This is my extreme URB make over…and it is finally done and ready to jam!
Before I go on I want to say thanks to my fellow TB’s who unknowingly help on this bass restore project with their advice and detailed postings. To Nick Lloyd and his recommendation of Citrus Strip to remove the horrible white “French provincial” paint this poor bass received in the late 1960’s. To Uncle Toad for selling me the Gamut medium guts strings…his loss is my gain…WOW do I like these strings. The bottom end has a growl…yeah! And to Martin Sheridan for his fine posting on “varnish matters”, his detailed posting was the guide we used for varnishing this old bass. His technique worked very well and the bass looks new, but old with this style of finish.
This is a 1937 American Standard #247 with bell shaped shoulders. This fine bass was sitting dormant in a music shop in Vermont for years. It came to us with an ugly paint job, Labella Super Nil strings, and an end pin that looked like a plumbing nightmare. Over all the bass appeared to be in fairly good condition and worth restoring. AS basses are know for their loud tone and ability to hold their own in bluegrass music. For us it was a no brainier!
The bass has been in various stages of restoration since we brought it home in January. My husband, who is know as my “Bass Monkey”…which is an affectionate name because he will do most anything to a bass to please me (okay I am such a wife in a man’s TB world). He has worked really hard on this bass to bring it back to life. About midnight last night the bass came to life once again. It has surpassed both of our expectations for tone and playability. This bass was well worth all our efforts and time. We are completely satisfied (with maybe a few slight tweaks yet) to bring this big, old bass back to life. The plan is to take it jamming tonight where is can be critiqued by a group of bluegrass elders and see if it will be deemed worthy to join the circle of music.
Again thanks TB for providing a wealth of information so newbie’s like us can soak it up. With a little skill, patience, determination and guidance anything is possible!
We are quite happy with the results on this bass…it was a lot of work for my bass monkey. Ten hours work days and four hours of bass repair time in the evening can make a monkey act like a 800 Lbs Gorilla
…R&R is coming up this weekend…the last festival for the year…here we come!
