Bass repair in Chicago

gnergaard · #1 02-12-2007, 11:12 PM

HELP! The neck of my old American Standard cracked at the heel.
It's a long, sad story...
I'm in Chicago and have used Scott Henri before. He's great, but he can take a while and so far hasn't returned my phone call. It's a repair that can't wait. Recommendations for a good bass maker/repairman in Chicago?
Thanks,
Greg
email me instead of P.M. if you don't mind:
gregnergaard@sbcglobal.net

Chrix · #2 02-13-2007, 12:44 AM

Michelle Fiore at Classic Contrabass

Mark Sonksen at Sonksen Strings

Mark Hogan at A440 Violins

I also know a great guy by the name of Tim Fox that does great work, but you may or may not be able to get it done really quick. PM me for his number, since I don't really want to post it here without his consent. Hope this all helps!

StringBass · #3 02-14-2007, 12:01 AM

gnergaard,
It could be worse. A couple of years ago I was taking my King bass out of my car at a church gig. When I turned around after closing the door, the head hit the back end of the car belonging to the leader of the group. Needless to say, I didn't play my bass that night. The heel had cracked in half and the neck was hanging on by the strings.
Since I live "out past the boonies", my options were limited, so I decided to fix it myself. After lining things up, I drilled a 5/8" hole through the remaining heel and the half on the neck and inserted and glued a 5/8" dowel in the hole. It seems to be holding and hasn't affected the sound quality any.

Tim

gnergaard · #4 02-14-2007, 01:11 PM

My repair is the same thing. Cracked clean through the heel; lucky thing (if there can be a lucky thing with a repair like this one) is that the break was very clean. I suspect that the dry cold weather here made the wood shrink and the aluminum pegs didn't so the wound opened again. I just hope that this time it stays fixed!

bassdogEmer · #5 02-14-2007, 02:39 PM

Hi, I would take your bass to Mark Sonksen. Last time I was on tour in the windy city I had an accident and Mark did the repair for me. He was able to fix what was broken and replace my faulty tuners with tuners from the same time period. He turned the whole job around in a day and was sympathetic to my problem of being on the road and offered a loaner bass. His workmanship was superb and prices were totally fair and to boot he is a totally nice guy to work with. . I would take your bass to him

Martin Sheridan · #6 02-15-2007, 10:35 AM

Also,
Aaron Reiley has been working at A440 on Mondays. I think Mark is on tour. He's also doing some work for PM? in Aurora when he's not at Guarneri House in Grand Rapids.

jasonheath · #7 02-15-2007, 12:09 PM

Aaron Reiley at the Guarneri House and A440 does really excellent work, so I'd check him out if you're looking for some work/basses/bows in Chicago and vicinity.