too much wood ?

[Adrian Levi]

I wonder if anyone give me a little advice on my 7/8 French bass (most build characteristics seem to point to it being French).

I had this bass ' repaired' by someone a while back who used overly long whole linen strips to hold cracks in the top together.
Unfortunately too much stress caused by the linen (glued in a perfect line parallel to the grain) opened a nice long new crack and so I decided to open the bass up and do a relatively simple repair by removing the linen ,cleaning ,re-gluing and cleating the top where needed.

I have not played this bass for a while as the sound although loud , just never quite did it for jazz , it always was 'quite' good with a bow but for pizz was pretty thumpy , dark and unalive .

On closer inspection I saw the back had started to come off and so I decided to start by taking the back off first , especially seeing that whoever took it off before me did not glue it back 100% straight.

When I looked inside I was really surprised to see the size of the lining in the c bouts on the back side of the bass were 10mm thick and about 5mm thick all round the rest of the bass . All the linings including the thick ones mentioned are about 35mm wide . Also the linings were wedged tightly into the edges of the corner blocks.

The corner blocks are elaborately carved to 'take' the extra fat lining as you can see by the pictures . The corner blocks are also very wide and do cover a substantial part of the actual c-bout ribs . I have already removed the back linings as I feel that they are too big and must be cut down.

The bass is very well carved and the wood is of a very good grade (maple back and ribs), but I feel that there is simply too much wood on this instrument for it to vibrate. Any advice would be great....

[Thomas Erickson]

That lining does look pretty fat, and the blocks do extend down into the c-bout. I don't think I would have a problem with them coming down that far, but I'm confused as to what the second photo shows; how are the linings are let into the blocks? What is all that stuff in the center of the rib?

[Adrian Levi]

Originally Posted by Thomas Erickson

That lining does look pretty fat, and the blocks do extend down into the c-bout. I don't think I would have a problem with them coming down that far, but I'm confused as to what the second photo shows; how are the linings are let into the blocks? What is all that stuff in the center of the rib?

The lining has been removed already , so what can see is only a glue and dirt stripe where the lining used to be .

Glued on linen is what you are seeing in the rib centre .

[Adrian Levi]

Originally Posted by wayne holmes

As Arnold would say- don't take off the top and back at the same time.

I would start by removing the back only and remove all the extra cleats that look wrong, ie, too big, whatever. Get the back in good shape, reglue it and then do the sides and top. I have heard our more experienced people like Ken and Arnold say to remove or thin or do something with big linings that are typical of French basses.
Be careful - remember you make a living mostly with your hands playing .

Hope this helps- now i will look at your pictures. Good to have you back on the block.

Oh, I see you still have the top on - my bad

this time I'm going to try my damnedest to keep all my fingers intact

[Thomas Erickson]

Originally Posted by wayne holmes

don't take off the top and back at the same time.

bah, where's the fun in that?

[Matthew Tucker]

That linen repair looks OK to me. And the blocks, OK so they're nice and solid, but they don't look too heavy to me. They look well made; I'd leave them. Apparently the linings for the C bouts were typically sawn rather than bent which is why they are thicker. Fairly easy to replace but I'd rather replace them on a free edge than one glued to top because clamping is much simpler! The other linings can be thinned carefully with a plane, but I doubt whether these changes alone will make much of a difference.

Have you posted pics elsewhere of the bass so I can see the button/scroll/ffs?

[Adrian Levi]

Have you posted pics elsewhere of the bass so I can see the button/scroll/ffs?[/quote]

Her are some pics . The linings are separated from the ribs in many places and will need to be removed and re-attached. The neck block is also not in great shape and I see that the neck foot bottom is not flush with the neck block floor .
Hmm - looks like more repairs than I thought . I cant believe that the 'bass mechanic' gave this bass back to me with a smile and said "now that its repaired all we have to do is a little tweaking to get her sounding great"

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Adrian Levi

Here are some pics . The linings are separated from the ribs in many places and will need to be removed and re-attached. The neck block is also not in great shape and I see that the neck foot bottom is not flush with the neck block floor .
Hmm - looks like more repairs than I thought . I cant believe that the 'bass mechanic' gave this bass back to me with a smile and said "now that its repaired all we have to do is a little tweaking to get her sounding great"

What happened to the varnish? That hurts the value usually unless it was already gone by someone before and you had no choice. Still, original varnish should never be stripped in my opinion. The lining is about 2-4x what it needs. have that width and less thickness. It only needs to aid the plate-rib glue surface. The excess dampens the tone. Most likely this is a Mirecourt factory bass and was made on a 'Friday' from the looks of that neck/block fit..