Johann Baptiste Dvorak bass?

[Vince Jesse]

Hi guys.

A customer of mine has this bass with a J.B. Dvorak label. The label is a photocopy but at some point someone who worked on this bass was convinced that the Bass was made by this Prague violin maker and installed the fake label in there.

I googled J.B. Dvorak and it looks like he mostly made violins and lived between 1825 and 1890. Since the label doesn't relate to this bass the date doesn't have relevance, but the bass does look old.

Blockless neck and integral bass bar. Beech neck, maple back and sides. It looks well made, unlike a lot of the German blockless basses I've seen.

Any thoughts? Is this simply one of the "Germanic" basses so often found?

[Ken Smith]

Looks more German to me than Czech. I don't know how one just picks a name out of a hat from seeing one bass unless you have seen others like it with real labels.

I have this at the south part of Germany or the Tirol around the turn of the century give or take. 80-120 years old is my guess from these pictures.

[Vince Jesse]

Thanks Ken.