Crack in my bass!

[us_soccer]

My bass was accidentally dropped (was in a soft bag) on the pavement while trying to get it in the car.

There are now several cracks, all right along the joints of the body --

I am just a new player myself and not a luthier, so I will be giving it to him to look at. But since I won't be able to see him until a month or so (I don't live real close to one), I'm freaking out in the meantime.

Is this always a serious (and costly) problem or could it be very fixable with just some glue etc... Of course, maybe nobody out there could tell me anything without seeing the actual crack, but I just am looking for some assurance that this isn't necessarily a huge problem for my bass. (It's a plywood Shen)

[Howlin' Hanson]

If you don't have a digital camera, find a friend who does, and post photos if at all possible. Most TBers will want to see how bad the cracks are before making suggestions (or offering reassurances...or condolences).

[jimmyduded]

sorry to hear about that, happens to the best of us

[us_soccer]

Ok, I realize these pictures aren't very good, but I was having a devil of a time showing the relevant areas with a good picture. If you can see, the crack happens right at the joint joining the back of the bass and the side, and then also along the joint between the top of the body and the bottom of the neck. It's almost as if I were pull along the cracks the back part of the bass might cleanly come entirely off.
hope you can figure out where the cracks look like.

Man, I hope this isn't a goner and I need a new instrument...
(btw, it still plays fine right now without any noticeable sound differences). I'm just worried that structurally I'm going to have a big problem long run and something just splits....

[Darren Molnar]

No biggie us, glue letting go from a shock is far better than wood craking from a shock. Think of seams as a relief valve of sorts.

But i think you should let off the string tension tonight. There may not be enough structural integrity to hold tension well when this much is loose. Leaving the bass strung up like this for a long time does more damage.

[Andrew McGregor]

That's easily repairable. It depends on the value of the bass if it's economically repairable, but I expect it is (as in, I think it will be far cheaper to fix than to replace it).

Do take the string tension down a fair way (not all the way, dropping the bridge and soundpost will be a pain).

[toman]

If it's no worse than the pics, then no big deal. That's not really even damage; just sort of like a pop-off valve.


edit: The part along the neck block might be a pain, I dunno...

[uprightben]

My bass does that same thing all the time without being dropped, I had it in the shop 3 times this winter with open seams, probably one of the cheapest and easiest repairs for a good luthier. I attended a master class with Edgar Meyer once and his bass had an open seam on the back that he had scotch taped back together as a temp fix. Don't sweat the small stuff.

[Jake deVilliers]

Its hard to determine the extent of the damage from your fuzzy pix but the neck might be more of a repair than the seams. The seams will only need to be opened up, cleaned and re-glued, whereas the neck will probably need to be removed, the pocket cleaned up and then re-glued.

Its something any bass repairman will have done many times!

[Steve Brooks]

Where in upstate new york are you from?

[us_soccer]

Thanks all. I actually got to the luthier today (much earlier than I thought I'd be able to make it out there). He looked at it and said it should be an easy fix -- under $100 for gluing back the seams. whew....

Steve -- I live in the Utica area. how about you?