Bass Machines

[Jeff Campbell]

Being the bass nerd that I am, I've been thinking lately that I wanted to start a discussion on Ken's forum about bass machines, their varieties, origins, etc. Your post has motivated me to take the first step. For example, what are origins of the machines pictured on this scroll? The Scroll is from a Milanese bass from 1690. These are the same machines on the Karr/Koussevitsky bass. French machines are easily identifiable as are English. But what about Italian machines? Also - what about the use (or non-use) of plates. It seems that many Italian basses do not have plates while most English do...AND the big question, many of the old basses were three stringers - when they were converted to 4 stringers (100 or more years after they were made) what happened to the original machines? And what type were they? (Old wooden barrels, etc.??) One can see some basses where a non-matching 4th machine was added, but many fine old basses have been refitted long ago with a matching set of 4 machines. Who was making these fine, high-end machines?