Another mystery bass?

[Ken Smith]

On my Bass, the FFs are extremely wide apart. If the Bass bar was against the upper F hole eye, the bridge width needed would be about 180-190mm wide. That's not a 3/4 or 4/4. That's a 5/4 or 6/4 if such a thing exists. Actually, the current Bar is set in a biot and the Bridge width will be about 165mm. On your Bass, where the Bar is set means little to the origin of the Bass unless it's a rare instance whereas it's the original bar. Highly unlikely I think.

The style of your Bass looks totally German to me. I have seen 3-string German Basses but these were lower grade factory Basses around 100 years old or so, maybe more. I believe they were made for the export market as German did ship across Europe into France and England where the 3-string ruled up until the 20th century.

On the wood of your Back, I would like to see the edges and some other shots in better lighting. I can't tell what kind of wood it is from your shots. On the other hand, many English Basses actually look German as that is what the copied the most. It would also be good to post ALL of its measurements like the ones I give on my webpages. Here is an example;

Upper Bout: 22"Belly Length: 47" (45"- 46" after Block cut)
Center Bout: 15 3/8"
Bottom Bout: 28 1/2"
String Length: about 42" w/Block Cut (was 44")
Rib Depth: 8 1/2" ** Upper Bout tapers from 8 1/2" to 5 3/4" with slope of the Back to the Neck Block.