Double Decapitation

[dumnut]

painful day today. We had a rehearsal after school for the christmas music concert thing, so our basses were moved onto the stage. Upon locating them on the stage, both my friends and my bass' had their scrolls totally smashed off. All that was left was a wooden chunk above the tuners. Some geniuses pegged the top of the door while carrying them. I wanted to cry.

[Don Higdon]

Shtt happens.
If you can imagine this, although my teacher's 19th century French bass was inside one of those hard shell bass trunks, the union stagehands at the Metropolitan Opera managed to drop it in such a manner that the neck was broken right out of the body, one week before the orchestra was to leave for Europe.

[Marty Forrer]

That's terrible. I know the feeling, I once popped my neck completely off my bass about two hours before a gig. I just bumped the scroll against my amp, and the whole neck popped out. I screwed it back on with three 4" screws (!) and it stayed that way for about 9 or 10 years till I finally got so embarrassed about it, I took it off and glued it on with aliphatic resin.

[Bob Gollihur]

I hate to be a skeptic, but you have to wonder about intent given such circumstances. It seems as if basses attract the attention of school miscreants. Unless these basses are unusual, the scrolls are fairly integral parts of the bass structure, and it takes a pretty good knock to break one off. Just carry one and walking a few inches too high through a door would usually stop you, causing the lower part of the bass to move forward, and anyone would immediately stop their forward motion.

At least that's how it has happened to me once or twice.

And it happens to two basses?!?! Sounds like a coordinated attack to me. I'm not a violent person, but I'd be pissed enough to take the nearest solid article at the #$!&*^@ who did it, to see if their scroll would come off, accidentally, of course.

[dumnut]

After closer inspection today, my neck is split. I didn't even want to look at the other one.