Indeed, I'm a double bassist, and belong to a family of string players. I don't want an antiqued instrument. I'll age it myself. Most of the deliberately antiqu

Indeed, I'm a double bassist, and belong to a family of string players. I don't want an antiqued instrument. I'll age it myself. Most of the deliberately antiqued instruments I've handled were student models, and I wonder if it makes it easier to hide minor defects in workmanship. In those cases, we didn't outright reject an instrument for being antiqued, since there are only so many things you can be particular about before the supply of acceptable instruments dries up. We were much more concerned with sound. When my kids moved up to professional grade instruments, like you say, no more antiquing.