Neck replacement

[William Stephens]

Thanks

Unfortunately my camera is broken , but I found a few old pics of the bass I took a while back. I don't know if they are relevant to the topic.

At the moment what I am after is an estimate, where I get the money from to pay for it will be my next problem to solve.

The way I see it, I bought the bass because I (and others) thought the instrument would be a good one for starting the profession with. If the instrument is going to potentially be your livelyhood rather than an amateur hobby then spending lots of money on it to make it more viable to play probably becomes more justified.

The bass has caused me a certain amount of injury which I have not experienced on any other bass. I figure that if you play 10 basses and 1 of them hurts you it's probably safe to blame the bass rather than your own technique . It's also very difficult to play certain pieces and techniques on the instrument which a potential mark loser in college and money loser in the profession.

The problems as I see it are firstly, the stop is so long that the bridge is out of reach for the bow, and the higher notes (high d, double octave) are out of reach for the left hand. The bass' neck angle is also unusually shallow, with the fingerboard quite flat against the top. This coupled with wide shoulders makes it pretty straining on the left shoulder when attempting some pieces and technical excercises necesarry for college( arrgh!)

I was thinking of taking it to Martyn Bailey for the estimate as I notice he has done a few of these shortening jobs for Anthony Houska (Contrabass Shoppe).

As far as measurements go, here are some general ones:-


Back (inc. button) 46.5"
Upper bout at widest point 20.75"
Centre at narrowest point 14.75"
Lower at widest 27"
Depth before angle break(inc.plates) 8.5
Depth at neck heel (inc. plates) 6.25"
String stop length 43" D neck
( bridge currently set at 42.5")
Bridge height 6.75"


Heres some of the pics I mentioned

Thanks again

Will