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#1
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Another JB Allen
Ken - Seeing that picture of Arnold's JB Allen made me think of Phil Palombi's Allen. Here are a couple of pictures i found, hopefully they're not too small
Ok, for some reason the picture of the labels doesn't enlarge, but this page has several larger pictures, just scroll down |
#2
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yes..
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#3
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@Ken: The scroll is a new one?
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#4
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It's original..
The Scroll, Tuners (3 of 4), Plates and Varnish and everything else except the endpin, soundpost, braces, bridge, fingerboard, tailpiece saddle and strings are original. I have the original endpin, saddle, fingerboard, and bridge. The past owner kept the 3-string tailpiece.
For the scrolls, here are 3 to compare from JB Allen, the only 3 basses I know by him. The two with the unusual Gears are from 1841 (mine and David Oberg's). The one with German quarter plates (Phil Palombi's) is from 1842. Any Photoshopper's care to size these and post them side by side to compare better? |
#5
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Not that the rest of the renovated Allen bass isn't just lovely, but I really dig those custom-made machines. Who did that lovely machining? Who designed the detailing?
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#6
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original...
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I played in an Orchestra last night with 8 basses (wow, what thunder!). One was a large German bass (Fussen is my attribution) with a small lower rounded corner (busetto) like the upper of the Allen and an upper molding quasi-violin but in the molding strips like a semi-squared off busetto. The Scroll was long as well. Prescott seems to have copied a Mittenwald bass for his models but the long Scroll box is reported to be after an English Viol. The Allen has some similarities to the Prescotts as do most Yankee basses but shows a level of skill we have yet to see on a Prescott. I am sure Allen knew what a Prescott bass was as it looks obvious. I doubt however that they had worked together at any point. |
#7
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I think it's interesting that the Allen bass (the one pictured above) has a top made from 15 pieces of vertical grain white pine. I've often wondered if the individual pieces were pre-bent into the approximate shape of the arching, and then joined/carved, or whether they were all glued up as 2"x2" squares and then carved into the arched shape. When looking closely at the top it seems to me there is less end grain visible than I'd expect to see. And I know there were violin makers fooling around with a sort of "coopering" technique in the 19th century (similar to the way barrels are made). J.B. went all out with the decorative aspect of that bass, even inlaying the seams. And Robbie McIntosh did a masterful job of restoring the bass and keeping it faithful to the original while enhancing its playability as a modern bass.
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