Vee shaped neck profile, repairs and decisions, decisions, decisions - Help!

[TheSuzie]

Hi Again DBers,

Well something I never mentioned before, my 3/4 DB as pictured in my other threads, the one with the "Made in Germany USSR Occupied" label inside, also has a Vee shaped neck. Since I have not been able to find any other instruments around here with a similar neck, I have to ask a couple of questions.

1. Is practicing on an instrument with this sort of neck going to present any sort of obstacle to a beginning player?

2. Does this feature help to identify this bass or indicate anything about the relative quality of this instrument.

I am facing the decision of whether or not to invest significant money to bring this bass totally up to snuff. It appears as if it probably could use a new fingerboard and nut, a new or modified bridge along with some other basic setup work, endpin, tailgut, soundpost etc. Changing the fingerboard, possibly also using a small thickness of the old fingerboard as as a shim would allow more than enough thickness to reprofile the back of the neck if I want, though I may not want to (I do like thick necks but may also like the VEE - I don't have enough experience to know yet). The instrument does play decently and sounds surprisingly good but...

1. The string spacing is way off - very uneven - at the nut
2. The current replacement fingerboard appears to be either screwed and/or doweled into place in a probably weird way and also when someone hands me a bass with a really nice ebony fingerboard, I can feel the difference in the quailty
3. Whoever put the bridge adjusters in should be shot - they did not leave enough "meat" in the bridge legs so the adjusters are set with the bridge way up at the end of their range. means a new bridge or grafting a section onto each of the legs (if I want the cheap way out)

I am being assured that if I am willing to get this all set up, I will end up with an instrument that easily has the potential to be superior to a new Engelhardt that has been set up with a thicker fingerboard + shim to compensate for the thin neck. I tried one set up that way and it felt pretty nice to me. I am being told that my bass sounds better but I cannot always tell subtle differences at this stage, only the large jaw dropping differences I hear when a better player picks up a higher end carved bass.

If I jump in and do this, my total investment will be close to the cost of a new Upton Hawkes laminate or a bit less than one of Bob's Bulgarians before it is set up - never mind what I may be able to get from bassesonline and have cash to spare for upgrades. I know I can easily get what I paid back out from my current bass because, despite the needed work, someone can pick it up, play it, tell that it is solid and sounds pretty good.

So I am in a quandry, invest in what may be a nice but slightly quirky bass that I already own, start from scratch with something new that I may or may not be able to lay my hands on before I buy or once again spend months fishing through the used market. I am not so far that visiting CT or NY are out of the question but my health does limit my energy level and makes travel a bit of a hardship.

My major concerns aside from finances

1. That I have an instrument that does not impede my ability to learn proper technique or enjoy making music. I am to old and my hands are too damaged to waste my time on poor playability - did that with Japanese Wonder guitars back in the mid 1960s 8(

2. That the instrument, while good sounding also be reasonably durable and likely to stay reasonably stable over time (points to my current bass for being totally neglected, and stored with strings under tension for 10-15 years in an uncontrolled environment and showing almost no ill effects)

Anyway, thanks to any of you who have had the patience to stay through this long ramble, I think I am still dazed and sticker shocked at the prices of having work done on these sort of instruments. For now I will sleep on it for a bit and hope that some of you can offer me a bit of wisdom when I return.

Peace,
S

[drurb]

You would do well to let a luthier evaluate your bass.


EDIT: Cleaning up. CF

[TheSuzie]

Well, the bass has been evaluated and found to be basically sound and of good quality by a local luthier and builder who was recommended by several sources. He was actually quite impressed with the quality, including the quatersawn maple neck, nice veneers, lack of any signs of structural damage anywhere on the instrument (one of the reasons I originally snapped it up) and the sound (my other reason).

What he was not impressed with was some bad repair work - the fingerboard (which was in poor shape), nut and end pin had all been replaced and glued with white glue (ARRRGH!). I lucked out as it looked like the combination of a poor fitting and gluing job along with the many years the bass spent in storage had caused the glue to shrink and loosen without causing damage to the original adjoining parts so that those newer (junk) parts were easy to remove. I was also lucky in that it appears that no "repairs" of a similar nature were made anywhere else on this bass.

I am starting to get excited about this bass, as I think with the repairs and setup work I will end up with a fine instrument, something quite a bit better than I would have found new for the same budget. This may be a rare instance of luck exceeding ignorance, because while I did know enough to check for major structural damage and good sound when I purchased this bass, I still did not realize the truly poor quality of the work that had been done on this bass.

Guess this is an advertisment for learning how to do the work properly and/or realizing when the job requires expert attention. Also a pitch for having an expert evaluate an instrument before you buy. If I had not purchased the bass for such good price originally, I might not be quite so happy right now.

Of course I have to say buying this bass was the result of a six month or longer search in the pre internet days, so I got to run around town and see and touch a lot of junk in person - a different sort of education than what a person gets by sitting pointing and clicking - call it sweat equity if you want but it also helped to compensate for the lack of a resource like this forum at that time.

Peace,
S