Can you tell me something about this bass?

[Kamuilija]

Hello all,

I think this is my first post here, at least on this side. I'm a Finnish guy, so please blame any odd idioms or phrases on that I've been reading the board for some years, and playing the double bass since 2005.

First, a little history. You can skip this part if you like, the pics are (or may be) what's important. In short the question is, where and when could this bass have been made? Or, if that's not possible to tell, what else could you say about it - there's a hole in my English (come to think of it, in Finnish too) concerning bass terminology, so any terms or concepts I could attach to my bass would be nice - I have no idea what you can say about basses, in addition to those in the first question.

Get on with it? Ah, yes. Ahem.

In 2006, I bought the bass I've been playing since. I bought it at an Internet auction (huuto.net, the Finnish version for eBay) for 700 euros, and even with the 500+ euros I've had it repaired and set up since, I think I got a good deal. The guy I bought it from didn't know anything about its origin, as he too had bought it used and had never played it - one of those "thinking of picking up the double bass" stories. He said he only knew the bass has a spruce top, which may or may not be true.

Being more interested in playing, I've not thought about the bass's history until a while ago, when my new bass teacher asked me about it. I realized how little I know about the "person" I hang out the most with. So, having got the impression that people on this board know a lot about basses, I thought, maybe if I post some pics, somebody could say something about mine. It's no fabulous piece of art, nothing unique, but it'd be nice to know something about it.

So, here are some pics of the bass. If a specific angle or part of the instrument may help, please tell me and I'll take more pics. There's no tag inside the bass that can be seen, so no help there.

Front:



Back:



The scroll:



Any help will be much appreciated.

Yours,

Maksim

[Jon_West]

Yep, that's a bass.

[Kamuilija]

Originally Posted by Jon_West

Yep, that's a bass.

Thanks! At least that's certain now.

[Bass]

Were the wall hangings made with the loom on which your bass is resting?

[fdeck]

Is it a plywood bass?

[powerbass]

I really like the loom and wall hangings!!

[duckyincarnate]

The shape and finish looks a lot like Stentor basses.

[MIKMAN]

The scroll and the f holes are typical Strunal's. Also this particular Gamba shape points towards it. Please, could you give us the measurements of the upper and lower bouts?

[Meddle771]

it appears that the body is similar to my Sam Eastman plywood. But the scroll and tuners are way different.

[Kamuilija]

Originally Posted by Bass

Were the wall hangings made with the loom on which your bass is resting?

Heh, no. My wife is studying to be a handicrafts teacher, but she's not that advanced yet. The orange-ish rug on the floor is made by her.

Originally Posted by fdeck

Is it a plywood bass?

The seller said the bass has a spruce top, so I've thought that the other parts of the body would be plywood.

Originally Posted by powerbass

I really like the loom and wall hangings!!

Thanks - if you happen to visit Helsinki, you're welcome to visit us!

Originally Posted by MIKMAN

The scroll and the f holes are typical Strunal's. Also this particular Gamba shape points towards it. Please, could you give us the measurements of the upper and lower bouts?

I'm not sure what these measurements would be, but here's some figures. Ben Gollihur's page was a lot of help with the terms.

Vertically, from the beginning of the overstand to the beginning of the C bout, the upper bout is 38 cm, and the lower, from the C bout to the saddle, 47. That would be 15 and 18,5 inches.

Horizontally, the upper bout as measured at its widest is 49 cm, and the lower bout 65 cm, which in turn are 19,3 and 25,6 inches.

Maksim

[MIKMAN]

After these measurements it seems high probable to be the 5/35 model of Strunal, a decent hybrid made in the Luby factory. It features a polyurethane high gloss finish, which surely affects the sound in an adverse way. These tuning machines are decent, much better than the cheaper ones they use now. These basses perform very well with EP Weich strings, which tend to give a warm and rich arco sound and a very beautiful pizzicatto tone with lots of fundamentals.
As a final word ask your luthier to install a soundpost with a 19 mm diameter, beveled to 16 mm. You'll be surprised by the results in terms of volume and resonance.
Mike

[Kamuilija]

Thanks for the input, everybody! I'll be taking the bass to a local luthier this week. Maybe he'll have something to say about it too.

A pleasant end of the year to all!

Maksim