Recap on the Hart/Fendt mystery

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Thomas Erickson

Very interesting stuff. You should write a book Ken...

Tom, this IS the book!

I just had the Hart opened up for some minor tweaking after its restoration five years ago. The minor work of trimming back some of the repair wood had some Major results. The day I picked it up, Arnold said to give it a year to break back in. It's been almost a month now and with just some occasional playing on it, it is breaking in already from what I can feel and hear.

In the past while testing my basses in the office I would have someone listen from 2 rooms away and give me an evaluation of each bass comparing its carrying power and tone. Usually my 4/4 Panormo school bass was the loudest one in the rack. Last week, it was the Hart that was the loudest over the Panormo as he thought the Hart was the Panormo and was quite surprised when I told him the opposite. I attribute this to the recent work done on the bass.