Double Bass Cristofori and Da Salo

[LouisF]

Mrs F and I were in Italy for the past ten days and along with the usual hits of Florence, Venice and Rome, we had two great double bass sightings:

1) A Cristofori 5-string double bass from @ 1715 (notice the gut strings) in Florence at the Accademia;

2) Dragonetti's Gaspar da Salo bass at St Mark's, restored by Sergio Scaramelli

Info on the Da Salo is here: Double bass making and restoration by Sergio Scaramelli in Ferrara - Domenico Dragonetti Restoration

and info on Cristofori (who is one of the inventors of the piano as we know it) and his apprentice Malvoto is here: Malvolti Bass

Louis

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Nice! What size is that Dragonetti bass? It looks tiny!

 

[SAlcott]

 

[GretschWretch]

What size is the bass behind the Christofori? It also looks tiny.

 

[crd]

Mrs F and I were in Italy for the past ten days and along with the usual hits of Florence, Venice and Rome, we had two great double bass sightings:

1) A Cristofori 5-string double bass from @ 1715 (notice the gut strings) in Florence at the Accademia;

2) Dragonetti's Gaspar da Salo bass at St Mark's, restored by Sergio Scaramelli

Info on the Da Salo is here: Double bass making and restoration by Sergio Scaramelli in Ferrara - Domenico Dragonetti Restoration

and info on Cristofori (who is one of the inventors of the piano as we know it) and his apprentice Malvoto is here: Malvolti Bass

Louis

Did the Cristofori start it's life as a five string? What a beautiful bass.

 

[LouisF]

The Dragonetti bass seemed pretty full size, but with relatively thin ribs. It looks like the "big" Cristofori was originally 5 strings. The one behind it was "attributed" to Cristofori (if I remember correctly) and was about this size;

Bartolomeo Cristofori | Double Bass | Italian | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

[coldtrain]

Great pics! Do you know what the tuning was on the Cristofori?

 

[LouisF]

I don't but it's hard for me to imaging that the 5th string would be a low C or B. Some variant of Viennese tuning...or... Don't know.

PS: Some background (mostly on his pianos) but he did live with (apprentice to) Amati for a while:

Bartolomeo Cristofori Facts for Kids

 

[garrett2]

Going to Rome on Saturday. Any suggestions there?

 

[LouisF]

It is CRAWLING with tourists!! PM me and I'm happy to give you some good restaurants and cafes etc; visiting the "biggies" is a zoo; but the Borghese gardens and villa wasn't too bad.

 

[GretschWretch]

The Dragonetti bass seemed pretty full size, but with relatively thin ribs. It looks like the "big" Cristofori was originally 5 strings. The one behind it was "attributed" to Cristofori (if I remember correctly) and was about this size;

Bartolomeo Cristofori | Double Bass | Italian | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wow. It looks like somebody stretched out a cello body and stuck a DB neck on it. I wonder what the "heel" note is. 37" mensure suggests 5/8 size.

 

[oldNewbie]

The Mrs and I found the same Oct. - crawling with tourists. One strategy that worked well was walking everywhere. For one, many tourists disappear for a surprising amount of your day. For another, you get more of the flavor of the city. +1 on Borghese gardens. PM if you want route suggestions.

 

[ctrlzjones]

With excuses for continuing the redirection: All european capital cities are suffering (well, haha, if your investments are in that area it’s quite the opposite feeling) from the post-covid-blast of travellers hitting this year. Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Lisboa, Rome, Madrid… I have never seen the streets so packed with slightly disoriented people walking in socks with sandals carrying packed shopping bags in both hands and hoards of shaky flocks in bikes roaming through the old parts of the towns.

The Mrs and I found the same Oct. - crawling with tourists. One strategy that worked well was walking everywhere. For one, many tourists disappear for a surprising amount of your day. For another, you get more of the flavor of the city. +1 on Borghese gardens. PM if you want route suggestions.

 

[LouisF]

Some of the worst tourist behavior ever:

Video shows tourist carving his girlfriend's name into Rome's Colosseum | CNN

 

[Matthijs]

With excuses for continuing the redirection: All european capital cities are suffering (well, haha, if your investments are in that area it’s quite the opposite feeling) from the post-covid-blast of travellers hitting this year. Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Lisboa, Rome, Madrid… I have never seen the streets so packed with slightly disoriented people walking in socks with sandals carrying packed shopping bags in both hands and hoards of shaky flocks in bikes roaming through the old parts of the towns.

It looks like this is going to be one of the busiest summers ever. Especially the cruise business has picked up big time. Lots of sandals with socks walking clueless on our bicycle routes in Amsterdam.

 

[oldNewbie]

To further derail things ... what countries of origin are denoted by sandals and socks ? (and who wears open-toed anything for walking around for hours in a city? ewww ) . pavement-hiking boots for us, thanks.

 

[LouisF]

All right, since this was all my fault, I will take the socks and sandals crowd over the vacuous American species that come in (in family groups with even more vacuous teens?) who feel that they are part of the cast of "White Lotus" and are entitled to behave (remarkably) both arrogantly and ignorantly at the same time.
For those of you needing the reference see:

 

[Don Kasper]

Best Thread derail EVER!
Subbed...
Thx, LouisF!

 

[oldNewbie]

All right, since this was all my fault, I will take the socks and sandals crowd over the vacuous American species .

hahaha absolutely agreed. I guess my question was more , socks-and-sandals I'd guess means Not American but do they indicate any more about a person's origin these days ?
A friend thirty+ years ago from Iowa diligently worked to pass as N.A. in Europe and points east (Central Asia) and was very successful in that. Scott insisted it started with footwear , also included other clothing, not to mention obviously attitude and behavior. Didn't hurt that he spoke maybe a dozen languages , but he did insist footwear would establish you from fifty feet away, where you were sized up. I cannot imagine him ever wearing s and s but that's another story.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Americans abroad are the worst. Just embarrassing. In ‘89 I spent some time in Amsterdam with my first wife. I was mistaken for a German more than once, and took it as a compliment because I wasn’t identified as an American.