Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Van Basten
Thanks for your insightful vision.
Even tho I don't have much experience in double basses I kinda had a feeling the wood didn't look 'right'.
What troubles me is that it has a bridge by Noël Warnier, he is a respected/experienced luthier over here ( http://noel.warnier.free.fr/luthier/spip.php?article1).
I ask myself, why would somebody ask someone like him to cut him a (probably expensive) bridge for a crappy fake bass and on the other hand why would someone with his reputation get involved in this.
I just mailed the seller to ask him to take a photo of the builders label. A fake label will probably be easily recognizable. |
A bridge will cost what it costs. If not done well, it will need to be done again so why not just put the best on it the first time around.
I bought and sold two basses already suspected of this origin that were antiqued and sold as older basses of Italian origin. I had one fully restored and converted into a 5-string and the other repaired, new bass bar and beautiful C-extension. New fingerboards and bridges on both. Both of these basses sounded good the day I bought them before all the repairs and sounded even better after they were repaired and modified. The internal construction of one was poor so it all had to be corrected. The other bass was very well made but needed some work to optimize the sound.
The point is that name and the price must match. If the sound is there and the price is fair but the name sounds too good to be true then it probably isn't what they claim it to be.
The name that is in this bass does not match the model, origin or style of the bass as well as the overall age of the instrument. Now, just go look at the bass as a bass, no name, made in Romania or Hungary or combined. Then, do a full internal inspection of the bassbar, back braces, top graduations, internal blocks, neck fit, glues used and so on. Then, decide if the bass is worth the price figuring in any and all needed repairs to bring it up to par with professional bass making of any era as far as fit, glues, graduations etc. goes. If the Bass has a good sound, consider it if the condition is within reason. If the sound is not so good, then forget about even considering this bass regardless of what repairs can be done to improve it or combined with an attractive price. If the sound is not attractive then walk away. You can't beat a dead horse!