Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Smith
Just that dark looks like it might be over varnished. These basses usually have spirit varnish on them. Making a new bass that dark is usually rare and not so appealing. It is more common in repair that a bass is over-varnished or re-finished with the thought it is helping the bass. Using a dark color helps to hide old repairs and is common in that respect. Making it that dark new is not usually done.
The c-bout ribs are crackless but the upper and lower on both sides show old repairs. The Bass as well shows some and with flatbacks it is more common than not. The top is hard to see all of what's happened in the past but I do see several repaired cracks there as well. The outer linings make the bass stiffer in the rib area and basses like this are often thick all around. They last longer than if thin but the sound the extra wood mutes is par for the course.
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Hmm - well in any case I like the darkness. I have inspected thoroughly and there some old repairs (two old repair/restoration tags). Barrie Kolstein took the top off and is almost done with all the restoration work. He undid a lot of the old repairs for me because my thought was since the top was off fix it all. He said some of them were not done properly so he was going to fix them all and restore the bass to full health.