Another one down!
As I was doing research for the article/website about Mandobasses, I revisited Paul Ruppa’s work and decided to try and track down the basses featured in the article. Scott Frelich was credited with supplying the pictures of the Stahl. Scott had passed away some years ago, so I reached out to Bernunzio’s Uptown because I knew they had sold a Stahl and was curious whether it was the same one.
It wasn’t.
And so, much to my delight, the excellent folks at Bernunzio’s reached out to Scott’s widow to see she’d sell it. After a very simple negotiation, we agreed on a price and some weeks later it was personally delivered.
This bass is a tank. It is wider, taller, and heavier than all the other I have ever played. Unlike other basses, it has a tapered depth increasing from 4 1/4″ at the upper bout to 5 1/2″ at the lower bout. Otherwise it is a very modestly appointed instrument with little ornamentation. It has a crude scroll headstock with upright bass like tuning machines. It has an end-pin mount and what appears to be a side-pin plug where another can be added or it can be used to protect the instrument if being played on its side.
It has been repaired many times showing evidence of extensive cleat and cloth repairs to the various cracks and separations. There are no additional markings outside or inside the instrument.
The fascinating thing about this instrument is that without the label confirming it is a Stahl, I wouldn’t have believed it because the other known Stahl sold by Bernunzio’s matches the general style and appointments of their mandolins. I wonder if it is either a prototype or whether Stahl followed Gibson and increased the scale length after there was some dissatisfaction in the sound and playability of the shorter scaled instruments.
