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  #1  
Old 06-22-2011, 03:43 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Signs found inside my DB

I finally took my poor double bass for repair:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8075972/P1040977.JPG

When the belly was opened, I found a faint signature, maybe 5x5 cm, probably related to the original manufacturing. Please have a look:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8075972/P1050088_kontrasti.jpg

I bought the bass as a cheap second hand and the seller had no idea of the origin of the instrument.

The handwritten sign is very faint, probably: "65 II 30. No 3"
There's also a blue stamped logo, which might be familiar to someone in this forum, if I'm very lucky.

Any info of the origin of this instrument would be very much appreciated.
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  #2  
Old 06-22-2011, 08:59 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: New Jersey
I am afraid I don't recognize the logo, but the varnish on the top plate and the style of the bass looks like an older Tyrolean. I could be wrong. Most Tyrolean basses have this distinct dark red colour.
  #3  
Old 06-23-2011, 01:45 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
I've done work on a few Tyroleans, and I agree, this does seem to follow much of that school. But it has been heavily re-finished using something rather milky and opaque as a colourant so a bit hard to say anything definitive about the original varnish. Looks like it was at least partially stripped before re-varnishing. The tuners look like trimmed 'hatpeg' Tyrolean or Bohemian types. The general pattern of the body is similar to either of those, with the Tyrolean basses generally sharing the upward sweep of the ribs at the neck with most of the Bohemians having a re-curve 'hump' just at the neck for a wedged rib fit into the neck heel. I've not seen a note like that in a Tyrolean. The outline is a commercial stamp, with what might be a crown in the upper part or perhaps a castle. It might be '1865' for the first hand-inked part but the 8 is doubtful.

Interesting bass. Is it a flat-backed or arched? I've got a very big-sounding Tyrolean of slightly broader design in the shop now on consignment, one I quite like, and generally these basses can be made to sound quite impressive, provided the repairs don't over-burden the top. Make sure those many bad cracks aren't so heavily cleated as to kill vibration. Very small - less than 1cm square - spruce cleats set with the grain diagonal to the main, then over-patched with good raw linen and hide glue can greatly stabilize seasonal movement (a problem much of this central European spruce seems to suffer) without compromising vibration at all. A good linen should be free of added cotton or synthetics, and should be very, very difficult to tear, even with a starter cut. It can be applied square to the grain or on the bias for slightly increased stiffness on difficult cracks, as the doubling-up of threads holding the crack together resist tearing all that much more. If your luthier would like to talk about this please put them in touch with me.

I've been having great success in such light-weight restorations for the past dozen years or so, as I watch traditional large-cleat restorations start to come apart in my West Coast winters (supplemented by trips to Alberta in February, something touring musicians do all too much, as the very low humidity tends to tear basses apart). I've seen much worse undoing of restorations when the goatskin patching of one local luthier comes apart, creating dozens of little vibrating flaps inside basses and even on one violin. Linen is an old school repair tool. Someone in the UK sent me an image years ago of a century-old soundpost area linen cleat just below the area of post adjustment, which was holding just fine with no need for an inlaid patch. Many of these repairs can even be done through the f-holes, with the bass suspended from the ceiling for belly repairs and using a small video camera to watch the work on a computer or other monitor.
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