Maker Identification

[Ben Joella]

Since there seems to be a ton of luthiers lurking around, I thought maybe they would like to share their thoughts on identifying makers of basses. I think that is one of the most interesting aspects of the field and one that could help out bassists of all levels when buying a bass. I realize picking out a pedigree bass by looking at it takes years and years of looking at pedigree basses, but I just thought some folks might be willing to share some noticable traits. Say for instance...what makes a Montagnana stand out as a Montagnana?

[KSB - Ken Smith]

If one has a Montagnana he and many before him knew the Bass already. Most of the fine Basses around have already been Identified within the last 50 yearsif not eariler. A few reversals of opinion happened from time to time but rarely does it go from a Greman Wilfer to an Italian Testori !!

It takes a trained Eye to notice these things about old Basses along with seeing 100s of them or even 1000s of them over many many years and comparing your opinions with others in the field untill the majority agrees.

[Ben Joella]

I am not trying to identify a particular instrument. I just thought it might be interesting to hear about the general attributes that you can give a name to. I just thought Montagnana would be a neat maker to suggest...

[AMJBASS]

Its as Ken sais...you really just need to see hundreds of instruments. You start to see marks and shapes that you can identify a maker by. However a great deal of the master basses are already "known", so you don't always need to investigate further. Your best bet if you want to learn more about this is to get all of the Raymond Elgar books, and some violin encyclopedias.