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William Tarr (b.2/21/1808 ~ d.7/10/1891)
At this time I would like to highlight the Manchester maker William Tarr. Although we have talked about him on occasion I feel that now is a good time to put this maker in the spotlight.
I posted a few days ago on the English Basses general thread about 'a whopper landed'. Quote:
Now that I have had this bass here a few days I have discovered a few things between the instrument itself and reading up on the maker W.Tarr. First off, depending on which Violin Books you have or have read you might or might not get his correct dates. The books with the correct dates are all out of print now. These are books by George Hart, W.M. Morris and Jalovec. It seems there are some incorrect dates in Henley, Plowright and Harvey. One book has him making his first bass in 1834 but Hart has him listed as 'by' 1829 (at 21 yrs old). That is the supposed date of this bass. In Elgar, a bass-only book he mentions that Tarr made both Viol and Violin models of which Elgar claimed to prefer the Viol. Maybe it was the size because of the two violin models I have seen now (1 pictured) and one other I have heard about, they are all full 4/4 model basses. The Viol model seems to be more of a full 3/4 or 7/8ths sized model as we call them today. This particular bass I have here (#8 from 1829) is basically all original in its parts from what I can see. It was cut down about 52 years ago and the back shows purfling only in the c-bout area. On the top, the purfling was replaced in both bouts with similar looking material but not exact looking with a magnifier. Now, looking inside the Back which is well oxidized in color and in fantastic shape as well I see that there are no cross braces in the bouts other then the center brace and the angle bend. Also, there are no scars or discolorations of this Back ever having braces there either. Maybe this accounts for the near mint condition of the Back.I do notice however that the center and outer flank joints have been re-glued at least once in some spots so maybe that's a sign of where the movement occurred. Also, this Bass has lived in the same UK climate all of its life up until 5 days ago when it was brought over to the States. I know of a few other players that have Tarr basses in the Viol model and they seem well loved, all professional Classical/Orchestral players. So, this is now the official place for discussions on Basses by Tarr who was also assisted at times by his sons Thomas, Joesph and Shelly. There were also at least two other makers of note that worked for Tarr and they include Cole and Briggs. Like in the case of Prescott being the most prolific Yankee bass maker, Tarr is the head of the Manchester bass makers as well. Welcome to the official Tarr School on-line discussion thread. |
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