Quote:
Originally Posted by Arnold Schnitzer
I think it's interesting that the Allen bass (the one pictured above) has a top made from 15 pieces of vertical grain white pine. I've often wondered if the individual pieces were pre-bent into the approximate shape of the arching, and then joined/carved, or whether they were all glued up as 2"x2" squares and then carved into the arched shape. When looking closely at the top it seems to me there is less end grain visible than I'd expect to see. And I know there were violin makers fooling around with a sort of "coopering" technique in the 19th century (similar to the way barrels are made). J.B. went all out with the decorative aspect of that bass, even inlaying the seams. And Robbie McIntosh did a masterful job of restoring the bass and keeping it faithful to the original while enhancing its playability as a modern bass.
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One of the other Allen basses above with the old Tuners is a 13pc Top I think. It seems as if this was his style. I wonder besides these 3 basses if there are more of them around. It looks so good to my eye I was surprised to learn that even the Varnish is original on this bass. Robbie mentioned to me the other day that he thought about it for a day or so taking a few deep breaths before he took the Top off knowing he would have to restore that joint as well being that the outer moldings overlapped the Top edge. The Purfling covering the joint now was made by him and looks to be walnut and maple laminated.