French Bass full restoration

[Matthew Tucker]

Now where was I?

Oh yes ... remember this great big soundpost crack?



I glued it up well, but if this isn't reinforced properly the glued-up crack will just bust again when the pressure's on. So, working from the back, I make an oval patch from spruce and trace around it, then start hogging out a bit of a hole.







Mustn't get carried away ...



I like this next pic, because it shows up the depth of the lovely darkening of the wood due to age! The nice brown coloration is full 2-3mm into the wood. Someone who has done this on many more basses that I have (like Arnold, or Ken) could probably date the thing looking at the colour alone.

You can see the original crack entering at the left and a slightly darker area where it is glued. I'm careful about the final shape of the curved bed.



Next step is to spot glue some guides for the patch to make sure it always goes back exactly in the same spot. There a many ways to do this, and this is the way i'm doing it, this time! The grain of the patch is slightly offset from the grain in the top.



Now that the glue is drying, I have to do some work work.