Hi Ken,
Thanks for that Yes that is the LeJeunne bass- good memory!
Tom has been feathering in all the patches, so there should be no worries there. And he did undo all the old repairs before pressing it into the cast for re-arching. He also removed quite a few shims (up to 4mm worth in some places) to get the top fitting to itself properly. He had to remove some original wood to repair the woodworm damage, but with all the epoxy that was in there it probably wasn't really functioning properly anyway. He is trying to keep as much original wood as possible. In some places the worm damage/epoxy was almost through to the varnish.
Where the question arises is in the final stage thicknessing (is that a word?). Tom is a brilliant luthier, but he's looking for input for how to approach the graduation of the top once the final three patches are in. It seems like there are a lot of different possible approaches or patterns, and we are not sure how thick/thin to make the top to best combine what the original maker might have done with the long term health of the bass. Are there any luthier resources where we might be able to find out what the thicknesses of French basses of this age would have been? Or are these closely guarded trade secrets...
Also, thanks for the advice regarding my expectations of the sound post-restoration. I'm not really worried about all the new wood, because a lot of restrictive cross grained wood has been removed. But adjusting my thinking in terms of 2-5 years of 'break-in' will be a help. Intellectually I understand the necessity of all this for the long term health of my bass, but I still can't help hoping it isn't transformed too much. Thanks.
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