A bit of progress with cleating the top. There are many ways of doing this, but I prefer long diamond cleats because they make most sense to me; maximum glue contact and flexibility and offset grain. They are a bit tricky to trim without nicking the top, but I've done enough now to be able to do it fairly quickly.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4091/...91668afdca.jpg

Very sharp blade essential!

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/...58f37e036b.jpg

Some more trimming will be done before I'm happy. Although this is work that only the angels will get to see I like to make sure it's done neatly.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4092/...b9fddb2e2e.jpg


I might add a few more cleats later or some linen strips depending on how I feel.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/...1b50cd921c.jpg

Here for comparison:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/...948f8ca435.jpg

And here's a video of how i do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOayNxDvuPM

Nice - thanks for keeping us posted.

That's a beastly looking chisel! ;)

The chisel is the one I use for mortising a neck block, and I like its weight and the fact that it holds a razor edge really well. Not sure it's perfect for the job though - I'd be interested to see what other luthiers use for this task. I have a feeling that a paring chisel with a short wide blade would be even better.

Personally I think a long, well balanced paring chisel would probably be choice; but like most things whatever is comfortable and sharp is going to work best, even if it isn't by the textbook... ;)

Back to purfling repairs. Here are the main tools I use:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1311/...c4a891fcc2.jpg

The job is exceedingly tedious and performed under a powerful magnifier; the original purfling is very brittle and has to be cut back to a suitable point, then the new beesting is cut following the original purfling lines ... and guessing a bit too.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/...b623f41460.jpg

This is the first one I did, and I changed the way I do the scarf joints after this one. But it's OK.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1339/...ed029ee52c.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/...795076d882.jpg

This is more like dentistry than luthiery!

It is difficult to match the edges of the purfling invisibly, even using a scarf joint. In this next corner I decided to make the joint in the purfling coincide with the grain lines; one is almost a butt, the other is a longish scarf.


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1252/...edb392fcc9.jpg

I think, under varnish, all these repairs will be virtually invisible.

Ah the varnish. How the hell am I going to save the varnish? That's another problem.

I've been following closely to your project. I think after all this work anyone would be lucky to have this instrument... Looks beautiful. :o

Its been a bit slow progress on this bass, as I've had a bunch of repair work on lately. However, the cleating is now finished and I've started to fit the bar.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5010/...1d2d52e4_z.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5206/...a0786561_z.jpg

Well, this hunk of timber needs to be replaced. It's going to be a time consuming and messy job pulling it out without damaging anything. I'm going to try to steam it all apart but if this gets too tricky I'll probably end up cutting it out.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5161/...28a0fbd511.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5246/...f7c2c7186f.jpg

I found a bit more of the original varnish under a lot of dirt; it gives me the original colour, but there's no chance of recovering any of it on the ribs.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5008/...a0ace578a5.jpg

found some more metalwork holding the ribs on. Glad I found these before my blades did.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5241/...5a777a6d49.jpg

And yet MORE Metalwork ...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5162/...3b00d9e2c7.jpg

This is the wonderful screw I'm going to keep as a trophy! Pretty amazing that another hole was drilled right through the shank for the bolt that I originally extracted from the back of the button!

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5009/...aa94e1570b.jpg

Loosening the neck block at the back seam. Look at all that stickiness:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5005/...96b6b19f6b.jpg

Previous button repair came away. Some of it has been repaired with spruce, and there's a fair whack of putty in there too. I'm going to have to restore the whole button from scratch.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5169/...3c59c6dd18.jpg

I got the old neck heel out sans trop de dégâts. The tear you can see on the right is the old spruce block that will be replaced entirely. Look at that lovely crack, subject to so much metalwork and dowelling in its lifetime!

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5288/...48b60a7cc1.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5090/...5ff2bcd838.jpg

I'm not a luthier, but I am REALLY enjoying this article. I am amazed at the stuff qualified people can tackle!

+1. On the other hand, I am continually dismayed by the harm less-than-fully-qualified people can cause.

I look at that screw, with the hole drilled through it, and at the damage. I think of something a coworker used to say, grimly, when surveying the aftermath of others' messy efforts, "Men have been here before us. Men did this."

Thank you, Matthew, for sharing all of this.

All true. But at the same time I'm continually intrigued, enlightened and amused by the things I see in these old basses - often more so than in the making of the original instrument! For me, it's part of what makes basses particularly interesting as compared with the other strings. ;)

Thanks Matthew for the update - looking good!

I'm not quite sure what "qualified" means, actually. I have never apprenticed with anybody nor done any courses in luthiery let alone carpentry. However, I do seek out and - sponge-like - absorb knowledge, filter it, and store it away to use later in my own concoctions. And I love what I do.

Actually i suspect that many of the repairs on this bass, including the metalwork, were done by "qualified" luthiers. The holes were drilled accurately, the dowelling fit properly, certainly the screw through the heel was done neatly and finished with a proper wooden plug. I'm less impressed with the bolt through the button and the damage that caused to the button area. The nails around the rim ... well yes, that's an amateur repair.

I think the problem with this bass may have been the choice of wood for the top block. Probably not quite dry enough and too close to the centre of the trunk; I suspect it cracked fairly early in the bass's life and everything since, the wobbly neck, the cracks in the top and ribs, the open seams, etc etc came about as a consequence.
The only repair worth doing was a block replacement and that didn't happen; everything else was bound to fail at some point or other.

I'm considering a laminated top block, and since I'm going to need to rebuild the neck/scroll from scratch or do a scroll graft, we may opt for a bolt-on neck as I have done for my other basses.

Thanks for the continuing updates on this project. I for one find it extremely interesting and informative. I've been around basses for 40+ years and have glued the odd seam, run some glue into a crack, filed nut and bridge slots-the sort of thing any bass owner should be able to do. A major restoration like this is a lesson in patience, planning, and most of all, attention to the smallest details. I eagerly await the next installment in the saga.

Very small update to complete the picture - here's another shot of the original block with the grain lines highlighted. You can clearly see how it cracked, and why choice of the right wood for even the humble internal blocks is important for the longevity of a bass!

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5289/...afb1f6b667.jpg

blocks
 

Matt, I would like to point out that I have seen a few Basses with 2 piece blocks across the width as well as Laminated Blocks in the depth. Also, a few of my Basses that were restored had an added piece laminated for the depth to either deepen the neck set and strengthen the bottom of the block or due to the block being cut from the top to shorten the bass.

My Hart had it's original Blocks inside it when it was opened up. The upper and lower blocks were two pieced Pine. It seems that this was either done due to a shortage of materials or perhaps a method for stability. We will never know the actual 'why' these things were done in the past but if they survived 180 years, I think they got it right.

In the case of this French Bass you are working on which looks to be a Mirecourt production rather then a makers individual single made bass, Blocks and other materials were used as they were supplied to the workers. I would assume that if the part was bad in the beginning, it would be tossed and not used but foresight in which what might survive the future or not was not a decision of a single worker.

Also, from the looks of the condition of this bass being left alone for so long, dryness and stress combined can easily split any wide straight grained piece of wood like this Block. It can also split from the other pieces of wood glued to it as the weakest link is what usually gives. So, if you think this Bass needs some extra strength in the block material itself, two pieces glued of slightly different grain might help. Just my 2 cents, or 3 or 4..;)

Keep up the good work. I bet you can't wait for the next big job to walk into your shop huh?..lol

Well funny you should say that. Here's the new block all glued up

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5205/...2bb86134c0.jpg

grain runs laterally across the bottom and vertically around the mortise. I'm still not 100% sure I'll use this one though. have to cogitate a bit.

The next big job, I hope, is a new bass from scratch based on a Lott Sr pattern

new Lott
 

Well, I have played a Lott a few years back as it was left with me for a possible trade. Despite the severely restored condition (mainly the top) and having a later replaced scroll, I was sorry to see it go back to the owner. It was a sweet bass.

On the new Block, I can't see the grain of the upper piece but looks like it will do the Job, I would yeild the remainder of my time on this to Arnold who has seen more Blocks than I played with as a child..:D

Hey, on Lott Snr. there was new information published about him back in 1998. J.Lott Snr. was actually his father who was not a Luthier. J.F. Lott the Luthier was actually born in London (1776) and not in Germany as previously believed. Mis-information like this happens when the records searched come up with 2 people of the same name.The same thing happened with John Hart whose father of the same name was a Gunsmith and the Luther was erroneously thought to have opened a Gun Shop which was actually the Father who did. The son, John Thomas Hart, founder of Hart & Sons was given space in his Fathers shop a few years after the death of his master Samuel Gilkes. That is one of the published errors I believe due to father and son having the same name like with Lott who also had a son of the exact same name (b.1805) but thankfully with 3 John Lott's they called him Jack as a nick name, thankfully.:)

Wayne - I'm not criticising anyone - who am I to know why something was done all those years ago!

The triangular block at the bottom is a bit of pine spot-glued on for clamping. I'll split it off when the ribs are clamped up.

Ken, If John Lott the luthier had a son called John, then there would be TWO John Lott Seniors in the mix! There sure are a Lott of them :)

According to the guys at contrabass.co.uk John Lott I born 1776 met BS Fendt 1 and got a job in Dodd's shop making cellos and basses. So according to that account the Senior WAS a luthier.

Hi son John (jack) Lott II (b 1814) was the colourful character who was also a luthier who learnt his stuff from his father, then later in Richard Davis's shop, and then later went on to be elephant trainer and rascal, and then luthier again expert with a reputation as expert copyist. I read a great anecdote where J Lott II made two violins, "dirtied them up" a little, put them in a couple of old cases and sold them at market for 60 pounds each. This really pissed his father off, who hated the false antiquing tricks, so he (J Lott I) made two beautiful new violins, took them to the same market ... and couldn't sell them. Thus began the parting of their ways ...

Thomas Martin's article says that John Lott II worked in Dodd & Metzler's shop on an outwork basis. It appears that both father and son worked in the same Shop.

In the end it doesn't really matter though for me who designed the "Lott" bass I wat to build. It has lovely proportions and those big blunt-ended corner blocks.

Just want to thank you for this thread. It really inspires me to see and read all of this. Excellent work!

Greetings from Norway.

-Amund

blunt corners?
 

Ok, you have been reading a bit, That's a good thing, First off, the blunt/squared corners are all basses made by Lott snr. (b.1776 in London) but were actually made for the shop of Thomas Dodd and are known as Dodd Basses made by Lott, if you wanna break it down. Yes, Bernhard Fendt Srn. trained him in the Dodd shop.

I just replied to you on the Lott thread as well. See what's there as it's on topic about Lott.

Once again, there are actually 3/three John Lott's. The eldest married in London in 1775, not a Luthier and possibly (POSSIBLY) came from Germany and was a furniture/cabinet/chair makers or whatever. @nd was the son born J.F. Lott in 1776 and then 3rd, HIS son J'F' Lott Jnr. aka Jack Lott. On the Snr./Jnr. thing if anyone cares, the same thing happened with William Forster. The first Maker in London was William II but was known as Old Forster. His father, also William Forster was a Violin maker in Brampton and never worked in London. William Forster III was called Young Forster and employed Samuel Gilkes. Young F' had two sons, William IV (no other title) and the youngest was Simon Andrew who was trained by IV and Gilkes according to even S.A himself in his own book written decades later.

So, this Snr, Jnr type stuff gets confusing BUT, it's good to know what you are actually making a copy of especially is that person did not make basses by trade. Sorry for the rant..
\Oh, and the British refer to J.F. Lott the bass maker from Dodd as 'Grandfather Lott' to make it even more confusing. Perhaps he was to some the Grandfather of the flat back Maggini style/model London bass, maybe. Panormo made them with roundbacks so that's the main difference besides doing it there 10 years before Lott ever touched a bass.

blocks
 

2 x French basses with 2 piece neck blocks / the only other French bass I know also has the same , I thought that may be standard with older French instruments !

Here we go again.

Remember the scroll badly glued with lashings of PVA?

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/...4b6f0a517e.jpg

Well I had to break the "repair" open. Very carefully.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5210/...153d069747.jpg

Its very hot and humid here in Sydney and not a good time to be gluing neck blocks so I'm going to clean out all the PVA.

Here's my workshop for the afternoon:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5176/...57bd46231a.jpg

The equipment

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5171/...3fbab64324.jpg

The PVA mess

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5254/...6aa1ccf131.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5295/...2c40515522.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5098/...7c133db341.jpg

VERY fiddly job. Steam, vinegar, stiff brush, pick pick pick with sharp knife and tweezers and a LOT of patience. More like dentistry than luthiery. All done with a 10x magnifying visor, too.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5051/...c90b4711c5.jpg

Scroll side cleaned up

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5097/...ef23815b66.jpg

In this very odd photo of my leg and thumb, on the back of the scroll you can see a fracture where the pegbox is almost breaking through.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/...dcec003745.jpg

More rubbery goo.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5100/...ddebeb44a6.jpg

Before and after.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5059/...f407149ca2.jpg http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5256/...657c48d26e.jpg

Much better.

A bit daunting to think that this all has to glue back together and be strong enough for a neck graft later.

You wouldn't think it, but probably an hour and a half's work all up :-(

The only mishap was when I took a swig of old vinegar instead of my glass of ouzo and ice.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5012/...7b1afa5eb3.jpg

In all this closeup work I've had a good look at this head. VERY long, nicely cut, blackened chamfers, and I think it's beech, not maple.

Question, will the neck graft become the main structure of the broken up scroll now? It seems amazing that this thing would stay together.

Matthew, what is your repair strategy? Are you going to deeply re-cheek the sides of the pegbox to strengthen it? Considering that it broke right at the tuner shaft, my fear would be that it's likely to happen again unless heavily reinforced. I'm sure you've thought of the same thing. Would you consider having your neck graft join up by the volute, creating a new, solid pegbox? Or do you feel that's too invasive for this instrument?

Running the graft all the way up there seems like a smooth maneuver but it looks like something has to be done with the back of the pegbox up top as well, yes? I think I'd want to double the whole thing if so - perhaps in two operations, top (scroll/half pegbox) and bottom (half pegbox/neck graft)?

How about spiral bushing the peg holes too, long as we're at it...

Anyway, nice clean-up job so far!

Have to admit that my strategy is not yet fully crystallised. I wanted to see how well the joint cleaned up first. Yes it will need re-cheeking and I'm fortunate that it isn't heavily figured wood, so the repair may be well hidden if I do it well. I'm not sure that simple bushing of the pegholes is going to strengthen things much. In the Strad Secrets book there's a nice conical bushing method a guy has developed - I really like it. But whether I want to get tooled up for just this repair I don't know.

Over here one of my biggest challenges is to find the wood for these repairs. If I'm going to use maple I have to find and import a neck block. If I use beech or sycamore, I may be able to find something here. Or I could use another wood entirely. Obviously beech was original. Any suggestions for a good supplier?

Also important to remember this is a practical restoration to a working bass condition. There isn't the budget for an "as original" restoration. I really won't be able to save much if any of the original varnish. And since I am replacing the neck block, we may be converting this to a removable neck, too.

If it were my bass, I'd do what I did with my former Olde Tyrolean; repair the scroll, hang it on the wall, and install a new neck including scroll. The original scroll on my bass had a lot of character, but had been broken several times in several different ways; when the tuner plates were removed, it fell apart. In this case, practicality won out over sentiment.

Yes, that is an option I am considering too :-)

Fix it, don't ditch it...
 

No, ordinary bushing isn't going to strengthen much, I don't think... Is this "conical" bushing the same as a spiral bushing? That is to say, a thin shave of wood installed with the grain running "around" the inside of the hole, using a tapered caul sort of thing? While I'm not sure that the technique is all that useful on basses in general (as opposed to the other strings), I think that in a case like this it seems like a good idea.

Definitely interested to see what you come up with... and I trust you will fix it and not hang it on the wall... ;)

no the conical bushing removes a large conical section of wood on the inside of the cheek at each hole and then filled with a significant plug of new wood, then re-drilled. I doubt if a spiral bushing would do anything. usually they're just for reducing the size of the hole a bit.

Well, I hear the spiral bush is a good solution when the cheek is cracked through the peg hole. Clearly more significant on an instrument with a true peg that has to press in, sure, since it will perpetually open the crack - but also seems like a sound idea to me when we'd be talking about placing it inside of a plain bush anyway and the top half of the pegbox is broken off at the holes... Makes sense to me to put the pegbox as solid as possible with new wood, and then reinforce the spot where it broke (the holes) even more; clearly the original wood in that spot is less than ideal or the neck would have broken first and spared the pegbox, yes?

(Pure speculation of course - I'm not qualified! :D )

i have never done a spiral bushing but as far as i know the technique uses a thin spiral of woodshaving in the hole. I fail to see how this can be a structural repair on a head this size!

Possibly better is to plug the hole, drill out a larger hole say 1" and plug THAT, then rebore the shaft hole in the new wood. The conical bushing is a variant of this and I think nicer.

But I'm not sure yet that's what's needed here.

Nor do I know what is ideal in this situation. :)

But the deal with the spiral bush is all in the grain orientation - you're placing the long grain of the "slice" perpendicular to the grains that have split across the peg hole. So you have the wood fibers supporting the first (expanding) load of the peg, rather than the glue joint between grains.

It's been a while, and I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering how it's going.

OK so I've been a bit busy ... and now I need TWO pairs of specs for this sort of work :eek:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5093/...8f91158023.jpg

remember this? The cracked block needed to be replaced.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5289/...afb1f6b667.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5212/...e132baa270.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5013/...e43571440f.jpg

some twit used nails in the top edge of the ribs.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5251/...6f5a66e4c6.jpg

more ironwork for the collection!

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5253/...5c138bd5df.jpg

A lot of steam, water, heatgun, leverage and cursing later, the block came away with the ribs unscathed.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5297/...cce75962bd.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5296/...d15b14e595.jpg

remember what it used to be like in there?

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/...56f506f790.jpg

YUK! All that black crap had to be wetted, heated and scraped off.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5255/...eff048372f.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5018/...0cc18e1930.jpg

here is the new block being glued in with temporary cauls.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5257/...9862a59bf8.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5179/...1aeda6bd89.jpg

Yes its a multi-piece block.

You can see how the upper edge has been damaged by those pesky nails.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5177/...cb7cfd3219.jpg

I'll have to trim those rib edges off neatly. I'll lose about a cm off the top of the original rib, but it is no big consequence.

The block is intentionally oversized and will need some trimming too.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5260/...2240ba3586.jpg

Thanks, Matthew-I'm sure I'm not the only one who's fascinated by and learning a great deal from your account of this major restoration.