The Scroll Shop (Ed of H's Shop Thread)

[edwardofhuncote]

Thanks to all who have been following. It's been a busy week up here, but a good one. In addition to finishing up this Czech bass, I've also done a couple minor guitar setups and a fiddle re-stringing in between. Only took one night off.

So like I said, this one is a wrap... I wasn't happy with the action after last night, so I re-cut the bridge arch. It's dead-on perfect where I wanted it now, though it did cost me an extra couple hours labor. The G and D strings just weren't quite 'there' yet... these things are hard enough to play without the setup working against you. I don't like to let them out of here until they play right. First thing tomorrow morning this one gets dropped off at the music store I do repair/setup work for, plus I'm looking at another one they just took in while I'm there.

Time to call it a night... ohh... before I cut out the lights, here's the next big job - a "King" bass, by the H.N. White Co. It's got some problems, but my, oh my, look at that flamed maple!

[David Houck]

   

[elwoodblue]

...what David said 

[edwardofhuncote]

Been doing a little preliminary work on the American Standard King bass, but in the meantime I knocked out a couple quick jobs for Fret Mill Music, http://fretmill.com/ a local shop I do setup and repair work for.

Remind me to do a full pictorial sometime that shows you guys why I hate cutting adjustable bridges for upright basses... it's just so incredibly complicated and time consuming. I split this one up into two evenings because of the extra work, but I did get a 105% perfect setup. The bass plays like a dream now. While doing a full setup, I went ahead and marked the intervals of the first position of the neck for a 42" scale too. Simple pearl dots, inlaid flush. This is a pretty decent student-grade bass, Chinese import, Cremona branded. Way better wood, fit, and finish than their entry-level models from a few years ago.

Got a couple easy-peasy re-stringing jobs this evening, and Sunday. Gigs tomorrow. Back on the King next week.

[elwoodblue]

Remind me to do a full pictorial sometime that shows you guys why I hate cutting adjustable bridges for upright basses... it's just so incredibly complicated and time consuming.

 Do you cut everything from scratch, or do you have a 'blank' that then needs to be sized and fit ?

[edwardofhuncote]

I have cut them from 'scratch' for a custom job here or there Bro. Elwood, but that would really eat up some shop time. I buy my blanks from one or the other of these two suppliers:

https://www.internationalviolin.com/Shop/accessories-bridges-chinrests-endpins-fingerboards-tailpieces-and-more/bridges/bass-bridges

https://www.gollihurmusic.com/category/27-BRIDGES.html

This particular one came from Gollihur as a plain non-adjustable, but I installed the adjusters myself. (hence the extra night...) 

[pauldo]

Remind me to do a full pictorial sometime that shows you guys why I hate cutting adjustable bridges for upright basses... it's just so incredibly complicated and time consuming.

 Do you cut everything from scratch, or do you have a 'blank' that then needs to be sized and fit ?

I’m interested in hearing more about the adjustable bridges.

[elwoodblue]

Thanks for the illumination Greg,
 ...looking forward to seeing more of the King bass.

[edwardofhuncote]

***CLICK***

flips lights on, looks around...

Sorry guys, I haven't put much up here in a while... the King MorTone project had to be sidelined for a little while. It's been a pretty crazy Spring/Summer here in Ed's Scroll Shop, not all of it good, but a good bit of it welcome too. It's steady work though, and that's a good thing. I seem to be spending more time working on things other than basses though.

So anyway, if you look here, you can see this bass has had its neck cracked right through where a bolt had been run in from the back of the heel. (I got the bolt out already, and pitched it in the hardware bucket. Remind me to tell you all about The Bucket) There are two older repaired neck cracks above this one that are stable, so I won't mess with them, although I will be tidying up some of those fixes. It also suffers from a condition common to a lot of American Standard basses - the neck block itself is poorly fit to the ribs, and is loose. At the moment, this is actually working to my advantage. I'll secure it in place after the neck is in one piece again.

One thing I always liked about American Standard basses, the H.N. White Co. extruded all of their own parts, including these magnificent geared tuning machines. I'll take these off and clean them up. These are actually worth more than the rest of this entire instrument is... truth. (in its current state... we're going to change that status)

*bonus link: here is some more information about the H.N. White Co. http://www.hnwhite.com/hnwhitepage.htm

I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to fix this one, and finally got a good start on this old bass... y'all hang on now... it's about to get sticky... now, where is that BIG span clamp at?!

More later.

[elwoodblue]

 There was a bucket in the morgue next to the furnace with a variety of metal parts.
A lot of stories in those buckets. 


 thanks for updates!!

[David Houck]

Why has the heel cracked so many times?

[edwardofhuncote]

It's pretty hard to find an old upright bass that hasn't had a neck repair Dave... they just take so much abuse. A 6 foot violin is a cumbersome thing to move around, and I think a lot of folks just don't realize how fragile they are. There's a graphic somewhere on one of my old threads that illustrates how that injury occurs.

In the case of this one though, if I were going to CSI this break... I'd guess first the neck joint began to fail, so somebody drilled and ran a bolt in from the back of the heel. (you'd be astonished at how many I find like this) In so doing, they weakened the neck by removing wood. Next time it took a shot, it cracked right though the bolt hole. And that, so they say, was that. I'll plug the hole with wood, and pin the neck together, front-to-back, simply because that isn't much of a glue joint to support all that tension.

[xlrogue6]

The Gollihur Music email this month made a good point about transporting uprights that hadn't occurred to me before--the strain on the neck joint caused by laying the instrument on its back. They suggest supporting the neck joint with a pillow (I used a rolled up bath towel this weekend) so that the bass's weight isn't suspended between the bottom of the instrument and the peghead.

[edwardofhuncote]

Exactly right, Kent. (and those Gollihur boys are tough to beat, aren't they!?) I use a rolled cargo blanket for mine, and my Dad carries his old Kay up on its side, bungee'd to keep it secure. Just anything to keep the weight off the neck joint. I think folks just don't realize how much force gets exerted on that joint just by string tension, let alone getting dropped and knocked around in transit.

It's amazing more of them aren't broken really... I cringe every time somebody brings me one just laying on its back in a truck... oftentimes not even cased.

[edwardofhuncote]

Today's update - plugging the hole.

If you look at the pictures, you'll see this bolt-hole was counter-bored, creating a two-stage hole to plug. (yeah, someone put some thought into that for us...) Since my intention is to pin this break from front to back later, it's important this entire cavity be filled with as much wood as possible. Voids are the enemy of strength, especially in a dovetailed neck joint.

Using some CA glue (from Santa Rosa, CA!) I've dowelled them both up, with different diameters of maple and/or poplar stock, leaving a little relief on top of the larger one. Then, to make a cleaner finished job, I've inlaid a piece of maple veneer to flush everything up without having endgrain exposed. That's the key... it won't be a pretty sight anyway. Just marginally better when I go to touch-up the finish later on.

A little spit and 220-grit sanding, and I quit for the night. Still got a long way to go on this one, but I'm happy with this stage of the fix. I need to put it aside and do a strings/bridge/soundpost/setup job on another one for Fret Mill Music tonight.