Amati - conglomerate name for a series of small workshops working as a Soviet style company in Socialist Czechoslovakia. Operating under this name from about 1955 onwards, simply continuing to produce whatever instruments the previous companies (like Bohland & Fuchs) had been making since before the War. In the period between the end of WWII and 1955 (or so), some of these small companies simply resumed whatever production they could with the materials and workers available. Usually, these instruments are built like tanks (because you can't produce delicate instruments if your precision tools have been looted by the Red Army - sorry, they called it War Reparations). And development of new things being generally frowned upon in the Eastern Bloc (except arms!), when amalgamated into Amati, they just continued with what they had been doing, without proper quality control or much interest in same, things going from bad to worse. Thus, if you find an instrument that was later marketed as Amati, it is very likely better instrument if it does not bear the Amati brand.
