[Ken Smith]

There were three generations of Rubners and worked as a family passing down the shop as they each trained with their elder. They all specialized in Double Basses and listed as DB & Cellos as well. I don't know the periods of the Cellos with the family but DBs were the main in all 3 generations. The basses were made in 4 and 5 strings in Gamba and Violin form as well as some other Busetto type models which I have seen pictured.

The first was Joseph(Josef) R., b.4/7/1864-d.7/4/1927

Then his son Otto R., b.8/7/1885-d. 1963

Followed by Otto's son Johannes, b.2/10/1924 who is listed as still working with his father Otto in 1969. He passed his makers test in 1959 as listed in the Jalovec book of German makers.

The shop was in Markneukirchen. How is your bass labeled if at all?

With laminated basses, there is no way of knowing without personal first hand knowledge if they were made in their shop or just completed there by contracting the model out to a firm that specialized in laminated basses. In this period, Juzek bought the Laminated models from the Lang firm and the carved basses from the Wilfer's. Several shops/brands shared suppleirs from what I have seen.

Your bass looks post 1960 to me from the pictures shown. They are dark but I get that idea from the tuners and model. That brand was common on the basses from that period and latter as well. I don't know if there is or was a 4th generation that followed Johannes.

By the way, how wide are the strings centered on that bridge? They look extremely wide to me. Are they evenly spaced at least, center-to-center?