Alembic Guitars Club

Alembic products => Owning an Alembic => Troubleshooting => Topic started by: Bassman8416 on April 12, 2018, 06:32:06 PM

Title: My new 92' Spoiler with hairline cracks in fingerboard...solutions?
Post by: Bassman8416 on April 12, 2018, 06:32:06 PM
Will crazy glue suffice? Or is this more serious?
this is the bass ...shes a beauty...plays and sounds amazing.
https://reverb.com/item/11028912-alembic-spoiler-1992 (https://reverb.com/item/11028912-alembic-spoiler-1992)
Title: Re: My new 92' Spoiler with hairline cracks in fingerboard...solutions?
Post by: tx196059 on April 12, 2018, 06:48:23 PM
One of your links has a reference to Arizona. Super dry air. Ebony can dry out. How about a nice lemon oil treatment? Search lemon oil on this site, and you will get a wealth of information. Good Luck!!
Title: Re: My new 92' Spoiler with hairline cracks in fingerboard...solutions?
Post by: Bassman8416 on April 12, 2018, 07:18:24 PM
Quote from: tx196059 on April 12, 2018, 06:48:23 PM
One of your links has a reference to Arizona. Super dry air. Ebony can dry out. How about a nice lemon oil treatment? Search lemon oil on this site, and you will get a wealth of information. Good Luck!!
Yes the bass was in Arizona....good point...i do have the right lemon oil. I will start with that. I did do a search on fingerboard cracks and someone had a fretless Alembic that the owner used small drops of crazy glue as per Mica came out great.
Title: Re: My new 92' Spoiler with hairline cracks in fingerboard...solutions?
Post by: dtothec on April 12, 2018, 08:19:53 PM
I once almost purchased a Mark King that had a cracked ebony finger board. I didn't buy but the guy had it repaired by a luthier that used powdered ebony and super glue, and you could not even find where the crack was after it was repaired.
Title: Re: My new 92' Spoiler with hairline cracks in fingerboard...solutions?
Post by: pauldo on April 13, 2018, 08:12:03 PM
Would be interested to hear others advice.
Those are cracks that cross under frets and would (for me) raise some concern.  I would strongly recommend a lemon oil treatment and wait for it to penetrate deeply before doing any glueing.

* I am not a luthier and have no experience with that type of cracking.  There are several members here that work on instrument repair regularly...
Title: Re: My new 92' Spoiler with hairline cracks in fingerboard...solutions?
Post by: Bassman8416 on April 14, 2018, 09:27:03 AM
Great bass for sure. Nicest Spoiler I have ever owned....minus the cracks of cours...lol.
Title: Re: My new 92' Spoiler with hairline cracks in fingerboard...solutions?
Post by: edwardofhuncote on April 14, 2018, 10:05:14 AM
Congratulations on [yet another] sweet bass Craig.  :D


Interesting; the model SSSB-4 suggests this is a short-scale Spoiler. Maybe an additional custom spec to the Crown headstock?

* I see the seller on Reverb also had what looks to be a SC Signature, presumably also a short-scale... makes sense. ;)

** Super-glue and ebony dust by the way... that's the ticket. Easy, invisible fix. I would humidify it for a couple weeks first, to swell the wood as much as possible naturally.
Title: Re: My new 92' Spoiler with hairline cracks in fingerboard...solutions?
Post by: Bassman8416 on April 14, 2018, 10:10:58 AM
Quote from: edwardofhuncote on April 14, 2018, 10:05:14 AM
Congratulations on [yet another] sweet bass Craig.  :D


Interesting; the model SSSB-4 suggests this is a short-scale Spoiler. Maybe an additional custom spec to the Crown headstock?

It measures 31" from the center of the bridge to the nut. Wow....no wonder its so comfortable to play...no neck dive either.
Title: Re: My new 92' Spoiler with hairline cracks in fingerboard...solutions?
Post by: gearhed289 on April 15, 2018, 09:26:02 AM
Wow, cool. BTW - if you want to accurately measure scale length, measure from the nut to the 12th fret and multiply times 2. Great bass! I think I'll oil my Distillate board on my next string change.  :D