Plywood identification help needed.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

I'm a EB player but a few years ago I nursed this double bass back to health . I play it sometimes just for kicks and maybe in the future some acoustic stuff with the guitarist from the band I play EB at the moment as well.

The box was broken, no nut, bad saddle, bad sound post. There is no tag, nor any other markings anywhere.

I just thought that this forum would be a good place to dig some info about this baby of mine, but for obvious reasons here doesn't seem to be many pics about Your basses.

The scale is 40" but then again my bridge position might be off?

So here are the pics, any info is appreciated:

















Regards
Sam

[TheSuzie]

If it has a big exposed (on the front of the bass) dovetail joint to fit the neck and the neck is a V profile, there is some chance that it came from the East German, Musima factory.

Peace,
S

[T-Bird]

Hi, S

Thank You, I did some searching and I think You got it right.

There was a lot of information in TB, I just didn't have the right words in the search-box

Almost all of the Musima related DBs look a lot like mine, Yours included

And yes, mine has a V-profile neck and a dovetail neck-joint:




Also the tuning-peg plate has excactly the same engraving pattern as one Musima I found searching TB.

I was happy to find out that mine wasn't the worst of the litter after all. The playability and sound is amazing (for a BG player anyway) considered that this bass is my second set up with the information found in the internet. The first one was a fully carved Chinese 1/2 Sam-Jing that had a broken neck (by the importer ) just because there was a fault in the top, which made the brige set up rather difficult.

So thank You very much Suzie.

Regards
Sam

[greene]

I've seen an awful lot of Musima basses - perhaps 100 from the last twenty years - all sizes and all kinds and this bass looks nothing like anything I know of.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Thanks for Your input greene, from the pics I found a lot of similarities. The quality of the craftmanship IMO also puts this bass in to the western parts of the eastern block. What would be Your educated guess about its origins?

Which construction methods or features found on the bass would be more accurate for the identification? I won't take the bass apart , but other than that, I think even some pics from the inside might be possible.

It's not that I'd play it daily basis, or take lessons or anything, just a part of my instrument collection I'd like to know more about.

Regards
Sam

[TheSuzie]

On this issue I must defer to greene. He has seen a lot more basses than I have. My bass has East German labels but maybe it is from some other factory.

Peace,
S

[greene]

It does look like an Eastern European instrument however neither a Czech nor a Musima. There are absolutely familiar aspects however that wouldn't necessarily make it a Musima. What's very different to me is the entire look. I've never seen an instrument - not a bass or cello that came from that factory with wood that looked like that ... no offense. I showed pictures of the bass to some here at Ideal and the luthier thought maybe Russia but he couldn't say for sure. Everyone here has seen hundreds of Musimas and not just those that have the W Eberle label but others as well and all agreed with me that this just doesn't look like anything we'd ever seen from that factory.

Here's the typical Musima "W Eberle" bass

[T-Bird]

Hi, greene

Thanks for the additional info. Russia could be the answer, since they're across the fence so to speak, but frankly the stuff that usually came here to the west was, well, crap to say at least. That's the reason I thought that the place of birth could've been more to the west. Ive played some Russian "cheapos" and the sound is closer to a badly made washtub bass than to anything else. The rockabilly folks love them, because of the dead tone and less feedback when amplified heavily. Not to mention for the price

Quite a lot of musicians have travelled across the border to the both directions though and this might have been somebodys "quality" instrument.

I think too that the top ply is somewhat different than anything I've seen and that's one thing that sets it apart. To be honest, that was the one aspect I thought to be most helpful in the identification

No offence taken, ever really, I honestly do appreciate any effort anyone puts into my problems.

Regards
Sam

[TheSuzie]

Originally Posted by greene

What's very different to me is the entire look. I've never seen an instrument - not a bass or cello that came from that factory with wood that looked like that ... no offense.

That is the biggest difference from my bass, the wood and the finish. It was the construction and design that looked very similar to me.

Peace,
S

[Dubbin]

What is the veneer? It looks sort of like mahogany? Ed