Paul Claudot (1805-1888) Mirecourt, France

[Drake Chan]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

Haven't used it yet. The video card (?) just came in and am waiting for my son Mike to get it set-up n show me how to work it. Not sure I have all the right cables for downloading either. Also, he bought a tri-pod which will help cut down on blurry shots.

I would also reduce the use of flash on your pictures - it produces that annoying glare that prevents us from seeing your basses' true patina. I like your older pictures because they didn't use flash.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Drake Chan

I would also reduce the use of flash on your pictures - it produces that annoying glare that prevents us from seeing your basses' true patina. I like your older pictures because they didn't use flash.

I will pass this along to Mike. We don't always use flash but some pictures are taken at night without any sunlight coming thru the window across the room. Without the flash, the pics are too dark. We do them both ways, with and without in that case.

Also, those that are interested in buying basses like this come by and play them. Our product is not an on-line picture book so this is the first complaint I have heard on the flash. Some of the basses with round-backs or shiny varnish are hard to capture without glare in spots, even without the flash.

The pictures are just basic examples of what they look like. You really have to play them to get the full value of the bass. I would say pics, 2%, playing, 98%..

[Eric Swanson]

Having visited Ken's shop, played, and listened to Ken play, several of his basses I would say that the photos capture more like .001% of his collection's magic...

Definitely worth a trip.

It is sort of the opposite of some things, where the marketing "buzz" and the photos are the best part...

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Eric Swanson

Having visited Ken's shop, played, and listened to Ken play, several of his basses, I would say that the photos capture more like .001% of his collection's magic...

Definitely worth a trip.

It is sort of the opposite of some things, where the marketing "buzz" and the photos are the best part...

Mike and I took new pics yesterday with the new camera. We tried both flash and not flash, midday with the sun thru the back window and against the white wall instead of the mahogany door that we have used for the past several years. I prefer the door and Mike prefers the wall. The Camera does focus and mix color with the wall but I feel I can tell the contrast better by looking at the door color in the shot. Still, we used a plain white wall in the background.

Maybe in a day or so we will get the page up and published. We still have to do the Scroll thumbnail on the price tier page. It will be in the upper range page of the basses opposite the William Tarr Bass which we shot yesterday as well. I still have some page work to do on the Tarr so we will load them both together.

So, pics are coming so be patient.

[Ken Smith]

Here's the Link to the new Claudot page;
http://www.kensmithbasses.com/doublebasses/claudot/

[Eric Swanson]

That is just lovely. I like the look of the back angle; it looks as if it would help getting into the upper register.

It really is in amazingly fine condition. Thank you very much for sharing these photos! What a beautiful bass...

[Pino Cazzaniga]

Ken,
perhaps he made some Vuillaume-like instruments too?
This one has the Claudot stamp on the back, inside.
It is big, I didn't take body measurements, but the string length is a bit less than cm 112, despite the short neck graft (so short that I had to make an opposite extended nut)
It was a three stringer