What is my Bass?

[irbassist]

http://www.nahrmannbass.com/cgi-bin/...rd&UsedID=0021
^ thats my bass
when i bought this from Nahrmann i just assumed that what he said about where it came from was right. but the other day i had a diffrerent bass maker look at my bass and he said it was made closer to 60 years ago rather than the 110 suggested by nahrmann. he also said that it was probably a early, chezch, juzek bass (there is no label on the inside). im not really sure who to believe, but the bass maker i saw the other day seemed really confident that he was right about where it came from. so if anyone is able to tell just by looking at these few pictures what bass this is that would be great.

[Eric Hochberg]

I'm no expert, but the outer linings and hatpeg tuners are not French characteristics (of course, tuners can be changed), from what I know. If you like the bass, don't worry about it. If you paid less than 10k and it's healthy, you're fine.

[crowsmengegus]

Hi irbassist, like Eric says, those hatpegs and outside linings (there's a special name for these I forgot) and the general look of it seem like German bass to me. I have one myself that is supposed from the 1880s. Probably you will never know exactly what it is or how old it is, so if it sounds good, play it and fuh-get-abowdit. It looks like a nice bass to me.

But, if you want to do some research on the french versus german question, there is a bit of info on smithbassforums.com , see the thread on german basses and the one on french basses .

EDIT: the thread on german shop basses might also be good since yours might be newer than previously thought.

[Michael Glynn]

That bass looks a lot like mine, which is German. As far as age, mine was sold to me as ca. 1900, others have said anything up to 1940s. I'm not sure where he would have got "French style" from. No labels inside of the bass, eh? If it doesn't say Juzek, there's no reason to think it's a Juzek. Juzeks were mostly made by the Wilfer family anyway.

The Nahrmann page you linked calls the bass a "german round back" but also says "french style" and "France?" as the origin. Sounds like he was seeing German and French elements. German shop basses from the early-mid 20th century can sound excellent, and if they are in good condition can be great values for musicians.

In any case, mine sounds freakin great! Hope yours does too! Here are a few pics of my bass.