new owner
Hi, I'm the new owner of this bass. I bought it from Aaron (OP) after he had it for a while and decided not to keep it. Since I'm interested in any input on the instrument (and just learning in general about older basses) I'd like to keep this thread going.
Responses to Ken's questions/comments:
-There is little or no flame in the wood, just creative varnishing.
-My guess is that its been revarnished, maybe a long time ago. I have not spoken to my luthier about the varnish, but I've got an appointment on tuesday, so I'll ask him then. Are there any clear indicators of revarnishing that I could look for?
-There are not (to the best that I can tell) any repairs too near the soundpost or bassbar. There are no cracks even close to the bassbar and there is a single long crack about 1/2 inch to the left of the soundpost that seems nicely cleated (I looked inside with a mirror). The top is also very even, with no sinking.
-What makes it so clear that the scroll was grafted? There are some lines on the underside of the scroll that made me think so too, but how can you tell from the pic? Actually, not knowing anything about older basses or their manufacturing, I suspected that the scroll and neck were assembled together to cheapen the manufacturing....
-About the age: there is a repair sticker from 1949 (W.M. Pierce, Allentown PA) and a penciled repairs mark from Sam Reiner, North Wales, PA 1953. So I figure it's least that old. The corpus looks pretty old from the inside, but what do I know. My luthier doesn't seem to dispute the original advertiser's claim of late 1800's.
Measurements:
String length: 41 1/2"
Upper bout: 20 1/2 "
Center Bout: 14 1/2"
Lower bout: 25 1/4 "
Body length: 43"
Rib Depth 7 3/4"
Overstand 3/4"
Bridge height: 5 3/4"
What's really important to me is that it sounds good and I enjoy playing it. I'm not sure yet if it will be a good orchestra bass, but it's got a nice sound and managed to convince me to give it a chance.
My luthier has recommended a neck reset to bring up the overstand and increase the neck angle. I'm hoping this might make it sound even better, or at least make it project better, although it seems nice and loud right now. The bottom block seems stable, but it does worry me a little.
Frankly, I'm just looking for a nice sounding orchestra bass with some personality to it, and if this one doesn't work out I just hope not to LOSE too much money. I don't have any illusions of fixing the thing up and turning it around for 7k!
Anyways, any thoughts are welcome, especially on the neck reset since I'm not really sure I completely understand what that is going to do to the instrument (and it's not cheap). Thanks!
Rob
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