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Depressed...Repair Help?

BassManPatsFan

BassManPatsFan

Gold Supporting Member
Feb 20, 2004
2,764
415
35
Boston
#1
My band shares a rehearsal space with 3 other bands at one of San Francisco's many rehearsal studio spaces. All 4 bands have a lot of gear and the room isn't huge, so fitting everything in there has been a chore at times. There is a large overhead shelf right over where I stand during rehearsal upon which we usually store spare parts, small drums, etc.

Anyway, even though we already have 2 full drum kits set up in our space for the 4 bands to share, one of the newer bands has insisted on keeping their own 3rd set there and for whatever reason they though it would be a good idea to keep the bass drum on the aforementioned overhead shelf. I noticed that it looked like a precarious place to put a big, heavy drum before, but I never thought much about it until now.

Today, during practice, we were running through our set as we usually do, playing at the same volume levels as normal, when the bass drum came crashing down on top of me in addition to a few cymbals and a bottle. I'm perfectly fine, but unfortunately my bass isn't. The bass I was playing is my main one and my pride and joy, a Fano PX4. When the drum fell, it somehow ripped out one of the frets and took a chunk of fingerboard wood with it. Here are some pictures of the damage:

Here's a front view:
FrontView_zps2614236c.jpg


And an angled one:
AngledView_zps7c68208d.jpg


A side/top view:
SideView_zpsc5937f0a.jpg


And the fret that came out (the 13th) as well as the chunk of fingerboard wood:
Fret_zps140a3619.jpg


Here's my question to you guys: how hard will it be to fix up the fingerboard, replace the fret and make it look and feel as close to new as possible? I imagine that they will have to cut out a square of the fingerboard and then replace it with a similar looking piece of rosewood. Will this be a costly repair?

I'm going to call SF Guitar Works in San Francisco first thing when they open tomorrow and then try to take the bass into their shop right after work so they can give me a quote and hopefully get started on it. I have a show next Saturday, so I'll see what they can do before then.

Luckily, I already talked to one of the guys in the band that this bass drum belongs to and he was very apologetic and is offering to split the cost of the repair with his bandmates. I'm hoping that it won't be too expensive, but it's a very valuable bass to me, so I have every intention of doing whatever needs to be done to fix it up as well as humanly possible.
 
#5
No need for depression. That's a simple enough repair, and shouldn't cost much. I'd glue that chunk of rosewood back on there with some LMI Instrument Makers Glue first. Then, fit and reseat the fret in the slot, with a bit of the LMI glue in the slot too.

A bigger concern is that you may need an overall fret job. Just from those pictures, it looks like several nearby frets are lifting up at the ends. It appears that the fingerboard has dried out over the years, and the frets are loose. Normally, an impact won't knock frets out. I'd recommend having all the frets pulled and reseated with glue, then leveled and trued up. Then your bass will be good for many more years.

The whole job, including the repair to the fingerboard, would be about two hours' labor.
 
#6
Thanks, guys. Yes, I am very lucky that I myself was not injured.

We are definitely going to have to clean up the practice space. We've told this band several times before to clear out that drum set because it's simply unnecessary, but they haven't. Now they will have to. It's hard to get the other bands to actually clear out their superfluous gear when we never really see them, but it will be done.

There were a few other pieces of rosewood that came out but were too small to collect. If they just glued it back in, would they fill the voids with glue or something?

Interesting note about the frets, Bruce. I never really noticed that some of them were coming up. I will have SF Guitar Works take a look at all of the frets and re-seat them with glue like you suggested if they think it's necessary. That would certainly give me more peace of mind if that's what I end up going with.

And I do use that fret often, at least a few times per 1 hour set.
 
#7
Yes, when wood chips get knocked off of a fingerboard or any other visible wood part, you should always try to pick up and save the chips if you can, even the small ones. The best repair is to glue them right back together like a puzzle. When chips are missing, I'll usually cut a replacement chip from a scrap of matching wood. I'll fill small voids with hard epoxy.
 
#8
Just dropped the bass off at the shop. Just like you said, Bruce, SF guitar Works is going to glue in the piece of wood I kept and then fill the rest of epoxy. Then they'll glue the fret back in, glue in the rest of them and level all of the frets. After a set up and some fine tuning, she should be good to go.

It'll be expensive, but I'm not paying so that's okay.
 
#10
Amps, drums, sound gear, in storage, OK. Take the bass home from now on. I may have stored all kinds of equipment in various places over the last 35+ years of playing, but the bass always comes home.
 
#15
The quote I got from SF Guitar Works is for $450. They're estimating 1.5 hours of labor to glue the fingerboard back together and then on top of that they're also doing a full fret job and gluing all of the frets in.

Since the total fret job isn't directly related to the accident, I reached an agreement with the other band where they will pay for all of the repair costs and I'll cover the fret job.

I should have my baby back in my hands next Friday or Saturday. I will post pictures of the repair once I do.
 
#16
It's fortunate you weren't hurt.

Stuff happens, but at least it's repairable.

Some of the most amazing, notable, and distinctive instruments on the planet have had major repairs or mods (SRV's strat #1, Gilmour's black strat, Macca's Ric, Berry Oakley's "tractor").

Now you just have richer history!
 
#17
Great news! I picked up my bass from SF Guitar Works (after it was in the shop for only a week) and it looks great! I actually had to think about it for a second to remember which fret and which part of the fingerboard were damaged when I first took a look at it. The repair looks just about perfect and the neck/fingerboard now feel just like they did pre-accident.

The fret job and setup they gave me also injected some extra life into the bass and it seems to play even better than it did before. I can't say enough about their work at SFGW. I have a cool vintage restoration project that I've been thinking about for a while (several years) and I think I've found the place to do it!

Here are some pictures...
from the front, nothing's noticeable:

FrontViewFixed_zpsa01a3d40.jpg


at an angle, it's still hard to see where the repair is:

CloseupFixed_zpsc0a3a250.jpg


if you look closely, you can see some of the epoxy:

AngledViewFixed_zpse0e8ef70.jpg
 
#18
Nice job! We Luthiers can fix just about anything, if you let us. But you have to understand that it takes some hours and costs some money. Most of us have to charge an hourly rate of $40 to $75 per hour. We don't actually get paid anything close to that, believe me! That's a composite hourly shop rate, which covers rent, utilities, and all the other costs of running a business. The final "pay" that we take home is often not much more than minimum wage.

The $450 that you paid SF Guitar Works bought about 8 hours of labor. The guy who did the work probably took home $15-$20 per hour at most. The rest is overhead to run the shop. That's the way this business works.
 

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