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Old 03-29-2009, 11:21 PM
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Ken Smith Ken Smith is offline
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Join Date: 01-18-2007
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Cool Amati here, Amati there..

The last time I spoke with a world leading expert, we discussed the fact that there are no confirmed Amati Basses period. All the Basses claimed to be Amati are so far unconfirmed as far as everyone agreeing on. Testing the age of the Top wood is another way of disproving but not always. The Bass can still be old, made in the same town and decade as one of the Amati generations but made by another local maker just 'influenced' by Amati at best.

After 300-400 years, it's hard to tell if all the parts of the Basses are original to itself including the Varnish as well much less the exact maker.

If we could list all the Basses claiming to be Amati's, one might get the impression that they specialized in them. Like with Strad, it was much more lucrative to make and sell Violins and the occasional Cello. After all, who could afford a Bass back then from a living legend?

We see more Basses coming out of early Brescia, Venice and Milan than Cremona. Why is that?

By the way, we see many erroneous claims for d'Salo and Maggini as well. More by Maggini by far as the English made so many copies that some of them are somewhat convincing. Actually, erroneous claims are more common than not.
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