French Bass full restoration

[Matthew Tucker]

Personally, I don't think dimensional stability on a 2mm wide piece of whatever is anywhere near as important as the dimensional stability of the 14" wide pieces of maple its glued to! Even if it is (properly seasoned) wood that shrinks and expands more than maple, it is only a very small percentage of its own dimension, and a small percentage of 2mm is a tiny fraction of a small percentage of the maple, if you see what i mean. And the long-ways shrinkage is insignificant. I'm more concerned about it "taking" hide glue but I haven't yet met a wood that can't be glued with hide glue very well. I'm sure they exist but i haven't found it yet.

I have not personally seen the need to de-resin (or de-oil!) ebony before gluing. And none of my fingerboards have fallen off yet.

The only problem *I* have with purpleheart is the revolting colour. How anyone can love it, is beyond me :-)