Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Campbell
I do agree that your Mittenwald bass is reminiscent of Tarr bass. In terms of my comment about your bass when compared to Yankee basses, I was only referring to the ratio between large lower bouts and the relatively smaller upper bouts I've seen on some Prescott basses.
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The upper bouts of Prescott Basses are usually wide and long. Some of them were cut down as mine surely was, upper and middle. It must have been way too big because after the Cut, it was still a 4/4 bass. Maybe it was a 5/4 before?
Then I looked at Eugene Wrights bass that looks all original and came to the conclusion that his upper bouts were very similar to my 'cut' upper bouts. Prescott must have changed the 4/4 model Busetto and Gamba basses to have smaller upper's for the players buying them. That I think is 'American' and not German as it was done to make it playable and not a copy. The only Copy part is copying his own cutting down which we can consider a learning curve.
Show me a single Prescott that looks like the proportions of my German bass (I think it's German) and I will reverse my opinion.
It is also written somewhere that Prescott copied an old English Viol for his Scroll idea and length. That is a huge pegbox for what only had 3 strings originally!
More please...
