9-1-1, 9-1-1, 9-1-1, Luthier on the loose..

[Ken Smith]

Ok, sorry for the alarm BUT it is in no way a false alarm! Actually, it's a wake up call.

I have seen so much bad work done in my time as well as some that I would call Criminal.

Can you Sue for this if you're a victim?

Will they put anyone out of business if convicted in Court?

Has anyone served any time in Jail yet for Luthier crimes?

I think to date, the answer is 'No' for all of the above.

Why am I starting this thread? Well, just about every situation I am going to lay out here as well as some of the true stories I have seen evidence of I have already discussed here in one thread or another. The reason is to educate others what to look for, what to expect of good work, what to demand to be done and not to be done as well as what to look out for.

Ok, lets go down a list of things that some Luthiers in the past have done as well as a few things (if not all of them) that some still do that they shouldn't.

Scroll Graft: The Graft angle should always be within the line of the Fingerboard joint or slightly behind it. Never should it be pitched forward. Why? Because if it's forward of the FB joint you can't put a C-Extension on without cutting into the Scroll.

Continuing along these lines, the Scroll should never be cut on a valuable pedigree Bass, ever. Recently I was looking over a beautiful old Pedigree bass (no names) to possibly purchase to collect, play, clean-up and then possibly re-sell when I've had my thrills with it. When I went back to try the bass and make my final decision, I noticed for the first time that the Extension was sitting on a cut area of the Volute of the Scroll. The Extension was un-cut and left straight edged with no attempt shown to cut and inlay around the Scroll. Also, it didn't look like there was a problem with the Graft angle. This was just a lazy act by the Luthier who has also worked on and maintained this bass over the years. Well guess what? I walked away from the deal. I was so turned off by the Scroll cut and for no reason other than laziness that I decieded that I could not trust the internal work either if the same Luthier that did this, worked on the inside of the bass. So, don't ever Cut the Scroll on a good bass.

On one Bass I have in restoration now we noticed that the Top if not all of the Bass had been re-finished. Why? No matter how bad the condition was, touch-up, clear-coat and French polish would have been a better and more responsible decision. This is not a famous Pedigree (that we know of yet) but is still a nice old Bass. The stain in the Top has shaded the grain of the softer Spruce. The Maple Back and Ribs are tighter and harder grained wood so it was hard to see at first if these areas were re-done as well. The work is professionally done and I don't recall any obvious sanding scratches. Still, it was done and it shouldn't have been. Sometimes, Luthiers think that the final stage of a restoration is a re-finish. If you re-finish a bass, expect that if asked, I may NOT take it in trade or buy it for that reason alone.

One Bass recently had a sunken Top over the bassbar. We have all seen them. This one had the Bass bar sprung in so much that it pulled off the Bass after it couldn't sink anymore and ripped off a thickness patch with it that was put in to beef-up the overly thinned re-graduation that was over done as well. Since I didn't know this particular bass before it was worked on, I can't say if the graduation was necessary to begin with. The evidence left behind tells me it was overdone and wood has to be added back in to correct the thickness.

A scroll on one bass had been cracked and glued together with crazy glue. Now it can't be re-repaired so we have to work around it as-is. The machines cover most of the repair and the Scroll graft took out half of it as well so it is re-repaired but not exactly how I would have liked it to be done. DON'T let Luthiers use Crazy Glue on the Scroll, Top, Back, Ribs or any other permanent part of your bass. If you fix a split in your tailpiece or a shim in your bridge with it, fine, it's not a pernament part of the bass. TPs, and Bridges get changed all the time. The main components that make up a bass do not.

Be careful what shop you take your work to. Know somethinmg about these subjects. Discuss them with your Luthier. Don't let him de-value your bass by performing bad work on it. How would it feel if you brought me a bass fully restored to trade in or sell and I said "fine, I like the bass BUT, deduct $15k so I can fix and re-do all the BAD work that was done wrong". Would you like to hear that? I think not.

Have you ever been ripped off buying a used car? Ever been ripped off getting your car fixed? Well, if that happens you can take legal action. Has anyone taken action against a Luthier that you know of and won a case in court? I would like to know, really.

On Bass buying, names, origins, conditions and values, you can all be in trouble if you walk in to the wrong shop and you don't know anything but what they tell you. My experience?

Ok, one bass I sold years ago with one Italian label and two sets of papers to back it up now has a more famous name appraised, 100 years older and has a label to match. Is that even legal? PUT IN a Label and take the old one out?

German Basses being sold as French or Italian is another HUGE crime I have seen so many times.
One big shop even sold a 1/2 sized Blockless Wonder as an Italian Bass at about 10-20x its value for what it actually was then, in my opinion.
Another big shop sold a German Bass as french with papers and even described standard German traits as standard French traits and valuated it at least double its value at the time of sale. The repair work was not only bad inside, it was self destructive from the criminal acts performed internally. This I would call insult to injury. You get ripped off on the origin, price, appraised value and its going to fall apart besides.

I can fill a book with all of the crimes I have seen. I have spent thousands of dollars correcting bad and damaging work done by some Luthiers and that is PER Bass, not in total. Basses are big and do break on their own or get damaged by being so big anyway. Why does a Luthier have to injure the handicapped on purpose. Isn't that a shame? A crime?

This is the place to discuss this subject. I do not want to name Luthiers or actual basses here or even imply anything or anyone directly. Let's just discuss the Acts and what should or shouldn't be done as far as what's best for the bass in question.