That's a tough one. I just went through a nearly identical situation myself. I had picked up a Germanic shop bass that looks nearly identical, that was very distressed-everywhere. I removed the old, carved in bass bar, fixed more cracks than I care to count, doubled the top due to earlier epoxy/nail/bondo repairs, made a soundpost patch and made new blocks all the way around.
The back was seriously warped in the bottom half. The button was gone. It had cracks everywhere and the edges on the lower bouts were destroyed. I went so far as to starting a new back for it. When I got to the point that I was almost ready to put the new back on, I stopped. I couldn't do it. It's stupid, but I was honestly losing sleep trying to talk myself into saving the trouble and just putting a new back on it. In the end, I couldn't deal with it and went ahead and started fixing the old back.
Fast forward to the present - the old back has been flattened out, has new edges, a new button, braces have been installed and its back on the bass, ready to be finished. I don't know if, monetarily/time wise, it was worth it, but I'm glad I did it. I don't think I would have felt right making a new back and scrapping the old one. I couldn't have destroyed it and it would have sat around, acting as a constant reminder to me of a job 1/2 done.
Fix the old one! Just my amateur $.02. Good luck!!
Last edited by Aren Winebrenner; 12-17-2009 at 11:47 AM.
Reason: added content
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