William Davidson
 This
is a flat backed violin cornered double bass made by a maker not renowned
for his basses. The varnish is a rather washy spirit over oil being a dark
brown. A very fine carved scroll very typical of good British makers. The
table was on the thin side giving one or two problems with wolf notes. But
the sound overall was a fine big warm woody orchestral come solo tone
suitable for any orchestral player.
William Davidson was born in Muckhart in Scotland in the year 1827. He
worked in Edinburgh until he died in 1902. His output of instruments was
huge, but not in the bass line. In fact I don't know of any other Davidson
basses around, though I am sure one of you out there will know more than
me and know of other basses by this maker? This bass is loosely modeled
after Guarnerius, loosely being the operative word. Still, it is a good
instrument, the sort of bass that I like to hear and see in good
orchestras.
Lars Danielsson
This extremely talented double-bass player lives in
Gottenburg, Sweden. He is one of the new breed of really fine jazz and
classical players, a player that can cross over to any style of playing at
the raising of the baton or the crick of the drum sticks. Lars has been a
friend of Gallery Strings for many years and has bought some really fine
instruments from us other than the Davidson. Some years ago he bought a
really rare French bass made by Joseph Bassot of Paris c1760. He also
bought a un-known early 18th. century instrument attributed to a Venision
maker. Lars has made many CD's, including "Time Unit", "Far
North" and "Tia Dia". Many of the numbers featured on these
discs are composed by Lars. Sweden has got some real great bass playing
talent.
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