Maintenance of having an oldish carved bass

[Jezyorkshire]

Just wondering if i decide to upgrade my Romanian bass at some point on the cost of maintenance on say an old German 1900's fully carved or similar?

[spencer.b]

So hard to say, I've had an old German for nearly 20 years and done very little to it other than a soundpost tweak every few years however old basses can be a nightmare, my mate's bass has a sunken front and sounds like it might be a write off and he's put best part of 2k in repairs into it in the last 5 years

Sorry not a very helpful answer I know but I'd say get any potential purchase looked over by someone knowledgeable

[fretless]

As above, it depends on the state of the older instrument .................. I thoroughly recommend you run any potential purchase past a decent luthier before you commit, you may do OK without this but a bad buy may prove expensive - as noted above ! My story relates to a Czech republic solid wood Gamba of unknown age but probably made between 1918 and 1940. Bought of a fellow basschatter in autumn 2011 AFTER I had seen it and spoken to the local luthier who had carried out some work on it and confirmed it was not about to crumple into sawdust !. It was playable and basically sound structurally but carried a fair few scars from the past -  was very sensibly priced so I reckoned on some expense to come at time of purchase.

 

After a years or so it went off to Martin Penning as there was a rattle from inside which I figured out to be a loose rib but am not equipped to remove top for access. Martin fixed this without too much trauma and attended to various other potential issues whilst he had the top off. I then had a more playable bass sans rattle ...........Around 2 years later the heel / "button" split ( it had been repaired in the distant past) - probably due to a bump in rehearsals. The MU insurance was very good and paid for the repair at Martins loft and I paid him extra to replace the fretboard - the existing one was chamfered on the e string side not radiused all round. With the back off for the button repair Martin also made good any other minor issues.

 

Bass has been fine ever since - Martin checks it over and tweeks things very couple of years when I can get to him - it is played and gigged constantly. No doubt it needs looking after but no more than any BD. What's it worth ? Who knows if I would recover the original cost plus what I have laid out for fixing / improving things ?..................... It is considerably lighter than a ply bass and I don't swing off it - just (try and) swing with it ! Without a side by side test against the sound of any other DB I don't even know if the tone is just OK or better than OK. It seems good to me and I would consider buying a similar instrument for the cost invested if I needed to.

Patrick (fretless)

 

 

[NickA]

1885 German bass.  Had it 30 years.  Spent £136 on new strings 20 years ago. £800 on a bow last year.  Two carry cases over the years .... That's it.

To be fair tho, it did fall over once and the finger board fell off, repaired at great cost to the insurers ( who have since gotten their own back by charging outrageous premiums ).  Whilst being mended the mender had a poke inside and declared that the fall had dislodged old repairs, so I got lots of mends re-done and a new bass bar too. Hence the £1500 bill on a bass that cost £2000.  That was 22yrs ago and  It's been great since.  Out to orchestra every week, jazz sesh once a fortnight, no problems.

Go for it, but expect big insurance bills.

 

[mart3442]

I Bought a carved German "Trade" Bass, made in about 1850. Cost me £325, 20 years ago. It was solid but old, with little or no moisture left in the wood. Rule one, you must have insurance, because an old Bass will need serious work every couple of years... I kept mine hydrated as much as I could, but eventually had to retire it from live work, as it was just too fragile... Insurance with Allianz was about £70 a year (£36 with New Moon...). It's worth about £5000 now, so owes me absolutely nothing. As long as you're prepared for the ongoing maintenance, you'll be fine.