Another mystery bass?

[David Moss]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

On your Gamba Bass, PLEASE post some pictures of it here or start a new Thread. I would love to look at it. On Dodd making a Gamba Bass or rather the workers in his shop, I have heard of at least one but haven't seen it myself. B.Fendt Snr. and J.Lott Snr. were the main Bass makers for Dodd starting in 1798/9 till at least 1810.

To begin with, here are the pictures taken by the guy I bought it from. What immediately struck me as similarities with your mystery bass were the dating of ca. 1800, the gamba form, the shape and low-placed location of the f-holes, the flat back and tapered upper bout. The obvious differences are that mine's a regular 3/4 size, it has the usual more pointy lower corners of the C bout, the form of the heel is different and it has purfling around the back. Another feature of mine is that the sides have about a 1" wide thickening towards the top and back, which my bass teacher told me was to have a bigger surface for glueing and was a typical trick of Saxony bass builders, but the luthier disagreed and said this feature was pretty widespread geographically.

If you guys want to see any close-ups of details, just tell me what you want to see and I'm happy to oblige. Although since my label seems to be a fake, that means I still don't know where my bass comes from, so I guess it's not going to throw any light on Ken's mystery bass after all...