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Old 01-13-2011, 09:14 PM
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Ken Smith Ken Smith is offline
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Join Date: 01-18-2007
Location: Perkasie, PA
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Lightbulb well..

I read this over on TB and you are right about the made in Czech. part but I doubt the day the war ended this bass was made and shipped. It might have taken a year or two to get things made, find customers like B&J and make new business arrangements. Also, the needed money to be in business and America was not in the best of Shape either.

A few of the other Importers then included The Juzeks in NY, Grossman co. in Cleveland and even Sears and Wurlitzer for basses. I am sure there are others. Juzek bough the basses from the Czech side of the German/Czech border near Schoenbach and Markneukirchin. Who actually made what and where? Your guess is as good as mine. The Wilfer Family made basses for several generations as did Dolling, Meyer, Saumer, Hoffmann, Neuner & Hornsteiner in the south, Hofner and Framus. I just got a bass by a maker named Wilhelm Uebel. If not for another member here posting an identical bass with his label as mind didn't have one, I would not have known who he was. The Uebel is an older Gamba shape (no violin corners) with a round back and dates from before 1900. My bass was previously sold as French by a big famous shop in NY. This was a careless mistake as the name of the maker was written on the underside of the Tailpiece from an old repair session decades ago. They just had to look.. lol.. Also, with outer linings and that varnish, it is 100% German. That bass is not yet on the site but it's twin was posted here not long ago.

For that German/French model/styling there are several basses posted in both German and French basses as to what they are. I brokered a bass not long ago to Phil Maneri that was sold it's last 2x as a French bass. Then I broke the news that it was German and probably from this same area or slightly north as I have even seen claims of basses from Berlin of this same style.

Here's Phil's bass before he bought it. The line around the top and back with or without the Purfling running with it or not. Most German basses of this style have a round/carved back as it was the nicer Vuillaume copy French model. Actually, I can't recall a single French model like this with a flat back from Germany.

Here is a real Vuillaume style French bass but this one with a flat back in a similar style. This maker however worked mostly in Belgium. In France these were made for over half a century and probably as many round backs as flat backs as this was a normal model for that country.

On the German, the outer linings give it away. On the French, the scroll, varnish and gears usually tell a story on their own.



On the back of these basses, that false button on the French bass is typical French whereas I have never seen the Germans bother with it in their copy.

That purfled design on your back is similar to many basses I have seen by Wilfer BUT, the black lines are much thicker so not Wilfer as far as the Juzek style basses.
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