Double Bass American Standard coming back to life

[LaFaveBass]

Hello,

I acquired American Standard #2725 close to a year ago from the luthier who I apprentice under. I’m primarily a player, but am fortunate enough to have a day gig working in a shop that does mostly public school rental work.
The bass belonged to someone who played it briefly until it was “knocked over by the grandkids”. Then she just sat in the back of the basement for about 4 decades.
Anyways, this bass was given to me with the intention of it being a project instrument, but, being player and admirer of old American plywood, what I really wanted was to one day have this bass as dependable alternative to my 2017 Golia.
Long story short, I’m having the major work done at a shop that does way more of these kind of jobs called Burton City basses, by luthier and player Craig Martin. After Craig does the neck work/scroll graft I will get the bass back and my mentor and I will finish the set up work (bridge, nut slots, tailpiece, sound post, these things).
Looking forward to making great instrument sing again.
Would love to hear some American standard restoration stories. What has your experience been?

 

[LaFaveBass]

That last image was accidental and unrelated…
Here’s the progress as of today

 

[LaFaveBass]

One more thing…
I’m sort of “resto modding” it. so improved neck angle and over stand, taller bridge, and traditional mortise.

 

[marcox]

Thanks for sharing the photos. Always exciting to see a bass come back to life!

 

[LaFaveBass]

Update day:

 

[Levin Hannaford]

Looking good! Getting rid of a dovetail neck joint is always a plus

 

[krfoss]

Looking forward to @james condino chiming in.

 

[james condino]

He's watchin'....

'Looks good. I broke an American Standard neck last week, so I'm tryin' to keep my mouth shut...But....

- I like that big neck block! No need to be delicate with wood there. It takes a steady hand to make one with that tapered heel. I love my $2000 1950s giant spindle sander with the 4" diameter spindle on those days!

- 41 1/2" D neck heel or the original spec big old 43 3/8" E flat? I own both and I much prefer the 41 1/2" D when I build new necks / scroll grafts. I usually add a bit of carbon fiber inside that neck for long term stability.

- If you ever thought about a nice removable neck travel bass, now is the time for that decision. I've been making them in various forms since 2009 and would never want to be without one.

Keep up the good work!

 

[eh_train]

... I much prefer the 41 1/2" D ...

+1 on the more conventional string length. It'll be a tricked-out hot rod!

 

[LaFaveBass]

No travel neck for this one but we are going with the 41 1/2”.
I’m very excited for it all to come together! Will be posting all updates here till it has strings on it.
Much of what influenced my decisions for this restoration came from browsing many of Mr Condinos threads for the last year while the body and scroll sat in the corner, so thanks for the inspiration, James!
I’d like to ask, what’s your experience with the early 60s standards (i believe that’s what #2725 dates this one to… ‘62)? How do they compare to the instruments of the previous decades?

 

[srbbass]

Great photo journal....keep 'em coming!

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

You should do the travel neck. In a lot of cases the improved coupling gives you a stronger fundamental. Imagine, an American Standard with MORE low end!

 

[krfoss]

You should do the travel neck. In a lot of cases the improved coupling gives you a stronger fundamental. Imagine, an American Standard with MORE low end!

I'm curious of you have pictures of what the travel neck would look like and how to build it. Not that I'm trying to do that with my AS, but it would be interesting to see.

 

[james condino]

There are many different designs you can use for a removable neck; everyone has their own opinions on their merits and everyone seems to think theirs is the best one. The main thing for this specific conversation is that the original dovetailed necks are fragile, regardless of your removable design choice. When building a new neck, you can overcome those limitations by making a nice beefy heel and mortise / tenon area so there will be no issues with a fragile connection failing. Using a great mechanical connection applied to a miniscule and fragile 3/4 of a century old heel only installs a false sense of confidence. I know firsthand what it is like to have a neck explode on stage! The oversize neck block used here already starts the process out with a successful first choice.

Another side part of the conversation is, if done well, a removable neck travel conversion is almost always worth significantly more resale value and they are in very high demand right now. "Done well" is a key part; mediocrity with anything is just mediocrity and of little utility or value.

 

[LaFaveBass]

She’s not gonna have the removable neck unfortunately, but I certainly hear you guys (please keep the conversation going, some good virtual brain pickin).
Things are already in motion and I am on a tight budget!!
I actually traded two beat to hell Kays, C-1 and M-1, to the shop in return for this work.
What do you guys think of gamut G, evah weich A and D, and spiro weich E?

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

You should do the travel neck. In a lot of cases the improved coupling gives you a stronger fundamental. Imagine, an American Standard with MORE low end!

This is interesting to me. I have a grad student from overseas who doesn’t have his own bass yet. He is learning on the school’s Shen SB100 and doing great. This summer, the building is closed and we had to lock up all the the school owned instruments during the renovation. So I loaned him my Kolstein Busetto, which has a removable neck, to use over the summer.

I asked him how it was going a week or so ago, and he said he really likes it because it reminds him of the response of his bolt on BG’s. Something about that kind of a neck/body coupling is apparently a vibe. He’s a master level BG player but a novice on DB so I found this an interesting observation.

I have played a couple of Nnick Lloyd DB’s with the removable neck, and they were both monsters of sustain. Can anyone expound on this relationship between removable neck basses and sustain/fundamental, or am I just making an assumption on a small sample size because Nnick is a badass Lluthier?

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Chris, hide glue is generally considered the most acoustically transparent adhesive we have. I’m not a chemist, just a half-bright hick with Wi-Fi and an improvised glue pot, but it stands to reason that removing the barrier provided by the glue joint might affect response.

 

[krfoss]

Chris, hide glue is generally considered the most acoustically transparent adhesive we have. I’m not a chemist, just a half-bright hick with Wi-Fi and an improvised glue pot, but it stands to reason that removing the barrier provided by the glue joint might affect response.

You've proven yourself to be at least 3/4 bright.

 

[LaFaveBass]

Update day:

 

[LaFaveBass]

Update day: