Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Smith
The Bass looks Bohemian/German to me about 100 years old or so +/- 25 yrs.
The Varnish looks new as I don't see much wear/patina on the body. The Back looks lighter in color and the grain, looks like plywood.
Maybe some better pictures with better light might help.
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Oops! Sorry Mr. Dodd - you must be turning in your grave!
Yes, those picture taken by the previous owner are pretty poor and may well be misleading. The true color of the upper back is much darker than in the close-up of the purfling, but not as dark as in the overall back picture. The lighter areas at the top right and near the right hand C bout are finish differences, no sign of wood having been replaced. They're also not as light as the picture shows.
All I know about this bass's history is what the previous owner told me: sometime in the mid 90s he (an amateur violinist) went to a double bass teacher friend to ask for classical lessons for his son, who was about 14 at the time, and he asked the same friend for help buying an instrument. The friend called back a few weeks later to say he'd found an instrument at a low price because of very poor condition, and he felt it would turn out pretty good when it was restored. The customer agreed, and the music teacher had the restoration done by a luthier friend of his in the Frankfurt region, identity unknown. The customer never knew what work was done, he trusted his music teacher friend and just gave him the cash for the purchase and restoration, and the music teacher took care of everything.
Some ten years later I bought the bass because the son had finally plucked up the courage to admit to his fearsome dad that he had no interest in music! The bass clearly hadn't been well cared for in the last 10 years: the strings were dire and poorly fitted, the bridge was much too wide and not shaped to the top at all (I could almost slide a credit card under it), the sound post was too long and installed in the wrong place, which had led to a crack opening at the f-hole. But my teacher and I agreed that even in that condition it sounded great, a beautifully dark old wood tone and wonderfully open especially on the A and D strings, and all other cracks very professionally repaired. So I bought it, on the basis that I was getting an approx. 100 year old, great sounding no-name German bass for everyday amateur jazz use, with a joke fake label inside. I paid 2400 bucks plus 350 total for the repair work, new bridge and new strings, and I still think I got a terrific bargain - and Charlie Haden said "wow" when he heard it (honest, no kidding!).
As I already said: the information from the luthier that it was a 200-year old 3-string body with a 100-year old 4-string neck grafted on made me wonder if the label could be real after all. Now that I related the story, I realize that this is highly unlikely - if the music teacher and his luthier pal had thought the label was real, they wouldn't have sold the bass to a 14-year old kid beginner.
I'll try to post some better pictures here in the next few days. Thanks to everybody for your interest!