Double Bass ALCOA?

[eh_train]

Is a chemical stripper used to remove the finish?

I just finished having ALCOA # 379 stripped using soda blasting (think sand blasting, only using a much finer and less aggressive agent). It cost me $175 (about $120 USD) and was well worth it from my point of view. I didn't want to be standing out in the snow doing this! Pics below.

James, have you or anyone else posted on the most efficient solution to the neck problem? The neck is quite intact on mine, including the screw bosses, but I am thinking about reinforcing it with carbon fibre rods. Your thoughts? Or anyone who is familiar with the design?

Thanks,

Paul

 

[Ortsom]

Should CF be used wrt thermal expansion?

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Paul, if you intend to sell that thing when it's up and running, let me know. I'm in touch with a bunch of guys who will fall over each other to buy it.

 

[eh_train]

Ortsom, thanks for pointing that out. I wonder about making a "skeletal" insert that doesn't have too many anchor points but does reinforce the neck. I need to sketch something out....

KFS, I want to make sure it's in the best possible shape before thinking about what to do with it. They're pretty rare birds, right? Maybe 500 made, and who knows how many still in existence.

Any thoughts on that subject? Does anyone have a registry, and if so, what are the numbers???

 

[james condino]

The custom hotroded chopped lowered pimped out pinstriped polished vintage ALCOA bass trend is relatively recent. The original production of 500 is enough that we will continue to see them circulate. Only a few dozen have been boldly resurrected. Consider yourself to define the boundaries and take the bass and the trend in the path you feel it should go. It has the potential to be functioning 1000 years from now; you will not be the last owner. There are only a handful of people in the world who can answer your questions, so do everything for a reason and with caution. The street price in the last 14 years has gone from about $400 to approximately $7500 for the best professionally polished and build examples. That exceeded everyone's expectations and fast. The demand is huge right now. You may have just scratched the surface of the bass lottery or you may have crashed the tulip market. Either way, polishing aluminum is not fun.

The worst possible thing you could do is to put it away in some attic or a basement or barn and miss out on the next 20 years of fun fun fun gigs knowing that you just did some crazy $h!T on a bass that your other wooden and ply basses would never imagine. Have nice fancy expensive fragile cool old carved basses and use them when appropriate....but take this one out on the night you get to rock a packed house full of beautiful hipster people bumpin' and grindin' til breakfast and your other bass personality gets to come out LOUD.

Everyone secretly wants an old ALCOA...

j.
www.kaybassrepair.com

 

[Ortsom]

A lasting & effective CF reinforcement can probably be made, but how to attach it requires consideration. But if the neck really needs to be reinforced, why not use aluminium?

 

[james condino]

"Gnarly Florida grass"

I think may have a different meaning around here and is not considered desirable.....

 

[eh_train]

The original production of 500 is enough that we will continue to see them circulate. Only a few dozen have been boldly resurrected.
j.
www.kaybassrepair.com

I've seen reference to a serial number in the 500s, so perhaps a few more than 500? And only "a few dozen" resurrected? If someone were to start a registry, I'm guessing there'd be a lot of the sequence unaccounted for.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[james condino]

BOLDLY resurrected.

Try this with your fancy old wooden bass at the next gig:

 

[jasonrp]

Just need some yakitori to cook over that

 

[BobKay]

James, I gotta come see and hear the show that includes this! When, where, and how often? Or does it only happen when the stars align?

 

[eh_train]

Ah, okay, BOLDLY resurrected.

If I promise to light Alcoa #379 on fire at some point, will you chime in on the neck reinforcement solution and the idea of a registry?

 

[james condino]

The neck reinforcement is a great idea. Add a couple of 1/2" x .200" carbon fiber beams countersunk in the wooden neck insert on either side of the screw holes and you should be great. I have no opinion on the registry; perhaps you should start one. Doesn't David Price have have something like that on the facebook aluminum bass nerds page?

j.
www.kaybassrepair.com

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Three Bad Jacks incorporated fire into their stage act.

It didn't work out well.

 

[eh_train]

The neck reinforcement is a great idea. Add a couple of 1/2" x .200" carbon fiber beams countersunk in the wooden neck insert on either side of the screw holes and you should be great.

Yep, that'll work neatly 'cos the screw holes aren't damaged. Thanks!

I have no opinion on the registry; perhaps you should start one. Doesn't David Price have have something like that on the facebook aluminum bass nerds page?

j.
www.kaybassrepair.com

I don't think there is a registry on there, at least not yet. I thought, since you've done a fair bit of legwork on these, that you might be hankering to do it. Opportunity knocks. Will people need to have lit up their axe to get a listing!?

 

[james condino]

32+ miserable one step forward and three backwards hours later, two burned out electric palm sanders, one medium sized Dewalt angle grinder, one commercial grade 50 gallon compressor, one Dynabrade commercial grade air orbital sander system, $150 in abrasive discs- 100s and 100s of different sheets, $200 in different buffing wheels and compounds, four respirator cartridges, two full face masks, one huge Hitachi commercial grinder buffer, and a big custom stainless steel buffing arbor and collars for the outside of my old lathe.....

&%@#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It takes a lot of effort to polish out a vintage ALCOA, but the first time you watch the sunset through the forest off your bass on your first night gig of the summer season makes every second of it worth the effort.....

j.
www.kaybassrepair.com
www.condino.com

 

[bassfran]

32+ miserable one step forward and three backwards hours later, two burned out electric palm sanders, one medium sized Dewalt angle grinder, one commercial grade 50 gallon compressor, one Dynabrade commercial grade air orbital sander system, $150 in abrasive discs- 100s and 100s of different sheets, $200 in different buffing wheels and compounds, four respirator cartridges, two full face masks, one huge Hitachi commercial grinder buffer.....

&%@#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It takes a lot of effort to polish out a vintage ALCOA, but then the first time you watch the sunset through the forest off your bass on your first night gig of the summer season makes every second of it worth the effort.....

j.
www.kaybassrepair.com
www.condino.com

+100 likes.

 

[Feral Feline]

Worth it for every little twilight gleaming...

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

You are a g*****n lunatic. Great work.

 

[jasonrp]

That's just beautiful. I always regret not buying one when I had the chance.