not least of whom is me ...

lol..
 

Matthew, at least the cracks in this Bass are minimal. Yes, it needs a lot of work and correction but it could have been a lot worse.
Arnold mentioned that he could have made TWO basses in the time it took to restore the Cornerless attributed Storioni. He turned the job down twice but that's all behind us. Jed who used to work for Arnold has my Gemunder and says it's the hardest job he's ever had. Going on 3 years now, maybe more. I can't remember by we passed at least two X-mas target dates for completion. Cleaning out the old and bad work was the time killer. Going forward should be more downhill.

Keep up the good work. Oh, and multi-piece and laminated blocks are not all that uncommon. I have seen quite a few now in my old basses. Maybe there's a reason for this in the makers mind as most were original that I saw and not a repair or accident.

I'm looking forward to seeing your Dodd model. Maybe start your own 'new' thread on it's make. You think?

Thanks for that reality check Ken. Yes we have passed the one year mark on this one too. I have a patient client.

The Lott's coming on. There are a few pics on a certain social networking site ;-)

Lott?
 

Ok, I thought it was a Dodd. Lol.. By the way, Lott was trained IN the Dodd shop so depending on the period, it's either bass. But, trained by Fendt snr..

Any progress, Matthew?

Not a lot. It's winter, the days are shorter and its cold in the workshop. I am still looking foa a nice piece of flamed maple to match the back button which is the next repair to do. Also still undecided whether to replace the neck and make completely new scroll or whether its worth trying to save the original and splice on a new neck.

Scroll?
 

By all means, to keep the value, repair the old scroll and graft a new neck. If unsure, please show pics of the areas that look challenging to fix. The button and scroll are important to save. The pegbox sides can have repairs and inlaid new cheeks if necessary.

that's my instinct, yes, but if the amount of wood i have to replace by re-cheeking etc is significant, then the only thing original left is the volute itself. The amount of work to repair, recheek, graft neck could be more than the work to make a new scroll.

This is an unlabelled bass of unknown quality and origin, being restored as a playing instrument and not a museum piece. Its a cost/benefit situation!

[edit] PLUS, I think it's a beech neck/head, not maple ...

So ... undecided.

I've posted a few pics here:

http://bresque.studio205.net.au/work...-broken-scroll

ok..
 

If this were my bass, label or no label I would have it glued and repaired as well as re-cheeked with plain type maple. Under varnish it will look close and will be stronger. The graft should be a long one up to the end of the pegbox so the original is more of an outer shell. Then it can be re-cheeked either flush with some of the original cheeks shaved, or protruding, inlaid and looking more like a Pillement up neat the end of the box or, just over about 1/8th inch and blended in. In other words, do what ever you have to do to save the head, button and outer shell especially the back of the scroll veining. If you like, I can post some scroll pics of all ideas and explain what can't be easily seen under the varnish.

Regardless of the fact you don't know the exact maker or shop, this bass WAS made most likely in Mirecourt in the latter part of the 19th century give or take a few decades. So, it's somewhere between Lamy, Jacquet, Claudot or one of the shops or makers. The J.T. Lamy factory probably made more basses than all of the others combined in that period but there were also shops that just made parts and Scrolls for others that would complete the basses and label them. This is a Mirecourt Bass, no less that that and the wood is beautiful on the back and sides. It should be preserved with the same care as any other fine instrument. IF you make a new Scroll to save time, it will hurt the value of the bass in one way or another. I have seen one Claudot that had a later English scroll and was re-varnished but the bass was so good and the Scroll was so nice, it 'only' took 7 years to sell! If it had been restored all original, I am sure it would have sold much quicker.

Now that the bass is in your hands, you have total control to either 'restore' it as close to the makers/shops original model or, 'modify' it as you see fit for your convenience or concept. Shortening the string length for a bass like this if over 42" would be the only real modification I would recommend. That could be done with the neck graft, lower heel and the neck set in slightly deeper into the block. The Mougenot was just restored that way and it came out beautifully.

From what I have seen of your work, I have no doubt you have it in you to restore this back to it's old glory as good as anyone can. Just be patient and consider this to be possibly a French pedigree or value. When completed, the bass will thank you in its own way. I am sure of that.

Nice post. :D

Warming up?
 

Matthew, is the shop warming up a bit? We are anxiously awaiting the next installment in the restoration saga.

John

Haha yes it is warming up and i have started on the restoration again. Will put some pics up soon. Keep bugging me, it helps!

Thank you
 

Matthew, thank you for posting photos of the restoration. The workmanship and skill is amazing! This thread is the first thing I check when I log on.

John

Well, here we go again.

the last few days in Sydney have been in the 23-26C range which isn't bad for midwinter.

I decided I really need to get the back off next. Normally i would at least tack the front back on the ribs, but I suspect I'll have to work from inside and out to get this apart, so instead I just made sure the blocks were well braced in position.

The chalk marks show where there are rib cracks that will need attention.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6140/...fab9f43942.jpg

Carefully directed steam from the inside.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6122/...08ebca4a62.jpg

Here's a shot of the thick centre linings very typical of this sort of bass. A big glue surface, not easy to make it let go!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6016/...7f4b286d84.jpg

Here's another nicer view. The slab-cut centre brace is flush with the linings, probably didn't help cracking when the back shrunk a little!

That's a rib crack you can see above the lining. Look how well finished these corner blocks are!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6007/...16b521aaef.jpg

I love these corners

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6128/...a4c8c86596.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6026/...739173dc26.jpg

... but I have to start somewhere.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6026/...9756ba4200.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6001/...0d44231bd9.jpg

After a lot of wiggling, hammering, steaming, tapping, more steaming and more wiggling and lots of cursing, the back is finally off!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6129/...dec75c5674.jpg

So here's a good shot of that centre brace. It has split right through, and it will have to go.
It is, however, stuck on very well!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6124/...9e55aa1b41.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6020/...8a0f1653a4.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6030/...40e8994138.jpg

I started by washing away 150 years of crud.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6014/...6f57e99257.jpg

There are some interesting spots of some sort of reddish paint/dye perhaps ground coat?

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6021/...26c6361df5.jpg

and the edges when scraped clean show some of the original colour.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6010/...ef7ce1204b.jpg

Pity I can't resurrect the original finsh. But it has completely deteriorated. This is how the varnish looks now, and look at the glorious wood underneath.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6123/...74111baa9d.jpg

Here's how some of the inside back cleaned up. The plane is just for scale, about life size here. I washed the crud off with water and a plastic sponge, the lovely old patina remains.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6148/...bf6df99cf8.jpg

This brace is very neatly made. But it's no good for this bass any more, and has to go.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6010/...6515a5855e.jpg



I started out with the scrub plane but it was hard going so I went hi-tech.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6132/...bbbb91ee7c.jpg

Hogged out with the horrible Arbortec. I hate this tool but it has its uses.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6003/...303b6b0e1f.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6011/...8e63d8349d.jpg

Thinned with a thumbplane down to a veneer

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6020/...9dddc29738.jpg

Then steamed off.

Here's a peeling of the final layer. Notice the corrugations on the glue side. They look too even to be made with a toothed plane. I wonder how this was finished before gluing?

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6020/...bb749fd3c2.jpg

After a clean up and scrub.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6139/...e24f1e553e.jpg

Beautiful flame here.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6149/...abdef3a5b8.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6137/...40255a8045.jpg

Looks kind of 3D, doesn't it? But it's smooth.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6008/...5153e6cb15.jpg

Bracing
 

Matt, I don't know how many French Basses like this you have done but just in case I would tell the experiences we've had here.

If it has the single step wide brace, good or bad, take it out. Put a normal Center brace, one lower and one upper. On the Mougenot bass of mine just restored by Jeff Bollbach he took out the single center brace which was not so different than your bass. The the replaced center is standard, flat about 5" wide or so. The upper and lower braces are shaped like a Bass bar, higher in the middle and tapered at he ends, maybe about 1 1/4" wide from looking thru the f-hole.

I also have a nice Claudot here, similar high flame wood like your bass and a single center brace as well. The bass is in fantastic shape and has has only a few repairs. On the brace stamped in 2 places is the name "Paul Claudot". Perhaps the stamps in the brace discouraged the past repairers from changing it.

The Mougenot is much more focused sounding now, fuller in tone and less hollow/French sounding like it was before the restoration. Perhaps the new bracing system helped.

I looked all over the back and brace with a magnifying glass for identifying marks but found none, unfortunately.

As you will see from the posts above, I have taken out the brace. I will probably replace it with bracing similar to this I am using on my Lott copy build below.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6128/...88fb48c4ee.jpg

Is this similar to the bracing Jeff did on your Claudot?

There is a bit of work to be done re-shaping the back lower bout on this french bass. over the years it has sunken inwards and put the rest of the back out of shape. I want to restore to flat or preferably a slight outward dishing. This may take some time! I have to redo the centre seam first.

Mougenot!
 

On the Mougenot, not the Claudot. The Claudot is still with its original single brace. Your pics are similar but the upper brace is thinner and looks just like a bass bar. Not quite as wide or tall as yours are. Center seams are common fixed needed on French Flatbacks. The single center wide brace seems to promote that mandolin type bending of the shape of the back as well.

Using a heat blanket to restore a bit of dish in the lower bout.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6199/...5dc050c967.jpg

While the back is still together, I tack a frame onto each half before removing the remaining cleats. I need to do this because the "flat" back is not really flat, and I can't just clamp it to a flat surface for gluing. It's behaving somewhat like a roundback!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6206/...d720fe0221.jpg

This shows the big crack next to the centreline. Also note how this cleat was not very well glued to the back anyway!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6210/...fc99003bb0.jpg

All the cleats removed. Revealing an ugly piece of work.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6201/...8a1a5b083c.jpg

Steaming the centre joint apart carefully

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6143/...e1b9186488.jpg

Careful not to let crap fall into the crevasse!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6086/...cda3c743ae.jpg

The separated back on its frame.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6203/...680cbb607a.jpg

Closeup of the grand canyon seen from the outside

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6204/...d67c3804c2.jpg
The crack was previously repaired and filled with some kind of brown putty which I have had to remove under magnification with a knife and pressurized steam.

You can see a blob of the putty in the above pic.

Cleaned up, clamped together and allow to dry

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6129/...39f6c3abb2.jpg

Not glued yet, but the crack seems to pull together OK

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6146/...45e8a6dd02.jpg

Looks great; interesting to see what the original varnish has done over the years.

I'm curious what you're using as a steam source?

I get my steam from Womble. He now has an extension tube on his snozzle.

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

Glad to see you back at work on this massive job, Matthew. I've been anxious for you to get rolling again as I find this saga extremely fascinating-I've had a bass undergo major work a couple of times, and consider myself pretty knowledgeable for a non-luthier, but this sort of crack-by-crack documentation of a full restoration is an education for all of us, especially when it's done with so much care.

Steve, thanks for the feedback (again). I don't consider myself much of an expert in this. I was trained as a documentary film editor.

However I spend a lot of time thinking about how to approach these sorts of tasks, and I think I'm getting OK results. Sometimes I wish I had someone to chat to about it though!

Any updates, Matthew?

Steve, you keep me honest, don't you?

I have made a little progress on the button repair since last posting but nothing I want to post here yet. I want to make sure it works!

Will get onto it soon. But I have four school basses in at the moment and have to get them out of the way by end of the month.

By the way everyone I'm looking for recommendations for a small endpin model to replace the crap these small school basses are fitted with. I'd use an ULSA if given the choice, but school budgets creak a bit when I mention the price of these and there's a lot of reaming to do.

Hey Matthew,

I have had good luck with these for that exact purpose. Good value for the school basses.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-PCS-3-4-4-...item3a56d1ec7f

Hope that helps,
Brian

thanks Brian they look quite solid.

On this occasion, the schools agreed to pay for the ULSA pins.

Small update. Remember how I had tacked the back halves to a frame to help re-align them?

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6203/...680cbb607a.jpg

Well, once they were separated, the halves twisted about like so many pringles and try as I might, I found it was impossible to re-align them nicely. But I have learned a thing or two about the process!

So I have now decided to start from square one, back to flat plates as the builder would have done, re-join them, possibly with a 1-2mm centre strip if necessary, then re-brace with a slight dish across the plates, and then re-bend the break.

For the moment, I've been using heat, sandbags and pressure to flatten the plates on a formica worktop. Its very humid here in Sydney at the moment - almost tropical - midsummer and warm, sticky with bucketing rainstorms and hail. the end of La Nina apparently. So not glueing weather or varnishing weather, but flattening seems to be going OK.

this stage is not very picturesque, but I'll post pics if you want.

(edit: here are pics of flattening. It will take a while. I'm using a heat blanket to flatten each plate zone by zone.)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7053/6...843f78b067.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7040/6...4f69a0aa49.jpg

After the assembly has cooled down, there is still a bunch of moisture left in the wood that can't escape through the silicone blanket, so i clamp the whole plate flat under a frame overnight or longer.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7186/6...3e811888c5.jpg

Speaking for myself, I enjoy every picture. I can't imagine being a bassist and not finding this account of a total restoration fascinating-I look forward to every installment, and feel like I'm learning a lot.

OK So I just made an executive decision that I am not going to stand for this crappy spirit varnish remnant any longer.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7204/6...614514085b.jpg

It crumbles, it melts and sticks to the bench, it gets into everything ... enough is enough! No more pussyfooting around - this bass is going to be stripped and refinished! Starting NOW.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7191/6...e1817f07f2.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7204/6...ae4e70c3a1.jpg

Before:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7180/6...4b66bee304.jpg

AFTER:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7058/6...eb1c5196d1.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7047/6...06b873539b.jpg

This will make my restoration work SO much easier. I should have done this a long time ago.

Underneath the crap you can see patches of the original colour. And a whole lot of dings, cracks and other damage ...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7068/6...e9f7dd14b9.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7182/6...fea7f3049a.jpg

But the wood underneath is rather special. And it's nice to see the hand of the maker at last!

Gack-that looked like crude oil on the plastic scraper-the wood is really beautiful. It's gonna be spectacular with a new finish.

Seeing this restoration is really inspiring. Can't wait to see how it comes together...

haha! me too. But we're going to have to be patient ...

OK remember this?

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2685/4...72e5921e5f.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5169/5...3c59c6dd18.jpg

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6123/6...0ae1cd81aa.jpg

Most of the button was destroyed and filled with wood putty, bolts and stuff. So I cut it off and trimmed each half plate at a suitable grain line, leaving as much original wood as possible.

(This is a wee bit out of sequence with some of the pics I posted recently - you may if you have keen eyes notice that I did the first part of what comes next, a little while ago)

After quite a bit of hunting around and eventually a friendly donation from Ken McKay I obtained some highly flamed maple close to the original.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7061/6...c6fc6130e1.jpg

Of course, this is brand new wood; it wood (!) have been better to find some old flamed maple but there's precious little of this over here.

I probably should have "aged" the wood first before fitting, but I'm counting on being able to match it under the varnish later.

I think a butt-join isn't enough here; although the hide glue joint is very strong, this place needs some long maple fibres running across the joint, so I plane the end down at an angle to put the maximum new wood in place with the minimum join showing at the plate edge. Most of the NEW wood runs along the centre seam, and feathers out towards the edge of the repair.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7065/6...d2dd1abbe9.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7063/6...d3ae468125.jpg

I don't need to use such fancy maple for this piece, but the grain will still be running almost the same way.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7046/6...72643b2e63.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7046/6...09e7793ae0.jpg

My new Veritas low angle block plane has been brilliant for this job.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7186/6...01a4678b59.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7194/6...332fdac3c8.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7052/6...22910b2b2e.jpg

Here's the edge of the off-cut and you can see how good the joint is. I have planed off almost all the way through the plate at the centreline, but angled back up to the edge of the plate so that the join will only be visible on the edge of the button itself, not the plate edge.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7202/6...80726afb94.jpg

Well that's enough for now. I'll trim these more and blend the outside with the french-style button later when the plate is re-jointed and probably re-glued to the block!

Nice grain matching...thanks for sharing all of this!

A damaged corner. The wood was a bit spongy and torn as a result of several top removals/replacements in the past. One way of patching this would be to plane a flat shelf right across the edge and fit a flat piece, then cut and reshape the edge. But the edge was clean, and I wanted to preserve it. So I decided to do a fitted inlay patch. This is more work but will lead to a better result, I think.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7065/6...4c09c5d188.jpg

Starting the bed. You can see the cracks and splits!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7036/6...f1e6ed8a6b.jpg

The maple patch piece with alignment marks.


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7062/6...687ed86598.jpg

Rough shaping the bottom of the patch. This is going to be more time consuming than fitting a sound post patch; maple is much harder than spruce.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7069/6...358cc0e21a.jpg

Checking depth and shape of the bed. I make it perfectly smooth and polished and keep the edges as clean as I can.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7199/6...68e729454c.jpg

Chalking the bed

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7059/6...1aea9c67ba.jpg

Trimming the patch with a scraper

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7189/6...71f55f799a.jpg

Checking the fit – a fair way to go yet. The surfaces need to fit perfectly in all dimensions.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7067/6...dcb9005f27.jpg

The finished patch

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7198/6...424f5fd4d7.jpg

Ready for gluing.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7198/6...f67fdb379b.jpg

The glued and trimmed patch – you can see a thin layer of spalting that showed up when I planed it down, but it is of no consequence

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7036/6...626186f860.jpg

I'm happy with the result :cool: