Don't miss this 1919 Stradivarius Stradivarious Bass Cello on eBay- http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1441582139

Looks like a Swingmaster, doesn't it??

Jeez.... I know that Stradivarious used only the finest Itallion plywood but $4000 seems a bit steep. The seller was particularly helpful in his comments:

"Some call these bass fiddles, fiddle, violin, viola, cello, cellos, violins, violas, basses, accoustic, etc..
They have been used in orchestras, jazz bands, bluegrass, blue grass, slap rockabilly, country, etc... " LOL

Thanks for the link Bob. Did they make Swingmasters in 1919?;)
Hope no one gets taken in by this nonsense.

I dunno...it looks more like an 1927 Amati Amati to me. But then, I'm a relative newbie...

A guy emailed me about it- said he had emailed his doubts to the seller and got cussed out rather severely.

I politely emailed the seller asking for anything written inside the bass - including any numbers in red crayon <g>. We'll see.

I like his $12.5K BIN price! Ambitious!!

But then, it is a Strad!! ;-)

Maybe I could trade him the $12.00 "Rolex" I bought in Hong Kong a few years ago for his "Strad".

*In best Mr. Roger's voice* Can you say misrepresentaion? Sure ya can.

He's got a bunch more pictures up now. There's a nice picture of a distinctive inlay pattern on the back of the bass which should be sufficient to correctly ID it, plus a photo of a label which reads:
"Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis Faciebat Anno 17"

It's all quite amusing, really.

-dh

Check out the 5th picture down from the top and notice the grain pattern. Neither the front nor the back show a center seam. The whole thing screams "Plywood!"
He says it "may have been made in Germany," probably because there's a big stencil inside that says "Weyerhauser"

Number of bids..............ZILCH.

Hmmmmmm.looks remarkably like the grain on the back and sides of my `Antoni`supersonic chinaman special made about anno 2000.At least mine has a spruce looking ply top.

Originally posted by Ed Fuqua
You guys checked this out yet?

http://www.afvbm.com/strad.htm

Courtesy of Hammond Ashley....

Well to our seller's credit, he did plagiarize most of that page. Except of course the bits which made it absolutely clear that there are no unaccounted for strads.

I don't quite remember where the page was that stated that there was no known strad bass or evidence that there ever was one.

-dh

The seller's updated listing is very helpful:

(I think most people realize "Antonius" didn't live 300 years.)

Are you also going to tell my that my Ford is not real because "Henry" has been room temperature for a few years?

Well there ya go... if it's got a Antonius Stradiuarius label inside then, by God, it was cranked out on the Stradiuarius assembly line and is an honest to goodness Ford...I mean Stradiuarius.

I wonder if the luthier who opined that the repairs were professionally done knew this guy was gonna list this thing for $4000 (or "buy it now" for $9999!)

This got no bids. Gee whiz.

Well, the Weyerhauser basses are on sale at local drug chains this week. $99.99. Comes with Hefty-style drawstring gig bag, genuine faux horsehair bow and if you act now, a year's supply of Mr. Mojo Rosin ab-so-lutely free.
I A/B'd it with the Georgia Pacific bass and it held up pretty well.