French Bass full restoration

[Matthew Tucker]

Here’s the first look inside. Filthy dirty so I vacuumed out the crud and had a close look all over, but I can’t find any makers marks, or stamps. Perhaps when I do a proper cleanup something may appear, but I doubt it.



Inside the top block – can see splits, and yes, a failed dowel repair PLUS a coach-bolt PLUS a whole load of black resinous stuff, probably resorcinol or something like that.



Some successful repairs. Look at how thick the C bout linings are on the right hand side! They are really well made, and the centre brace sits very snugly up against them.





And some failed ones that I’ll have to redo. But look at how smooth and well-made the blocks are!



These were put in from through the FF holes I think.




The mortise still has the back of the heel firmly attached. I’m not going to worry too much about this as I have to replace the whole block anyway.



Altogether, this heel had one wooden dowel from back of heel diagonally down into the block, which obviously failed, and which was followed by a coachbolt through the same hole and down into the block at another angle. I reckon THIS is what split the block. Then another dowel through from front to back, (probably through the button) which obviously failed, so this was followed by a threaded rod right through from button through to the rustic fingerboard!