[Chang Min Lee]

Thanks so much for your insightful answer, Ken. It was extremely helpful.

I will ask the shop if they know if the scroll and tuners are original. If they don't know I'll have them ask the owner as the bass is on consignment.

Upon looking closer I see that the scroll was grafted onto the neck at some point, with the scoring up the thin part of the pegbox and behind the button. The neck has also been clearly grafted about 1/3 down from the scroll, but the flaming is exactly the same so I'm thinking it might have had a longer string length (currently 42.5")? Looking at the scroll - it has a very similar flame to the back and sides and same color and very similar patina with the same kind of fine cracking patterns in the varnish. With my untrained eye it looks to be original to the bass or at least of a close age. I might guess that the neck might not be original but replaced at some point. It doesn't show any cracking of the varnish anywhere, although the color matches well. Also, there's a different piece of wood at the back of the neck block I'm guessing to increase the overstand. But I really don't have any experience to make a good educated guess about these things. I would take closer pictures but I'll need to get a new camera first.

The brass plates seem to have been on the bass for a while. There is a black outline along the edge of both the plates. And the inside of the pegbox doesn't look tampered with.

Anyways, I'm going back to the shop tomorrow to return it. I'll ask about it and get back to you. Thanks again!