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Old 01-28-2007, 11:19 PM
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Ken Smith Ken Smith is offline
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Lightbulb Prescott features..

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Glassman View Post
Yeah, when I look at the retored bass by Lou DiLeone the shape of the lower bouts AND the 'f's don't exactly scream Prescott to me either.

BG
To me, it's not so much the shape as it is the FF cuts and Scroll. Like Jeff Bollbach has preached to me, each person makes a curve his own way. In the case with hand made instruments, you can see if it's the same guy or not. With shop or production instruments, you cannot. In the case of Prescott having his own design with several workers over a 30 year period making Basses in two cities and at least 4 shops, you will see variation but not one that looks like a completely different maker or style. I have seen only two FF patterns used on Prescott Basses and only one Scroll design. The measurements vary from period to period but the 'idea' does not. With the FFs, only a few of the full sized Cello model Basses have that sweeping 'S' design as seen in his earlier Cellos (Church Basses). According to the records I have I don't see that he made that many Double Basses prior 1829 or in his first decade of making them. Mainly what we see are the Church Basses. After the move to Concord and the expansion of the shop, we see even the Cellos (Church Basses) using the short wide FFs that are on almost 98% of the Basses he made. When you see an old Yankee Bass and the FFs are not Prescott, that's usually a 'smoking gun' right there. Many old Basses have had their Necks/Scrolls replaced as until recent years, not everyone considered an original Bass Scroll of value or worth saving with a grafted neck. I understand Prescott farmed out his Scroll work at some point. This would mean that each time the model was made for duplicating, slight variations could occur as they could with final sanding and hand shaping. My Prescott (now sold) had a beautiful Scroll with soft lines. Some are more box-like in their finished state but some not. In either case, you can always tell it's a Prescott. Similar looking long Scrolls with extra turns or similar pegbox lines are just 'Prescott School' model Basses.

I bet that if my Batchelder did not have a label, it would be called a Prescott by just about any of the Dealers currently throwing his name around casually as we have seen to date. For lack of a better name, it is easier to call anything close to Prescott a Prescott. The only problem is that it's not close to my eye having studied his Basses over the last few years mainly for personal interest. So far, two Basses called Prescott and owned by famous players are just not a Prescott to me eye.
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