Karl J Kahila

[Who da Ville]

I bought my fully carved Romanian flat back bass about a year and a half ago from a bass luthier in Portland, OR. It was affordable (almost), has a great sound & I love it.

Inside, it says "Made in Romania" and "Reghin", which I understand is a city with more than one bass factory.

Serial # 618559652 Does anyone know how to get any info from the serial # (such as when it was made)?

There was a name on the back: "Karl J Kahila". Shortly after I bought the bass, I did a quick google search & found an article in (what at 1st glance to my un-educated eye looked like) some east-European-looking language. The article mentioned what I thought at the time was a touring double bassist. I mentioned that to the guy I bought it from, & he said a friend of his found the bass in Vancouver, BC.

I did another google search recently and found this:

http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vfc/WCN/WCN_Apr05_v4/

That's Karl playing my bass! I bet he played a lot of polkas on that thing over the years.

Anyway, I thought that was a cool story & wanted to share. It's always good to know a little history about your instrument.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

A cool piece of history there.

Originally Posted by Who da Ville

There was a name on the back: "Karl J Kahila". Shortly after I bought the bass, I did a quick google search & found an article some east-European-looking language on what I thought at the time was a touring double bassist.

Just FYI, we very much prefer Northern-Europe or even Scandinavia over anything that begins with East .

Regards
Sam

[Who da Ville]

I understand your point, Sam. I'm not very familiar with European languages, & in my simple mind I thought that since the bass was made in Romania, maybe the owner was east European.

Now that I understand that Karl was active in the Vancouver, B.C. Finlandia Society, it all makes sense.

I'm still curious; Does anyone know how to decifer the serial # to determine when the bass was made?


Clint

[kevteop]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Just FYI, we very much prefer Northern-Europe or even Scandinavia over anything that begins with East .

We call you Santa-Land, or Racingdriverland.

[Jake deVilliers]

Originally Posted by Who da Ville

I understand your point, Sam. I'm not very familiar with European languages, & in my simple mind I thought that since the bass was made in Romania, maybe the owner was east European.

Now that I understand that Karl was active in the Vancouver, B.C. Finlandia Society, it all makes sense.

I'm still curious; Does anyone know how to decifer the serial # to determine when the bass was made?


Clint

I think that your bass is a 'Roma' but I'd like a look at the label to confirm. If its a Roma, they don't serialize the basses and that number would have been installed by the importer/retailer/owner.

Can you post a pic of the labels?

[Champagne]

Could be a Hora bass too?

[Jake deVilliers]

Originally Posted by Champagne

Could be a Hora bass too?

The shape of the lower bout and the purfling at the button don't really say 'Hora' but...

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Originally Posted by Who da Ville

I understand your point, Sam. I'm not very familiar with European languages, & in my simple mind I thought that since the bass was made in Romania, maybe the owner was east European.

Now that I understand that Karl was active in the Vancouver, B.C. Finlandia Society, it all makes sense.

No worries, we were sometimes called Soviet Finland because of our SF country acronym/abbreviation.
That POed us to no end as You can imagine.

Originally Posted by kevteop

We call you Santa-Land, or Racingdriverland.

Now that's more like it .
Those we are known for world-wide.

Regards
Sam

[Jake deVilliers]

According to the phone book, Karl is alive and well and living in Vancouver.

[Who da Ville]

I'm afraid I assumed the worst when I found out I had Karl's bass. I hope he up-gaded to something really sweet. His old bass was pretty well-worn by the time I got it. The luther I bought it from spruced it up a little last fall.

Here are some more pics.

I just noticed they spelled Romania with a 'u'

Reading up a little on Roma bases on this site, some of the models pictured have the blonde neck and the ebony trim piece like mine. The serial # is just above the ebony trim.

As I understand it, the name Roma came from the importer, not from the manufacturer? So how many bass shops are there in Reghin anyway?

Guy I bought it from said it was made in the early '80's, but I don't know how he deduced that.



Thanks for the info.