I played at a rehearsal this morning and noticed a kind of strange distortion noise coming from my bass. I thought it was my amp. When I got home, I looked at the bass carefully all over. That's when I saw that there was a crack.

http://www.advancenet.net/~darkhors/crack.jpg

The damaged area is on the G side, about four inches above the bout. The damage apparently was caused by some blunt object When I play the bass, there is a terrible buzzing sound. Is there any temporary thing I can do to it that will remedy the buzzing? And any idea what the luthier will have to do to fix this? Will the top have to come off?

I'm going to go try and calm myself down.

The buzz suggests the crack is all the way through, and I think the top has to come off. Sorry. The sooner you get to a luthier, the sooner you can stop speculating on what it is and begin dealing with the inescapable. Once you know the worst and start coping with it, you won't feel good, but you won't feel as bad.

Actually, I just found my luthier, and he says the top doesn't have to come off. Phew. He also told me that he's doing five other DBs today for cracks and that it'll be ready tomorrow. I am much relieved.