Double Bass Another "help me ID this" bass Q -- 1930s laminate

[Jake Wildwood]

I've been stalking TalkBass since I started playing upright for real about halfway through last year. I've been enjoying a '41 Epiphone since I started, but last week picked up this oddity from a fellow in Northampton, MA.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed].

Anyhow, I want to pick your brains. The fellow that sold it to me thought it was Czech or German. Considering the (3 original, 1 replacement) machines and general feel of the instrument, my gut says it's a 30s bass. The top seems to be have a mahogany-ish veneer on its top layer while the back and sides are flamed maple laminate. One-piece neck, mid-size headstock (not huge like the Epi) and a bigger nut width but quicker, faster neck.

It has peculiar, Chicago-guitar-like 3-piece (segmented) f-holes and a "George's Musical Supply" (upstate NY) label in the bass f-hole.

Anyhow, anyone know anything about this fella? It's killing me that I can't get any positive IDs from browsing around online. Usually I can turn up something but I'm running dead ends all over.

Thanks in advance!

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Hi, Jake. Welcome to talkbass.

How's the old fella doing? He gave me a call about this bass when he got it. You got a very nice deal on it. My guess was the "George's Musical Supply" label may have something to do with Herb George (my bow guy), who now lives in Delmar, NY, and who used to operate a music store in this area. Herb's about 80, which doesn't match up with the apparent age of this bass, but I don't know if any older relatives were in the trade.

To me, the bass looks like a factory-made instrument from somewhere near the German/Czech border, probably made between the World Wars. Similar instruments were imported in large numbers and a lot of them are still kicking. The machines look to be pre-war Czech, but the outside linings appear to be Germanic. The varnish is similar in appearance to the '39 King I had, but I'm not seeing anything else about the bass that says H.N. White to me. The closed ff-holes are unusual, but not terribly so; the little bumpers on the corner bouts I haven't seen before as far as I remember.

Did you hang on to the gut strings that came on the bass?

 

[Thumpie]

the little bumpers on the corner bouts I haven't seen before as far as I remember.

I know! I've never seen anything like them either!

Along with the closed F-holes, doesn't this bass have a robust, "student instrument" vibe.

(Too bad someone decided to use screws to repair the heel and possibly the back on the lower bout...)

 

[Jake Wildwood]

Thanks for the replies, guys, and the welcome!

The "ol fella" seems to be doing quite well. What a great character. My wife and little daughter were along for the ride and we all had a nice visit while we talked shop. I think the music is keeping him young. He doesn't look his age at all.

I snapped it up at the price he was asking, no Qs asked. I knew it would need a lot of work, but most of it is relatively typical stuff for old instruments. The most irritating part was getting enough of the tack nails and tiny screws out to repair the seams and reglue the heel area enough that I wasn't worried about the whole thing imploding on me. FYI, the wheat penny on the heel's rear is just there for fun. I removed a countersunk screw from that area while I was regluing the back to the heel and block rear and just popped the penny in the same place.

Thanks for the overview on maker ideas. I know my guitars, banjos, ukes, mandos, etc. fairly well but uprights are sort of out of my knowledge base.

I do still have the gut set. Roundwound E&A, plain D&G. Great sound on that instrument, but since I bow about half the time they weren't gonna cut it. If you're interested in them, I can post them. They're just gonna sit over here.

 

[powerbass]

How could I have missed out on this bass and who's this old guy in my home town Northampton MA? I bought a similar Czech laminate bass same vintage as that one from some other old fella in Easthampton MA

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

He never advertised Jake's new baby...he keeps a list of people who have contacted him in the past and calls them when he gets something they might be interested in.

This will make you cry...a couple of weeks ago he offered me an older carved German 7/8 for $1400. I had to pass. Some lawyer from Vermont snapped it up the next morning.

 

[Jake Wildwood]

Yup, and right after he grabbed my cash he was headed out the door to buy more basses -- in particular a carved project he really wanted in on. Really cool individual.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

When I asked him how he finds all these basses, he told me he's buying them back from the guys he sold them to 50+ years ago and has kept track of ever since!