Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Hack
Beautiful bass, Ken. The varnish is such a beautiful, deep color. Another question from an overly curious student: What is the difference between the two terms 'GUITAR-model' and 'PEAR-model'? One reads of the 'French Pear Model', but I suspect that is in reference to the older Gamba-form basses with sloping shoulders and... well... rather 'healthy' bottoms. But I have also heard of cornerless basses referred to as pear-shaped, and they certainly look like pears. Perhaps it has something to do with the relative sizes of the bouts?
Cheers all,
Charlie
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Yes, the Varnish is beautiful and of a very high quality as is the wood under it. On the names, like anything else, these are just nick names to describe a shape. Pear or Guitar describes a cornerless Bass just fine. Pear also refers to a sloped top bout as in the French Basses you mentioned. My
Loveri is a Pear shaped Bass but it's not Cornerless! However, it was cut down to this shape in 1937 which was around the time we started seeing those French Pear type Basses in Gamba or Violin shape as long as the shoulders are extremely sloped.
By the way, I played
my Cornerless Bass tonight in a concert. The sound is hard to describe but something that I have only dreamed about in the past if that helps at all.