French Bass full restoration

[Matthew Tucker]

Originally Posted by Thomas Erickson

Seems to me like if we don't know what the bass sounds like, are attempting to maintain as much originality as possible in a functional instrument ...

The problem I have with that approach is the uncertainty of what it sounded like!! The owner and I want a bass that sounds killer, not just a beautiful piece of "original" furniture. So I have to make a few judgements along the way as to how to achieve that.

It's not an integral bar, it's glued in, and the evidence for that is ... glue!

It DID have original gut strings on it, I doubt if it has ever seen steels.

One of the reasons we don't fit bars parallel to the top grain is that doing so is asking for a stress crack along the edge of the bar if the top takes a knock.

I think the other reason is that Strad did it in his violins and everyone copied that!

its a really nice-looking bar but as Ken said I have no idea what the bass sounded like with it so i have no idea if it worked. i'm guessing it did, for gut strings at least.

I don't have to make a decision any time soon. i'm going to do some chladni resonance testing on the top this weekend before i cleat it. Not sure if that will tell me anything, but it might colour my hunches...

thanks for the feedback. it's not a science.