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11-10-2009, 11:23 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Ann Arbor, MI | | | #$%@! Is this for real?!?!
http://www.thomasmartin.co.uk/gaspar...ouble_bass.asp
That is one OLD hunk of wood.
I didn't think basses existed then...shows what I know, I guess.
Anyway, I'm sure it sounds freaking unbelievable.
The list of things I *wouldn't* give (body parts included) to have a crack at this bass is very, very short.
Sign in to disble this ad
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11-10-2009, 11:45 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Australia | | | Looks too good to be true doesnt it?
A 4 string bass, violin shape, thats over 400 years old?
Ill let someone chime in with actual facts |
11-11-2009, 06:33 AM
|  | Supporting Member
Luthier: Bresque Basses, rep: Paulin EUB | | Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Sydney, Australia | | | Well, one fact is that Thomas Martin is one of England's most respected luthiers and if he has a da Salo in his showroom I'd say its pretty likely to be authentic.
Look at the other basses he has there. I rather like the Heironymous Amati.
BTW da Salo made instruments with 3,4,5 even 6 strings. |
11-11-2009, 06:49 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Cross Junction, VA | | | The fact that it is a 4-string doesn't mean it was always a 4-string.
Tom Martin, although an American, was also principal of one of London's major orchestras. He also has made recordings of many Bottisini pieces. He used to post on the 2xbasslist and offered a lot of good advice.
A few years back, he sent some pictures around of Dragonetti's Gasparo da Salo that was kept in the basement of a museum in Venice.
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Bill Bentgen http://www.billbentgen.com
Pöllmann 5 String Bussetto 1999
Kay C-1 #24190 1950
Sue Lipkins German Bow 2011
Prochownik German Bow 1999
Flexocor Strings
Pops Rosin
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11-11-2009, 09:57 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Ann Arbor, MI | | Of course I never meant to imply that it was a fraud. Martin is of course a wonderful bassman in every way.
I was just blown away by that number...I mean, basses from the 1700's are rare enough. 1585 is Unbelievable! And wood cut in 1391! That's before the New World was discovered and everything, before any conception of "common practice" music or tonality or anything like that. It's just overwhelming to me to try to wrap my puny brain around that.
Just wanted to share, for whatever reason.  |
11-11-2009, 10:07 AM
| | Registered User
Brownchicken Browncow | | Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Phoenix, AZ | | | dear god. what a beauty.
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11-11-2009, 10:30 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: NYC, Astoria | | | that is one beautiful bass right there |
11-11-2009, 11:01 AM
|  | 'Woodworker - Witch Doctor - Luthier'
Owner/The Bass Spa, String Repairman/L & M Vancouver | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Crescent Beach, BC | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Bentgen  The fact that it is a 4-string doesn't mean it was always a 4-string.
Tom Martin, although an American, was also principal of one of London's major orchestras. He also has made recordings of many Bottisini pieces. He used to post on the 2xbasslist and offered a lot of good advice.
A few years back, he sent some pictures around of Dragonetti's Gasparo da Salo that was kept in the basement of a museum in Venice. | The 'Dragonetti' da Salo is in the basement of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. There's a good photo and the Globe & Mail article at Joel Quarrington's site here: http://joelquarrington.com/category/articles
Its a three stringer with very much the same shape as the one at Martin's. Lovely! |
11-11-2009, 01:32 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark | | | Quite the stunner!
That is one hell of a beautiful bass... However- dragging this old lady out on a gig? Riding a subway? Having it lay besides the car while you just hurry inside again because you forgot your rosin?
In other words, shouldn´t we leave these to the museums? Maybe to orchestras... Just my unsentimental 2 cents.
But for crying out loud, it´s nice!
Best
Sidecar |
11-11-2009, 01:53 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Victoria, BC, Canada | | Quote:
Originally Posted by joefee42 And wood cut in 1391! That's before the New World was discovered and everything, before any conception of "common practice" music or tonality or anything like that. | I know very little about basses, but do know something about dendrochronology. The way I read the 1391 date is that the bass contains wood that was living in 1391. That is the oldest tree ring on the bass, but he does not say what the youngest tree ring is for that bass, which would be an approximation of when the wood was cut, minus however many tree rings were trimmed when the wood was milled and crafted into the bass. The age of the bass would also have to consider however long the plank sat around before it was used to make the bass.
A few years ago I was handling some yellow cedar, freshly cut, that had tree rings dating back to about AD300 when the tree germinated. If the older wood from that tree had been used to make an instrument (sadly it was used for construction lumber), then we could say assuming loss of 20 tree rings during milling and planing and in the words of the Thomases website, "Dendrochronology put the oldest grain in the three piece front at AD320!", even though it was manufactured in, say, 2009. |
11-11-2009, 03:18 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Western Canada | | | So in other words, this fine old bass was constructed of wood that was in existence at the time of its' construction. |
11-11-2009, 04:43 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: emmitsburg, maryland | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Nagrom So in other words, this fine old bass was constructed of wood that was in existence at the time of its' construction. | yes,it was constructed of wood that was in existence at the time of its' construction. 
As Harling clearly explains, those same materials are available today, identifying the build date is what's diffulcult.
flint arrowheads,pre-colombian pottery,69'chevelle ss ??? |
11-11-2009, 05:05 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2002 Location: Austin, TX | | | price tag
This might qualify as one of the most expensive instruments when it sells, what do you think it would go for?
500k? |
11-11-2009, 05:30 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Denver, Co. | |  Gasparo, all together now.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showth...23#post8227323
They did a fine job of keeping it as original as possible. The link is a curruent thread under Recordings.
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Oh, no.....have we gone OT yet again?
"The opportunity was there...but it never presented itself." Phil Urso, 1980. :atoz:
Last edited by Paul Warburton : 11-11-2009 at 06:14 PM.
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11-11-2009, 06:20 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Westminster, Maryland | | | Whew
I was relieved Paul was not around when it was built.
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Never try this at home.
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11-11-2009, 06:26 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Sarasota, Florida | | | I couldn't buy this. I just couldn't play it.
I can't have an instrument I care so much about. I don't want to play a glass vase. But that doesn't mean I don't play quality instruments... |
11-11-2009, 06:43 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Denver, Co. | |  OUCH.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gbaker I was relieved Paul was not around when it was built. | That really hurt. 
But, for about the 50th time I bragged about it here, I did play a Gasparo and two Maggini basses in their birth-places of Brescia, Italy in about 1980 when I was there with Pharoah Sanders. So, ha ha. 
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Oh, no.....have we gone OT yet again?
"The opportunity was there...but it never presented itself." Phil Urso, 1980. :atoz: |
11-11-2009, 07:49 PM
| | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Nagrom So in other words, this fine old bass was constructed of wood that was in existence at the time of its' construction. | 14th century A.D.
Anyone who was still alive from that time would be the character model for Tom Robbin's "Jitterbug Perfume". |
11-11-2009, 08:26 PM
|  | Registered User
Vice President: Upton Bass String Instrument Co. | | Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Warwick, RI & Stonington, CT | | Quote:
Originally Posted by MR PC ...Tom Robbin's "Jitterbug Perfume". | Nice Reference...great book. Long live Alobar and Kudra!
Sorry for derail...couldn't resist!
So...to bring it back on subject...EVERYONE who loves the bass should have this poster... http://www.orpheusmusicshop.com/category-9/P205.html |
11-12-2009, 01:50 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Ubley, North Somerset | | Quote:
Originally Posted by joefee42 And wood cut in 1391! That's before the New World was discovered and everything | By Europeans, you mean? |  | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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