French Bass full restoration

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by wayne holmes

Thanks Brian-it's good to be back to my obsessive compulsive vicious cyclical track i have from the shop to the kitchen, to the computer---I just returned from playing one of those week-end concerts with 10hours of rehearsals, and the concert all packed into 2 days, I feel like I just completed an all day one-man hog-killing-----don't care if I ever again leave my double bass triagle. Thanks Ken for taking me back- I'll try to behave myself-

Matthew, If you do remove the bar and, as Arnold says, tweak the graduation- careful to not overdo it on the amount of wood that you remove. Now, how would I know that one can overdo it?

I would be interested in hearing how others protect the top from being damaged while doing the graduation or while removing a bar- As I think I mentioned before-I tape the entire finish side of the top with a layer of painters tape and then on top of that a layer of duct tape-then clamp the top at each end in a mould made with plaster for the particular top that I am working on.
It is easy to cause a crack when the wood is only a few MMs thick and some of it is old, dry and even a little brittle.

Wayne, maybe we should ask Matt to post the graduations here penciling them on the top so we can see what's what as well as the measurements of the Top in length and bout widths. What might work for one bass may not for another. The strength of the wood, condition, width, length all come into account here. When my Mougenot was opened I asked Jeff Bollbach if the Top needed any correcting as it did seem thick to me, especially from the outer F-hole edges. He replied it was fine and for a Bass this size, the thicknesses are good.

It is easy to take away wood. It is impossible to put the same wood back. Mane of the basses I have had in restoration over the years needed some breast patching to put wood back in from over re-graduating. Less of the basses I put thru shops to restore needed re-graduating or thinning as some call it.

If the bass is left thick (who is to really say if?), then no harm will be done to the bass. If thinned too much, the Top can cave in and crack, needing a huge restoration of re-shaping, crack repairs and breast patches. All because of someones over zealous so called corrections.

Maybe it's like a hair cut. Cut is as short as you like but leave the ears..

Funny thing about that (soory Matt for the de-rail) when I've gone for a hair cut at the mall. They ask if I wanna request anyone (for a small fee), and I say, "someone who's done it before".. lol