Quote:
Originally Posted by Arnold Schnitzer
Ken, I think you paint Lamy basses a bit one-dimensionally. I have seen Lamy's that would compete with anything in terms of workmanship and sound. There is a magnificent one in National Symphony (you can see its lion-head scroll on my website). The plates on that bass are not thick, the detail work is excellent, and overall I'd give the bass a spirited thumbs-up.
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Ok, but we haven't seen this bass in person, any of us. The data on J.T.L. points to a factory. The Lion heads are done by Guild Carvers as that was a rule there then, no?.. Also, the bass you had there may have been re-graduated to its current state. Possible? Your buddy Jeff told me about a heavily wooded Lamy that was 'improved' in another shop many years ago. When done, it was so good that the shop owner being confused put in a more famous label thinking that the Lamy label was incorrect despite the insistence that the bass was a Lamy. That bass is now in use as something else due to the results.
I agree that these can be very nice basses and that the French Factory basses were better than the German factory instruments of the same period. The point is that although looking like a Vuillaume in shape and model, they are just not.
By the way, I know you have had at least one Vuillaume there in the shop (I saw it there) so how would you compare the two basses in sound?
The price to buy in dollars with bank rates and currency commission would be about $14k before shipping. Add that, a good set up, Fingerboard and Bridge maybe. Also a possible Neck Re-set and if this bass is wood from Europe, include some repairs if the back center opens or the Top splits from winter shrinkage in a year of two before it's sold. So.. what is the inventoried cost at that point? How fast do these French Cello models sell at market price?
My point is that locally, it may be a good or fair in the least 'individual' purchase. Across the Pond wholesale, the deal isn't quite as sweet looking.
If the Bass was here in the states for 50 years already then it would be something to persue but to bring it here and have it experience our climate for the first time could be very costly. The Mougenot I have came over here around 20 years ago as confirmed with the previous owner. The repairs from changing the geographic home of the Bass will not come cheap. The difference is that repairs cost the same per hour regardless of the pedigree of the Bass. Fixing a hand made Vuillaume or a Mougenot (Vuillaume school bass) is a smaller percentage of the worth of the bass when comparing it to a turn of the century factory French Bass.