I.D. help with a recent purchase

[Andy Gross]

Nathaniel:

I was so excited to see your post. I have the exact same bass. I bought it 56 years ago from a pawn shop in the NYC area. I had it worked on by a violin maker in Southern Illinois about 40 years ago. He told me that the grain of the sound post was wrong and that some of the wood supports inside the bass were made of inferior wood. My memory is that he corrected those problems. I have always had a normal wood bridge on the bass. The bass sounds great. I had some trouble getting the depth I like out of the low G (on the E string), but about two years ago--for some completely unknown reason--those low notes began to sound magnificent.

People are always blown away when they find out that it's a plywood bass.

Enjoy it!

Andy Gross

[Andy Gross]

Oh yeah. I just noticed some other old posts about your bass. The neck of my bass was broken twice by a crazy girl-friend. I had it repaired in NYC by a repair guy who used bolts. (I have two bolts holding the neck in place.) The bass specialists at Hammond-Ashley, in Seattle, however, told me that you don't need bolts. They prefer just re-gluing the neck.

And, on the end pin. I had the same problem for years (like 40 maybe). I got a temporary fix in Nashville, Tenn., in 1980, but just two years ago, a violin maker in Jerusalem, Israel, replaced the whole end piece with a new piece and pin. Now it is perfect.

Again, I love this bass and I'm happy to find someone else with the same bass.

[John Cubbage]

I wouldn't do a neck graft. It would cost more than the bass is worth. I would put a bolt in the base of the neck to fix the crack. It is a factory bass. The varnish looks like it is sprayed on. Is the back a veneer? The end pin looks like it is too small for the hole, thus the strange angle. Changing the tail piece solid wire to a multiple wire cable often improves the sound. The bridge is an after market thing for jazz players back in the day.

In 1973 I ran across a (German) factory bass with a similar Strad label inside. It had carved front and back, 3/4 size, with violin corners (Interesting. How many bass models did Antonio S. have? None?). It might have been originally sold by Roth.

I'm glad you found a bass in a yard sale. You never know what you may find. One time (1970 in California) I ran across a Kay bass that was a 5 stringer! It appeared to be that way from the factory.

-Dr. C.