Quote:
Originally Posted by Noah Hall
That definitely makes sense.
Does the same sort of degradation in value happen if, for instance, a well meaning spouse polished a bass on a weekly basis? This is something I recently ran into; an old German bass that looked half its age and shiny due to the regular "maintenance" of the finish over the past 50 years.
My suspicion was that years of polish, or whatever product that was used, is probably built up in every crack, cranny and seam making any future repair even more of a challenge.
And as for buying being easy... Oh yes. All too familiar lol. I'm already 4 deep. Luckily I only have to worry about selling one of them which I bought to resell anyways.
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Yes, polish in cracks or any other foreign material will hinder re-gluing the old cracks again. Often, if just re-glued, they will open up. Even body oils from touching can contaminate raw wood from future gluing. The usual method to repair a contaminated crack is to clean it out and scrape away the foreign substances down to bare wood or with a router if it's wide enough, make a piece to splice in, from a veneer thickness to a strip as wide as needed and inlay the new wood. Then touch-up and color it to match and then a clear coat with french polish to seal it all in. Something to that nature. That's why when I see a bass that is old, has cracks and is in either distressed condition, poorly repaired previously or both, my estimate to repair it properly as just described comes as a shock to the customer.
I have one bass here that was in poor condition when I got it but not a disaster, that I had restored. It needed the top fixed, pressed out from collapse due to a sprung bar by the last repair 'genius' and a neck graft as well as many other things. That ran about $13k. Luckily I bought the bass at a distressed price knowing I would have some room to fix and sell it for a profit but the condition was way beyond my expectations from just seeing the pictures of it prior to buying it. Still, it was a beautiful bass and deserving of the work it received. Now, I hope to just break even on it.
Just remember that ones own enthusiasm can get the best of you in a situation like this.