help with identify a Double bass

[garysnooker]

ive been told it might be a German- possibly 30's or so but could be Czech or Hungarian. A trade instrument . any one know what it might be and does it look like a descent instrument . thanks gary

[Beer of the Bass]

It looks very similar to my own bass, but in much cleaner condition. Certainly the outline, scroll and tuners are identical to mine. As far as I can gather, identifying these basses is somewhat imprecise - I'm told they came from towns around the German/Czech border region (which changed nationality at least once) and looked much like this from the late 19th century to the first couple of decades of the 20th. Is yours all solid wood? There were some 20th century examples with laminated backs and sides, though others are solid.
It should be a nice instrument - these are towards the lower valued end of old European basses but if healthy and well set up they can sound very good, especially as jazz basses. I had a new ebony fingerboard put on mine, which seemed to help.

[zbd1960]

If you look through the F holes with a torch, there ought to be a label on the inside of the back which may have a maker and if you're lucky a date. There were a lot of workshops turning out instruments in the Germany/Czech/Hungary area. Although most will be 'workshop' instruments i.e. made by the staff and supervised by the master luthier, they tend to be well made instruments. I bought cello made by a German maker around 1900 (and the family still exists and are still making instruments). A visit to a good luthier to have a new bridge made, repositioned with sound-post, glue a joint, new end-pin and end-pin unit, new tailpiece and tail-gut, plus a clean and new strings, end result is a very nice instrument. The total bill for the work was £500 (the cleaning was £200) plus the stirngs. I did have the work done in three phases though: glue, bridge, end-pin was one lot. The clean was a separate task done a few months later and the tailpiece work I have only just had a done a year later.

Edited April 23, 2016 by zbd1960

[neilp]

Is it just me, or does that wear look fake? Be careful, there are lots of "old" basses coming out of eastern Europe. The extra 100 years of "age" puts at least £2,000 on the price. If it really is that old, an it's survived in that condition, there's a good chance it's a pretty nice instrument, but as I said, be careful.

[Beer of the Bass]

[quote name='neilp' timestamp='1461416353' post='3034463']
Is it just me, or does that wear look fake? Be careful, there are lots of "old" basses coming out of eastern Europe. The extra 100 years of "age" puts at least £2,000 on the price. If it really is that old, an it's survived in that condition, there's a good chance it's a pretty nice instrument, but as I said, be careful.
[/quote]

That feels unlikely in this case - these fairly plain Czech/German flatbacks don't really attract a premium beyond what a new European made instrument of similar quality would cost, so it wouldn't seem an obvious thing to fake.

[garysnooker]

thanks for all your help i have found a label inside the bass its made in Czech no date tho one of my frends offer me £450 for this bass does any one think this is to much for it or should i ask for more

[Beer of the Bass]

I feel like that's on the low side, unless the bass has any issues that might detract from the value.
Does the label say Czechoslovakia? That would put it firmly after 1918, so that estimate of 30s or so is probably pretty close.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Beer of the Bass

[garysnooker]

thanks so much for your help on this i manage to take a picture of the label there are 2 CRACK ONE ON THE FRONT AND ONE ON THE BACK would £450 still be cheap

[Beer of the Bass]

It's hard to make out from the photos, but is that a crack I can see on the E-string side, just next to the inner edge of the f-hole? If that's un-repaired and open, it would knock quite a bit off the value as it runs along the edge of the bass bar - making that stable is an expensive repair. So it becomes kind of hard to say without having it looked over in person by someone with some experience.

[garysnooker]

by the way the forgoten works is that your music if so i do like