Romania, 1972

[Thomas Erickson]

Anybody familiar with Romanian basses of this vintage?

Here is a bass I came across recently and am considering fixing up. Overall it is in pretty good condition; no cracks in the plates (those are just shadows in the flash-photo of the top). The top seems thick, bassbar is a little outboard, and the Eb neck is like a club; also, the pegbox is enormous. I wonder if the bass wasn't made to be a five string... seems kind of small for it, but with a 41.25" stop, maybe I'll convert it. There's no deformation of the top at all and it's nice tight grain wood.

Main problems are a dovetail neck joint with little overstand and braces that were fitted snug up to the ribs and are now pushing everything apart.

Sounds nice though, even as it needs setup work; rich, clear tone that projects even if not a ton of it. Definitely not a boomer.

Oh and the back is nice tight-flamed maple under that weird liver colored varnish.