Double Bass Karl J Kahila

[Who da Ville]

I bought my Romanian flat back bass about a year and a half ago from a bass luthier in Portland, OR. It was affordable (almost), has a great sound & I love it.

Inside, it says "Made in Romania" and "Reghin", which I understand is a city with more than one bass factory.

Serial # 618559652 Does anyone know how to get any info from the serial # (such as when it was made)?

There was a name on the back: "Karl J Kahila". Shortly after I bought the bass, I did a quick google search & found an article some east-European-looking language on what I thought at the time was a touring double bassist. I mentioned that to the guy I bought it from, & he said a friend of his found the bass in Vancouver, BC.

I did another google search recently and found this:

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That's a photo of Karl playing my bass! My guess is that he played a lot of polkas on that thing over the years.

Anyway, I thought that was a cool story & wanted to share. It's always nice to know a little history.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

The name Kahila seems to be finnish and the article is in finnish too.

It seems that Karl played at the Boston symphony for some time.

 

[Kamuilija]

Hi,

the article, printed in the Vancouver Finlandia Club's newspaper, is about a ball the club organized, that had 65-ish people attending, and a group of musicians (accordion, bass & drs) played a variety of traditional Finnish, Latin and "foreign" tunes "in a professional style". The atmosphere is said to have been like "cannibals having a bbq party."

yours from the North-Eastern corner of Europe,

Enne

 

[Jake deVilliers]

like "cannibals having a bbq party."

Yup, that sounds like the Finns I know!

 

[Who da Ville]

I wrote this message and accidently posted to the wrong board. Then I couldn't find the message I posted, & re-wrote the message and posted to the Bases board.

I accidently found this thread this morning, & am glad I did. Interesting info!

It appears this is a 'Roma' bass. I still have a couple of questions. If you have answers, please respond to the thread on the Bases board.

Thanks for the responses.

Clint