[David Moss]

New to the forum - hi everybody!

I was interested to see the English "mystery bass", because it shows some similarities to my own gamba form double bass. Mine has a Thomas Dodd label inside, which I was sure was a fake at the time I bought it, because I thought the bass was only about 100 years old. But then a luthier who did a few repairs on the bass for me, a guy with an excellent reputation around here, told me that only the neck is that "new", whereas the body is at least 200 years old based on the workmanship he could see inside, maybe even older. He also told me that the bass bar is unusually close to the center line, so it was presumably built as a three-string and converted to a four-string with a new neck about 100 years ago. He didn't want to commit himself about the authenticity of the label, but he said it didn't feel like an English bass to him, more like Bohemia/Austria - but he said that was just a gut feeling, whereas he was 100% sure about the age.

Obviously this has got me wondering whether the label could be genuine after all. Ken's "mystery bass" description mentions that gamba form basses were being made in England at that time. Does anybody know if Thomas Dodd's workshop made any? Is Thomas Dodd one of the luthiers that a label faker would target? And can I read anything into the fact that the label is located above the level of the f-hole, making it quite hard to see - wouldn't a forger put his fake label in a more prominent place?

I've attached a picture of the label, happy to take some pictures of the bass and post them if anyone's interested. Thanks in advance for any opinions!