SB-200 back from crack repair

[PB+J]

So a couple weeks ago I posted a review of my Shen SB-200, which I've owned for 4 and a half years or so. Just after I finished the review, it developed a really nasty rib crack the full length of the lower bout on the bass side. The crack repair required taking the top off. Tom Wolfe did a great job. While it was there, Tom installed a set of Sloane tuners with aluminum shafts.

I had about an hour with it before my wife and daughter came home. It sounds different--it sounds brighter. The Velvet Blues, which I had liked a lot, now seem too bright. Could be my imagination, could be the combined effects of the rib repair and the lighter tuners. Could be the soundpost is in a different place. I may have to get back on the string carousel.

The Sloane tuners are really great--really a vast improvement. Very precise and no backlash, no clunkiness, and best of all, no rattling.


I think I can say it doesn't sound worse. It still has all the things I liked about it. But it does sound a little different.
Sadly, while I was there Tom let me play a very old French bass in the $40,000 range. WOW. I mean, just WOW.

[Mark Carlsen]

Well every thing sounds bright at first when the strings are off the bass and then strung back up. I would suggest some heavy bowing to try and settle everything in and you will have to wait a few days to really tell if all the changes and the post location might be making the bass bright. You are almost back to square one when a top comes off and your bass is kind of like a new model again....... I know this really is a drag !! Hang in there.

[PB+J]

Thanks Mark--I did not know to expect that with the top removal. I sawed away at it for a while earlier and it did seem to be warming up a bit