and age. The only fact about the bass I know for sure is that the previous owner, who no longer is alive, got his hands on it in the fifties. It also has notes from a guy repairing it in 1987 here in Sweden. And it has an inscription inside that says "rebuilt in 1829" (in Swedish) but no name or other documentation to confirm that.

The bass is not in healthy condition at all at the moment, the neck is lose and there are some open cracs in the top. If you look at the frontal picture you can see that the neck and/or scroll is twisted, showing one side more than the other.

Upper Bout 20,8"
Center Bout 14,7"
Bottom Bout 26"

Rib Depth 7,2" (5,5" at neck)
Belly Length 43,3"
String Length 43,3

I would be very greatful for any comments.

Best regards,

Hannes

[Ken Smith]

To my eye and that picture, the bass does not look that old. Show me some more pictures of the top, back, sides and the head, ALL angles shot straight as I I am looking at it in person.

The Top has NO Purfling so it is a less expensive shop bass. It looks like an early 20th century model, 1920s-19230s. With more pictures, I will be able to tell more.

[Hannes Beyer]

Thanks for your quick answer Ken!

I agree with you that the bass don´t look that old. It differs a lot from my other German shop bass so I´m grateful if you could tell me some more about this type of bass.

[Hannes Beyer]

Here is some more pictures of the scroll.

[Ken Smith]

Same opinion as before but the neck was broken from the body and the repair is not good. Unless the button was repaired from the inside with a button graft, the current repair is a time bomb. This bass in that condition ha very little value if any. Mainly because the correct repairs will exceed the value of the repaired bass. This is quite common with older cheaper factory basses or basses that are just repaired poorly.