Bass by Rudolf Oberlander of Prague, 1978.

Oberlander Rudolf
born: 02 Nov 1932 Kopisty, Czechoslovakia
died: 05 Dec 1984 Senohraby, bei Prague, Czechoslovakia (Senohraby is a small town 30km from Prague)

From 1947-1950 he trained with the large "Cremona" instrument factory in Luby. After the apprenticeship he worked for Cremona in the production of double basses. In 1955, after completion of basic military service, took a place with a musical instrument repairman in Modrany near Prague. After the abolition of this workshop he became a musical instrument repairman for the Czech Philharmonic. In 1967 management of Cremona had offered to hold a championship for independently built basses, so he began to build a competition double bass. Oberlander moved to Senohraby, and became an independent luthier with his own workshop and tools, producing for Cremona. In 1977 he joined the Prague luthier's guild, The Circle of Violin Artisans . He built basses in three sizes and several models.

Oberlander was one of several makers (Rudolf Oberlander, Joseph Budil, Francis Zákopčanik, Jaroslav and Miroslav Lavicka Pikárt) to produce instruments sold by the famous  Czech bassist František Pošta; According to one source he made close to 150 instruments for Posta.

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Very neatly and nicely made bass. Some top cracks to repair.





neat, quite elegant scroll



Beautifully worked inside, sealed with a yellowish ground - haven't identified what it is yet.



Dovetailed neck joint into very tidy blocks



Original raised saddle. Screwed in place with felt cushioning to both faces.

Opening the bass carefully:

nice neat work inside - bracing may be a little over-engineered I feel.

The bracing pattern (label flaked off - I'll have to reglue it)

signed inside the top:



Chunky, low bassbar.



here's the raised saddle:



Some of the failed cleats:



these failed because the inside of the top was sealed with what seems to be a thin oil varnish - the hide glue simply didn't stick to it very well.

These ones held up a little better, a different kind of glue I think. It's obviously a repair done some time ago; these are cleats pulled through tiny holes drilled in the top, a thin piece of gut threaded through the cleat and knotted, then pulled back into place and the gut snipped off.



But they're all going to have to come off and be replaced with proper diamond cleats.

Here's the main crack opened up and soaking off the old glue and crud that got in there:



The crack-clamping dry-run