I certainly don't know more than anyone else here, but it's my understanding that Busseto(?) corners are named for the maker Giovanni Maria del Busseto. The famous example of one is the one Rainer Zepperitz used for many years in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Though I'm sure Ken will tell me it's an Austrian bass made in the late 1800's or something.
Anyway, after his retirement, no one in the orchestra wanted to buy it, so a guy in Japan bought it and lends it to Kazuo Okuda, who has some information about it here:
Link Removed
Mr. Okuda spells it Bussetto; my guess (unless there's a label inside the bass-yeah right...) is that the correct spelling should be that of whichever town Giovanni Maria worked in. And my guess on that is the one near Cremona, Busseto. I'd never thought about this before.
Brent
Yes, I have seen that Bass and read the story. I just looked his name up in several books and found some conflicting data and spellings. Bussetto, Busseto, Buseto, and BuFsetto on a label dated 1660.
It was believed by some that he was the teacher of Amati in the 16th century at first and then that there were two makers, I and II with the first being the elder (1535-1580 and the latter being possibly related listed as '2' (1640-1681). A third publication claims the elder dates are completely false regardless of a label dating to 1545 in Cremona which even predates the work of d'Salo.
How many false Maggini and d'Salo claims have we heard of as well as Amati, Testore, Montagnana, Panormo and many other famous names.
This is all 'wishful thinking' at the least if not deception. Gio. Maria del Bussetto is believed to have started in Brescia and moved later to Cremona all within the 17th century, the later dates mentioned.
If you study the history of the Bass country by country and look closely at the Bass in question, you must come to the conclusion that it is more likely it is Germanic than any other possibility. The maker Bussetto (or by any other spelling) and the Busetto/Busseto lower rounded corners are not connected in my mind. At least I am not convinced. If a style was used in a country, we usually see more than one example of it. The Guitar/Cornerless form was born in Northern Italy from what we can see and immigrated to Spain. This is one example but a very good one because it was used by many makers over many centuries.
The lower rounded corned has only been seen on original German instruments (or Yankee copies) with the exception of this Bass mentioned above which I think is not an exception because it is Germanic as well.
That is one huge Bass and dated 1660? Who here has seen Basses, several of them from that period. What condition are they in? Is that bass and that date even a possible match?
Also those sound hole are Central European in design, not Italian.
Is Bussetto the Maker (regardless of spellings) and the Lower Rounded Corners by the same or similar name even related?
Please, prove me wrong!
