Gasparo da Salò (20 May 154214 April 1609) is the name given to Gasparo Bertolotti, one of the earliest violin makers and an expert double bass player. Around 80 of his instruments are known to have survived to the present day: violins (small and large), alto and tenor violas, viols, violones and double basses, violas designed with only a pair of corners, and ceteras. Career Gasparo da Salò was born in 1542 in Salò on Lake Garda, Brescia, Italy, in a family with legal, artistic, musical and craft interests. His grandfather Santino, a land and flock owner who it is believed likely produced musical gut strings, moved from Polpenazze to Salò, capital of the Riviera del Garda, possibly in search of the greater opportunities then available in Salò, whose music scene was very rich and vibrant. Gasparo da Salò was the son and nephew of two accomplished musicians, Francesco and Agostino, who were violin players and composers of the highest professional level, distinguished enough to be referred to in surviving documents as the "violì” or "violini." In addition to being an expert in musical instruments, da Salò's uncle Agostino was the first Kapellmeister of Salò and his son Bernardino, Gasparo da Salò's cousin, was a virtuoso musician (violinist and trombonist), who worked in Ferrara at the Este music court, and then in Mantua for Vincenzo I Gonzaga, during which time he was a contemporary of Monteverdi, and finally in Rome as "Musician of His Holiness the Pope in the Castle of S. Angel." Gasparo da Salò's musical education took place during a period of growing refinement and professionalism among the musicians and violin players of Salò and Brescia, many of whom played in the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice, as well as many other musically distinguished European courts from the early 1540s onward. His deep education in musical performance, undertaken by his noted musical family, is evidenced in a document found in Bergamo concerning music in San Maria Maggiore dated 1604, in which Gasparo is cited as a very talented violone player. When his father died, around 1562, da Salò moved to Brescia. It appears da Salò immediately rented a house and set up shop in the neighborhood hub of musical life, the Contrada Antegnati, known for the presence of a very famous dynasty of organ builders, and other skilled multi-instrumentalists, who were granted a professional patent by the