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05-22-2009, 05:16 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: philadelphia | | | sound post patch
I Have recently started restoration on a William Booth bass that I purchased last year here in New Zealand. The bass has had some poor repairs done in the past including a laminate style sound post patch with the grain at 90 degrees to the grain of the top. How does the grain angle in a sound post patch affect sound? Also how does a laminate patch, (not carved out), Affect the sound? I would appreciate any advice on these issues as I am trying to decide to replace the current patch or not.
Thanks
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05-22-2009, 07:55 PM
| | Banned | | Join Date: May 2009 Location: california | | | niccoteene pach work better |
05-22-2009, 09:17 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2005 Location: Forest Grove, OR | | | I seriously doubt that the laminate patch will hurt the sound very much, but I do prefer the inlaid patch. Is the edge of the laminated section feathered down to a thin wedge, so as not to make a new stress-riser along the margin?
Chet
Last edited by 1st Bass : 05-23-2009 at 02:08 PM.
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05-23-2009, 08:10 AM
| | AES Fine Instruments | | Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Brewster, NY, USA | | | I think any patch installed at 90 degrees, whether laminated or not, is creating an unnaturally stiff area which has to affect the tone. The only right way to repair a soundpost crack is to install an inlayed patch 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the existing top wood. The patch should be installed just a few degrees off the line of the grain of the top wood. The excavated area needs to cover the bridge foot and the entire zone in which the post is liable to be placed. It should be oval in shape. |
05-23-2009, 02:07 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2005 Location: Forest Grove, OR | | Quote:
Originally Posted by 1st Bass  I seriously doubt that the laminate patch will hurt the sound very much, but I do prefer the inlaid patch. Is the edge of the laminated section feathered down to a thin wedge, so as not to make a new stress-riser along the margin?
Chet | Sorry...wasn't thinking. Arnold is right, of course. I have only once used a patch that was not inlaid, with a "spoon" cross-section, juat as he described. That once was on a laminated bass, so the grain was already in multiple directions, and the back had simply been too thin to take the pressure of the soundpost. In that case I installed a round patch, not inlaid, but carefully feathered out to a pretty thin edge, so as not to add to the stress on the back. |
05-23-2009, 04:11 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: philadelphia | | | Thanks so much for the advice. I needed to decide whether to go ahead and have the luthier remove the patch and replace it, or just leave it. I am going to have the proper patch put in. Thanks again! |
05-23-2009, 04:55 PM
|  | Supporting Member
Luthier: Bresque Basses, rep: Paulin EUB | | Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Sydney, Australia | | Quote:
Originally Posted by fendt1820 how does a laminate patch, (not carved out), Affect the sound? | Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoldschnitzer I think any patch installed at 90 degrees, whether laminated or not, is creating an unnaturally stiff area which has to affect the tone. | I think the only question remaining here is "by how much"?
Structurally, I think a well-glued soundpost patch, even at 90 degrees, will be fine. Since you are restoring the bass, by all means redo it properly. But I wouldn't expect a huge difference in sound from that repair alone. |  | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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