[David McKinney]

First post here--great forum...


Picked up this bass recently, quite like the neck profile and the sound; now I'm deciding how far to go with it. Bass plays well and sounds good. It used to be a school bass, lots of scratches and some names carved lightly into the wood. That stuff doesn't bother me at all, gives the bass character IMO.

Bass is buzz-free most of the time, but there are cracks, and they do sound sometimes, especially under heavy bow.

No cracks in the back, minor cracks in the sides, top has multiple cracks, including soundpost and bassbar. Looking inside with a mirror we see that most of the cracks have been cleated, skillfully but not masterfully. We also see that the top might need a soundpost patch. Difficult to say for sure...


The scroll is kind of a jigsaw puzzle, but put back together. My local luthier who looked at the bass with me says the scroll makes her a bit nervous, but it looks OK to me...


Question #1: How far would you go with a restoration on this? I'm inclined to take off the top and have it restored & address anything else serious that we might find, but not get too fussy about little details--just make the bass very healthy again

Question #2: Roughly how much in $ would you ballpark a "basic" restoration like I'm describing--top off, soundpost patch, repair cracks...

Question #3: What would you ballpark the bass's value to be in its present state and after a basic resto like I'm describing?

Question #4: Who would you recommend to do a job like this here in the pacific NW?

All comments/advice are most appreciated--thanks!