French Bass full restoration

[Matthew Tucker]

erm ... not enough to show just yet.

waiting on some french-look tuners though.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker

erm ... not enough to show just yet.

waiting on some french-look tuners though.

Why not just restore the Tuners that were on the bass? Are any of them broken? If not, those are the classic tuners expected to see on a French bass.

[Matthew Tucker]

the original tuners are not in very good shape. And probably not worth restoring. What do you recommend as an alternative, Ken?

[Thomas Erickson]

I know you didn't ask my opinion, but if the originals are completely unsalvageable, my personal choice would be Sloane all day long. They're the only machines I would choose for my own personal bass.

edit - and yes, I know they're nowhere close to original appearing or anything, and they're heavy and expensive (and slow) - but they work!

[Arnold Schnitzer]

Matthew, there is a guy in France making total copies of the old French bass machines. I have seen them on Laborie basses I think. With your excellent research skills, I bet you can find him. When you do, get me in please...

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker

the original tuners are not in very good shape. And probably not worth restoring. What do you recommend as an alternative, Ken?

I would first have to have a look at the tuners there before I agree to change them. Then, look around for something that would be comparable for a French-like look that is available today.

My Jacquet-Pillement came to me with replaced gears already so I never had the chance to restore the old ones. Starting as a 3-stringer, if modified with a 4th French gear, it is more than likely a mis-match anyway. My Lamy that was converted recently from 3 to 4 has 3 different kinds of gears. Only 2 of them match but are all similar.

You can have a look at the Gears of the Jacq-Pill but I am not sure what the gears are on the bass or if still available. The Lamy is an example of one or two gears being added or replaced that almost match. That is another idea unless yours are totally shot. The old ones do however look best on a bass like that.

[Matthew Tucker]

The back has been a pain to flatten, so i'm going to try a new approach. First I had to see whether I needed to add some wood to the centre back seam.

First, I tacked the repaired top onto the ribs



This allowed me to position the bass on the back to see how my overhangs are looking.



With the top tacked on I can move the corners and ribs around to see if everything will fit. It's been apart so long, not everything lines up nicely. But with a bit of persuasion, I am convinced everything will eventually go back as needed.

I decided to add a thin centre strip. Pictured below is my setup for gluing to one side only. The long hardwood beam holds the back flat to the perspex backing.



I use wedges to clamp the hardwood strip to the side.



The strip will be trimmed down to the width of the back plate, then I'll have another challenge to glue the other side.

[Matthew Tucker]

Here are the tuners I will be using. I will antique the handles to make them look more "french"

[Steve Alcott]

Thanks for the update-I've been wondering how it was going.

[Anselm Hauke]

Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker

Here are the tuners I will be using. I will antique the handles to make them look more "french"

i heard that this will work: boil some eggs, mash them and put the metal parts you want to age completly in the mashed eggs and put this in a plastic bag.

i don´t know how long they have to stay there, so i would try it with something else from the same material first.

[Brian Gencarelli]

Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker

Here are the tuners I will be using. I will antique the handles to make them look more "french"

The tuners are pretty, where did you source them?

I like your set up for the center strip. I am about to do the same thing with another bass... let me know how it turns out. I am not thrilled with the first one I did.

Best,
Brian