Double Bass Luthiers and "Experts"

[yanto]

Spotted this and it looks like it's a high quality bass but needing repairs.

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Antique-double-bass_W0QQitemZ170466396631QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Sting_Instruments?hash=item27b096c9d7"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Antique-double-bass_...=item27b096c9d7[/url]

Anyone out there care to comment on it and the potential costs to get it in a decent playable condition.Does it need a whole new neck or is that break repairable?
Cheers
Iain

Edited March 31, 2010 by yanto

[geoffbassist]

Looks good to me. You could repair the neck but it would need a lot of work to get the bass restored properly. It's more about knowing a good luthier with free time and fair rates :-)

[steviedee]

There is a really great luthier in Edinburgh Ken MacDonald can't recommend him highly enough

[PedalB]

Hi,
Be careful -you need to make sure you get your sums correct on this . Looks like an old-(ish) French flatback to me (could possibly be German) this is the sort of thing a luthier would take a punt on to sell on again . The price the vendor wants plus what a good luthier is going to charge you to fix it will probably be 'all of its money', That being the case
it might be 'safer' to buy one in better condition . I appreciate the attraction of getting a doer-upper in the hope of getting something really nice for less money,but it could end up costing more in the long run.

good luck k

[geoffbassist]

I agree, proably german trade bass. I doubt it would be worth much more than the total spend. Would also take a long time.

[quote name='PedalB' post='792677' date='Mar 31 2010, 11:06 PM']Hi,
Be careful -you need to make sure you get your sums correct on this . Looks like an old-(ish) French flatback to me (could possibly be German) this is the sort of thing a luthier would take a punt on to sell on again . The price the vendor wants plus what a good luthier is going to charge you to fix it will probably be 'all of its money', That being the case
it might be 'safer' to buy one in better condition . I appreciate the attraction of getting a doer-upper in the hope of getting something really nice for less money,but it could end up costing more in the long run.

good luck k[/quote]

[27 frets]

By the look of the tailpiece and the peg box, the bass was originally a 3-string instrument (common in the past), which has been converted to a 4-string.
The problems with the neck may relate to the extra trnsion from the 4th string, so some additional reinforcement may be needed as part of the refurbishment.

[yanto]

Thanks for the replies everyone.I was guesstimating about £2500 to refurbish it to a decent standard so if it wasn't worth a lot more than that there's no point.I'll leave this one to a luthier.
Cheers
Iain

[geoffbassist]

[quote name='yanto' post='793332' date='Apr 1 2010, 02:10 PM']Thanks for the replies everyone.I was guesstimating about £2500 to refurbish it to a decent standard so if it wasn't worth a lot more than that there's no point.I'll leave this one to a luthier.
Cheers
Iain[/quote]

my guess would be you are in the right ball park. I think it the work would need to be done directly by the buyer to realise any profit. Without seeing the bass first it could be way more or less than you think.