Oldest and Finest Plywood/Laminated bass I have ever seen..

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Richard Simon

Lastly: do tuning plates or keys or gears afford any additional clues as to country of origin or date?

Thanks for sharing your insights.

On the tuners/plates, to a degree. Aside from being cleaned and polished, gears like this are are usually pre WWII.

You can find gears like these on many German and Czech basses. They just buy and use them. Also, some gears can show up on basses that were made after the gear company stopped using them if there were lying around for a few years afterwards as well.