World-renowned double-bass soloist Gary Karr has parted with the instrument that shaped his career. Karr, who retired from public performance four years ago (an audience of 800 bassists from 27 countries attended the farewell event), is donating his famous instrument to the International Society of Bassists. “It was like sending your child off into the world,” Karr says of his decision. “I think I know now how mothers feel, although this might have even been worse because we were together for 40 years.”

The rare Amati bass will reside in a series of instrument shops all over the country so that other bassists can not only admire it, but perform with it. “We don’t want it to be a museum piece,” says Madeleine Crouch, ISB general manager. “We want to see it in action.”

Olga Koussevitzky, widow of bass virtuoso and famed conductor Serge Koussevitzky, gave Karr her late husband’s bass in 1961. Madame Koussevitzky told Karr that she had seen the spirit of her late husband embrace Karr onstage as he performed.

Koussevitzky purchased the instrument from a French dealer in 1901 for $3,000, but that is the extent of its known pedigree, though it’s widely reported to have been made in 1611. The bass is currently undergoing a dendrochronology (tree-ring) analysis. No matter what the analysis reveals, the instrument is priceless to the ISB. “People say, ‘When I heard Gary Karr for the first time, I knew what I wanted to do with my life,’” says Crouch. “That’s what the bass means to us.”

The instrument’s next stop is the 2005 ISB convention in Kalamazoo, Michigan, from June 6 to 11.