A restoration

[Ken Smith]

Pino, your work is beautiful. One question. Do you know the exact spices of pine or spruce the top is made from?

Ok, I have seen two other basses like this. Not identical but very similar. Guess what? They were not Italian. They were English, London, c.1930s. One was labeled from the Betts shop and the other although an attributed Italian bass for decades, I think it was English and told the people that were handling the bass. It sold as English, and not Italian taking my advice.

If you look carefully, those Ffs do not look Italian at all. Making the upper eyes so much bigger than the lower as they look in your pictures is an exaggeration of Maggini who did in fact make the upper slightly bigger, slightly.

So, despite the Cherry and Walnut used, I think this is an English bass, not Italian. The form and clean cutting of the head and overall outline is totally English looking work to me.

Do you have any idea how many English basses from the 18th to 19th century were selling as Italian basses until recently? Wow, I could write a book. Basses like my Hart have fooled people even in England thinking they were Italian. A few basses I know of that were attributed to Maggini (4 that I can recall right now with the owners names) were English or British and not at all Italian.

The work you are doing is beautiful work and I have had many basses restored up to that grade. I know how difficult it can be and time consuming as well from how expensive the jobs have run. You are a credit to the trade Pino.

BUT, Please get some nice English Gears on that bass. Nice modern ones. I think the Slones look better on more modern instruments. Older basses look much better with more traditional English style gears if you have to go new.