Double Bass Ideas about this scroll type?

[eh_train]

Hi all,

Someone (not me) just bought this bass off of Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Upright...ultDomain_0&hash=item45f6393832#ht_508wt_1141

I'd been looking at it myself, as it was going for only $1500. Too far away, though.

I'm interested to know about the style of scroll. It's much less carved than most, sort of an art nouveau / arts and crafts kind of look. Can members shed any light?

thanks,

Paul

 

[Steve Swan]

That's a pretty cute old bass. Is it a 5/8 size?

 

[eh_train]

Steve,

The seller described it as "more or less" a 3/4. If you look at the 6th picture, the scroll looks quite plain, but in a nice kind of way... Anyone seen this before, and, if so, where did the bass come from?

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Paul Warburton]

The "scroll" is only the turned part on the head, the actual turns are called volutes. I assume that you're asking about the tuners. Those are called "hat peg" tuners because they resemble old fashioned hat pegs that were common in old houses at the turn of the century.
Purely decorative. Some people are convinced they help the sound of the bass because the shafts are wooden too, allowing the neck to vibrate more freely because of the light weight.
EDIT: After seeing your latest post, I'll go look again because I didn't really see much in the one pic.

 

[eh_train]

Ummm, I'm only asking about the scroll, as I'm pretty familiar with hat pegs! Look at the 6th picture, and you'll see that the vertical centre line of the scroll is actually a thin raised line. The line goes right down to the bottom of the scroll, which is unusual. Also, there's very much less material removed on either side of this line. Like I said in the OP, it looks kind of art nouveau (to me, anyway). Anybody notice this???

 

[Paul Warburton]

After seeing your last post I did look at pic 6 and don't see anything glaring. A nice old German or Czech shop bass that needs alotta work but all restored could be worth upwards of 7Grand or more the way the market is today. I woulda snatched it maybe.

 

[Paul Warburton]

My bad I guess. I was looking at the scroll not the tuning box.
It's still not really anything that's all that different.
It may be Tyrolean as well.

 

[eh_train]

Paul,

Okay, tuning box. I guess I'm just used to the more rounded German shop-bass style.

It did seem like a good deal, unless maybe the glue liberally applied to the back is Epoxy! You can't really be sure until it arrives at your door...

Cheers,

Paul