I can see that the Bassbar is fairly bright white colored unoxidized looking wood. What does the back and ribs look like from the inside?
You can buy brand new Basses made in Eastern Europe from some of the Bass shops in USA today that look antiqued just like this. The Gears do look older but do not match what I would expect to see from a Bass of the same age.
To do some comparisons which is how most people judge things I will show you some Basses of various ages and pedigrees (or not) to see both natural and artificial aging.
2 Shen Basses I have from
6 years old to
10 years old.
Two possible Hungarian Basses that were both sold to me as being about 50 years old or more but we believe they are younger than my two children of 16 and 20 years old. A
5-string converted and a
4-string with a new extension.
Here are two German Basses from two eras.
Pollmann 1978 and
Morelli 1910-20 which is where they placed your Bass date-wise. Look also at the pre-restored pics to get a closer look of
80-100 years of natural aging.
Moving over to Italy, here are two 20th century Basses by two great makers. One is by
Oreste Candi, 1936 (his only known Bass) who made mainly Violins and the other in two sets of pics is
Oreste Martini, 1919 who was documented as making 45 Basses.
Both having the same first name by coincidence only. This being the earliest dated Martini Bass and best example I have seen and heard about of his work. The Martini did have some Varnish restoration
work done back in 1999 but still maintains its aged look.
Please examine these links/pics carefully and see the difference between natural aging/markings and artificial pre-aged markings such as scratches, dents and varnish touch-ups.
The Back of the
Morelli aged naturally while the
Bisiach seems to have had some '
help' along the way. Very very convincing to most people but the Bisiach could almost pass for a 100 years old to the same people that would '
buy' the date and label.
I have seen many Basses for sale recently from USA, Canada and all over Europe that had very old tuners but artificial type aging. Most often the prices of these Basses are too good to be true. In actuality, the price is usually on the high side to say the least.