[Ken Smith]

Buying a bass for 8k that was only worth 4k when you bought it is not business, it's robbery.

A dealer/luthier fixing a bass poorly or springing in a bar that well self implode is not bad work. It is vandalism.

Buying a modern Ford Escort and being told it's vintage Ford Mustang is not buyer education/buyer beware. The dealer is supposed to have the products labeled correctly. After all, he's the dealer representing the product and its not a Flea market as-is amateur to amateur type of sale. Deception is Fraud.

The last I heard, Robbery, Vandalism and Fraud were all crimes you could go to jail for and serve time.

Selling faked Hungarian Basses (or Violins or Cellos) and knowing they are Fakes is Fraud. Yet dealers continue to attempt to deceive until someone falls for it. How can this be legal and why are these people practicing this criminal deception NOT in Jail yet?

Look, you walk down a dark alley in a bad neighborhood late at night and two teens pull a knife on you and rob you. That is business as usual. But, you walk into a beautiful shop with violins through basses or maybe just basses and you buy a Hungarian fake and pay over 100k to get what you think is an old Italian classic. That is NOT business as usual. That is criminal deception. At lease in the alley you knew you were in trouble. In a Bass/Violin shop with permits displayed to do business and all the success and reputation you have been taught to believe you don't expect to be clubbed over the head by the shop owner. You are relaxed and trusting as you are talked to, showed around and given time to choose your instrument only to find out you were safer in the ally. There at least the kids could only take what you have. Not make you mortgage your house for some fake that will take years to pay for and only be worth a fraction of what you paid at any given time.

If you get a particular pedigree and it's back dated by estimate, its only minor but in the case of a Strad, paying 6 instead of 2 million, it's still a huge loss. Buying a Strad that is really a Fendt forgery is robbery as well.

Dealers and makers (in the minority, I hope!) have been robbing and deceiving for centuries. Bass players need to take action and get other dealers/luthiers in as witnesses to fight these crimes so it can at least slow down if not stop. I can see how mistakes can be made but people continue to go to these shops and even though some or maybe most of their dealings is honest, like in Russian roulette, there is that one bullet waiting for you.