Quote:
Originally Posted by David Blane
The back no longer over hangs the ribs at the bottom of the bass, and I will have to shorten the ribs that is what I have been told by a luthier, but cant afford it at the moment
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Did you ever know this bass when the back DID overhang the Ribs at the bottom?
I bought one bass like this and that was my question too until we took off the Top and saw this is one of the methods in making someone believe falsely that the bass is old. My bass was MADE NEW on purpose with the Back appearing to have shrunk around the Rib overhang. The Ribs were cut and shortened at the Block and all was fixed. My newish Car that I drove the Bass to the shop in was no younger than that bass was.
The Hungarians are amongst the best antique artists in the world.
Like Eric mentioned, as long as you pay for what you get, what they call it doesn't matter. If you get a 40k bass for 10k then the dealer will not stay in business long.
Trust me on this. I am not guessing here. I have seen many of these basses made to look French and Italian (usually). The signs are there if you know where to look. To the naked eye, they look as claimed.
One more story on this.. I subbed at a rehearsal for a singer one day with a 6-8 pc group. The regular guy has an old German/Viennese style Bass. The leader looked at me with my Hungarian-Italian wannabe bass and said 'that's one of those old ones, right?" .. I nodded and continued to play.. Fooled him!!
In one of the Orchestras I played in, my stand partner preferred the sound of this to an older Italian Bass I also played there on occasion. The bass was well made and had a very good sound as I used it myself professionally. It just wasn't an Italian bass like it was labeled and sold to me as. I kept the bass only after adjusting the price with the seller/dealer for what the bass really was. I was fairly happy in the end. The dealer was not.
