Sorry just saw this post,lol,, guess I need to lurk more often,, Joes bass was in a car wreck in 1938/39,,and it was of course on "top"of the car,,the original neck was broken beyond repair,,and the current neck was put in,,its a very thick curly maple neck which is almost like a blank that wasn't cut down much,,guess he didn't want it to break again,, the fingerboard was prob put on about the same time, its a huge slab of ebony with curl in the grain..when I got the bass from Joe it had grooves 3/4 deep as the string,,I took it to the old bass Viol shop in Cinci,,and the man said it appeared to never have been planed before,,
its not as loud of a slap as a rosewood board ,, but has its own kind of thing going on,, different than any other I have ever played,,the note of the bass comes through very clear even when slapped,,I have had lots of them that this wasn't the case. Its a heck of a bass,, sound of its own,,I just recenty found another german bass that must have came from the same shop,, has the exact same measurments and swirly wide grain top,,even stress cracks in the ribs at the same place,,kinda weird to find one so close,,it records even better than joes bass but not quite as deep,,its got a old rosewood board,, slaps great also,but def different that Joes
