Double Bass Three Stooges Double Bass?

[Tom Howland]

Big Stooges fan. That short was called "Disorder In The Court" .

 

[zontar]

Big Stooges fan. That short was called "Disorder In The Court" .

Yes--and it is public domain--and appears on a variety of Stooge compilation DVDs...
And it's funny.

 

[groooooove]

more pictures of your bass would help.

to my eye, it doesn't appear impossible. though it may be impossible to legitimately verify.

 

[CaseyVancouver]

My double bass was once an old Hollywood movie prop. I have always wondered if it might be the one used in the Three Stooges' movie. How would I go about researching this? You might laugh, but believe it or not, there is a great possibility that this is it. And wouldn't it be pretty cool if it was?!! I have already identified, beyond any doubt, that it was indeed played on an album of a popular Punk band in the 70s! The previous owner was in that band and remembered that his name was written in backhand on the backside of the fingerboard. Anyway, just wondering if there was anywhere I might check. It is a 4/4 German flat-back that has been refinished.

Link Removed

Looks like Curly is taking a selfie with the bass!

 

[GregT]

I did take the bass to one of the best violin guys in Missouri today. He is going to take the top off and fix all the cracks. Then he will plane the fingerboard. It is very hard to play as it is, but he will make it play super easy. I realize I can never find out for sure where all the bass has been, but nevertheless, I really like it. I don't even mind it is a 4/4 and I am 5'8". when it gets finished, I might order some Spirocore strings instead of the weedwacker kind I put on to relieve some of the tension. The repair guy told me it is probably 80 - 90 years old. I am happy with it just being a cool old bass. It deserves to be made playable and then played. I have totally given up on figuring its history out.

Since starting and stopping the research, I ended up buying a 1/2 sized bass for almost nothing and I enjoyed it so much that it inspired me to get my 4/4 fixed. I have already taken the 1/2 sized out twice. I intend to start playing double bass locally now. I think that is the best end to this thread; and a new beginning.

 

[CurlyBass]

To bring this thread alive again. Check out this bass that has a similar unknown history. Worked on by John Knutsen back in the day and he made a custom label (there was no original so no one knows where this thing came from). The verbal history is that it was a prop bass for Columbia Pictures. It looks extremely similar to yours @GregT

 

[michaelsd]

Oh, a wise guy...

Nuck, nuck, nuck...

 

[GregT]

I just happened to log into Talkbass after a long time off. I don't enjoy all the arguing in some of the threads so I don't visit TB much any more. I still have my bass, of course and I still believe it to be the Stooge's bass even if I can never prove it. I measured the picture of Curley with it and did the math calculations a while back. Mine being a genuine 4/4 size and certainly not a 7/8 as someone had suggested, the bass and Curley measured up correctly. And the markings are similar enough even though mine was refinished along the line. Some history is always lost with time and with no way to verify it, my bass is just an old German flatback with a lot of great character. I enjoyed seeing the picture of the other one a few posts back. These are really great old basses. Mine is probably about 80 to 90 years old based on an evaluation by a well known violin builder/repairman in Springfield, Missouri. He is the one who removed the top and repaired any cracks a few years ago. He said it is good to go for the next 100 years. I'm 63, so it will at least outlast me, which is all I can ask for. Where it travels then, who knows. There is still a lot of music it should play.

 

[Steve Swan]

Please indicate with measured dimensions why this bass could possibly be considered a 4/4. It looks like a standard 3/4 size bass and looks nothing like the dark instrument shown in the Three Stooges photo.

 

[BobKay]

Please indicate with measured dimensions why this bass could possibly be considered a 4/4. It looks like a standard 3/4 size bass and looks nothing like the dark instrument shown in the Three Stooges photo.

I assumed he meant the one in the first post, not the bass in the more recent post by CurlyBass?

 

[Jake deVilliers]

Its not the same bass.

If you look at the incurve of the upper portion of the C-bout (very clear at 7:38 of the YouTube video) you'll see that the Stooges bass has a very shallow C-bout, whereas yours is quite deep.
The shoulders are not the same shape either and though you only posted one photo, I think your bass is quite a bit wider.