French Bass full restoration

[Matthew Tucker]

Using a heat blanket to restore a bit of dish in the lower bout.



While the back is still together, I tack a frame onto each half before removing the remaining cleats. I need to do this because the "flat" back is not really flat, and I can't just clamp it to a flat surface for gluing. It's behaving somewhat like a roundback!



This shows the big crack next to the centreline. Also note how this cleat was not very well glued to the back anyway!



All the cleats removed. Revealing an ugly piece of work.



Steaming the centre joint apart carefully



Careful not to let crap fall into the crevasse!



The separated back on its frame.



Closeup of the grand canyon seen from the outside


The crack was previously repaired and filled with some kind of brown putty which I have had to remove under magnification with a knife and pressurized steam.

You can see a blob of the putty in the above pic.