Bass with Lion head scroll. Need help Identifying it

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by ChrisGodla

The bass has a neck/fingerboard that is very thin in width. The fingerboard does not stretch out as wide as basses normally are. This was told to me by a luthier. In the pic below you can see the fingerboard is just surrounding my thumb. Not very wide at all. The luthier did measure it but I forgot what he said the exact inches are. A little weird. No?

As far as the original Lion posted, I recently spoke to the most recent restorer of the bass after it was sold from your possession. He is of the opinion that the lionhead and the bass are original to each other. This is probably a turn of the century Saxon bass by the model of the bass. The heads could have easily been supplied by nearby Bohemia across the border, Mittenwald or even made in Saxony. It is doubtful that heads like this are made by the actual maker.

Speaking of making an ID, I have an older bass with a Lionhead I would love to ID as well. My bass might be from the same area made 50-100 years earlier.



Any ideas? By the way, this bass was cut down a long long time ago. Both the upper and lower bouts were reduced. Only the C-bout purfling looks to be original. Smaller violin sized purfling. The back as a huge arch of well over 2". The gears are neither original or as old as the bass is.