I've slapped on the world's most expensive bass!

[Martin Sheridan]

I imagine that when Gary Karr's bass, the "Amati" is sold, it will fetch a record price. It was always referred to as an Amati of 1611. The last time I saw it a couple of years ago it was in the posession of The Guarneri House in Grand Rapids, MI. Gary had donated it to the ISB and I think it is supposed to tour several shops and then be sold at auction to raise money for the ISB. All of the fine solo players I know want this bass and don't seem to bothered one wit that it is not by the Amati. It's a damn fine sounding solo bass, and I hope that it will end up in the hands of another Gary Karr.
There should be at least one day a year when bass players the world over bow in Gary Karr's direction. Thank you Gary for taking the bass to where it is today and for being such a fine human being.

[Ken Smith]

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.

[Joel Larsson]

Martin, I hope I was clear on that this bass is the one currently INSURED to the largest amount of money, which isn't exactly the same thing. Bottesini's Testore would also be up there but it's in Japan now and I don't know how they decided on insuring that one... and if Dragonetti's monastery d'Salo was to hit the market, people would go crazy. And yes, the "Amati" will probably sell for quite a neat little sum, being Amati or no...

Speaking of Maggini, how many confirmed are there out there? I only know of two, one in the Stockholm Royal Opera and one which is actually passing through the last stages of restoration in order to be sold by Thomas Martin. Quarrington is said to have one, but I think that is a "Maggini."

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Joel Larsson

Martin, I hope I was clear on that this bass is the one currently INSURED to the largest amount of money, which isn't exactly the same thing. Bottesini's Testore would also be up there but it's in Japan now and I don't know how they decided on insuring that one... and if Dragonetti's monastery d'Salo was to hit the market, people would go crazy. And yes, the "Amati" will probably sell for quite a neat little sum, being Amati or no...

Speaking of Maggini, how many confirmed are there out there? I only know of two, one in the Stockholm Royal Opera and one which is actually passing through the last stages of restoration in order to be sold by Thomas Martin. Quarrington is said to have one, but I think that is a "Maggini."

*Joel's Bass was appraised a few times as a 'Pietro Santo Maggini' by reputable shops, 3 of 4 appraisals and one of them attributes his bass to Giovanni Paulo Maggini, the real Maggini. I say real because it is believed that Pietro Santo attached the Maggini name to his own after G.P.'s death. Santo (aka Zanetto, the 17th century maker not the 16th century master) worked in Brescia as well but from about 1630-1680. G.P. Maggini died about 1631/2 of the Plague that swept Northern Italy from about 1630. It was believed about a century ago that Pietro Santo was the son or Giovanni Paolo M. but this has since been disproved. I did state before that Joel's Bass is possibly British but that was from a conversation we had by Email and I must go with todays message received by him. I think Joel tried posting this information but had just signed in to the Forum and was not yet approved which we have to do manually. Then I guess he just emailed us thru the Forum because he couldn't post yet. For this I say 'Sorry Joel', I was only posting information I though was accurate.

The one Tom Martin has now may be one I played that was once owned by Walter Botti, NY Phil in the 1960's then it was Dave Pearlman's, Cleve. Orch. and then in Minnesota Orch. and now a wealthy banker/Amatuer friend of Tom who also deals in Basses. That bass is believed by at least one person as old German and others say not Maggini but similar from a later period. Nice deep sounding bass of about 300 years old with very deep ribs.

There was a fair recently and some of it Published in the ISB magazine with a few Maggini's and a 'd'Salo. One Maggini is in the National Symphony as well. Robertson's has or had one as well. I am not 100% sure but might be the same as in the National or maybe another one.

*On Maggini it is also important to take a few actual facts into consideration when trying to ID a genuine Maggini or disclaim one. The FFs on the Maggini have two distinct features or actually three if you take into account the bevel of the cut which is not easily noticed at a glance. What is easy to see are the f-hole eyes, their related diameter between the upper and lower and the narrow width itself which Maggini did for tonal reasons. The upper f-eyes on the average string instrument are smaller than the lower eyes. On a Maggini, the upper eyes are either the same or slightly larger diameter then the lower. This is the smoking gun on Joel's Bass. No tests are needed to see that.

In closing this edited Post I say "hello Joel Quarrington and welcome to the Forum". Hey, if this is how you get someone to join I should continue to mis-attribute a few other famous bass players basses. For those of you not familiar with him let me say that Joel is one of the living greats on the DB. He also is just about the top 5ths tuning master in the DB in the world. Joel is the former Principal of the Toronto Symphony.

I hope this error in Bass attribution turns our meeting here on the forum into something positive with Joel answering a few questions from time to time.

Now Joel, we need pictures of your wonderful bass posted here. There just isn't enough to see of it on your website or anywhere else on the web. We welcome a closer look at your Italian classic.

[Ken Smith]

I received an Email from Joel a short time ago and in turn edited my post above. Please read it..

[Joel Larsson]

Aha! Maybe you should further mis-attribute the one Tom Martin sells as a real G.P.
Then again, maybe it is a different bass - after having met him, I doubt that he would sell anything under the wrong name, or perhaps the true nature of things were discovered beyond doubt during the vast restoration that the bass only just got out of. I think my teacher is going to buy it, if it isn't too much of an orchestra-only instrument. If he does, he's going to record a Bottesini record with it. With Joel Q now in the picture, it seems like Maggini and Bottesini are names that pulls people together!
If Joel really shows up, I hope you realize you are warmly welcome! I have your CD. Or did do do more? Maybe I ought to read up more before posting stuff. But I am officially stupid, so I never learn. I was also going to ask if this Ali guy is the current principal in Toronto, but now I actually did my homework beforehand, and found that he's in Montreal. I thin about going to a course in England where he's going to teach.
Am I going awfully off-topic again? Maybe I should conclude with stating that even the da Salo I slapped upon didn't look 450 years of age to an untrained eye. Maybe some instruments actually got the care they deserved?