Double Bass Fingerboard with too much camber.

[travshorts]

Hello all.

I was wondering if some of the experienced talk bassers could describe how they go about correcting an over-camberd fingerboard.

My general method: Using a china pencil I will draw reference lines, spaced in even increments, moving towards where I feel is the deepest parts of the camber, starting at the ends of the board and moving inwards. Setting the plane to take a very fine cut, I will plane off the first increment equally across the board (assuming I want to keep the original shape/curve of the nut end and tongue end) and move back to the next etc. I am shooting the plane off of the board when doing this. Once I have moved inwards from both ends to where I feel is the beginning of the deepest part of the scoop/dip, I will then switch to long strokes the whole length of the board to smooth and blend. Then finish with scrapers, files, etc.

Sometimes this only has to be done at one end but more often than not I am trying to correct too much scoop/dip around the 4th/5th position from factory setups.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Please tell me any faults you see as well. I have good success with this repair but am always looking to refine. Cheers!

Now to rest my sore hands from too much planing and not nearly enough playing. sigh...

 

[travshorts]

No bites?

 

[james condino]

Sometimes the camber is from dressing or wear and other times it is from general bowing of the neck and fingerboard over time. With excess bowing, I'll remove the fingerboard and then use a silicone heat blanket and the neck tensioned with a slight backbow using clamps and a specialty shaped caul to cook it back into position. I do the same thing with fingerboards (and ribs and laminate tops and anything else that needs specialty controlled bending...oh yeah, on my lamintaed taiieces too). Add a couple of carbon fiber beams in the neck while it is all apart and then glue it back.

When everything else is good and it is just a fingerboard issue, it just comes down to planes and abrasives. Flatsawn fingerboards tend to have a lot more bowing issues.

J.
Condino.com
Kaybassrepair.com

 

[travshorts]

Sometimes the camber is from dressing or wear and other times it is from general bowing of the neck and fingerboard over time. With excess bowing, I'll remove the fingerboard and then use a silicone heat blanket and the neck tensioned with a slight backbow using clamps and a specialty shaped caul to cook it back into positin. I do the same thing wiht fingerboards (and ribs and laminate tops and anything else that needs specialty controlled bending...oh yeah, on my lamintaed taiieces too). Add a couple of carbon fiber beams in the neck while it is all apart and then glue ot back.

When everything else is good and it is just a fingerboard issue, it just comes down to planes and abrasives. Flatsawn fingerboards tend to have a lot more bowing issues.

J.
Condino.com
Kaybassrepair.com

Hi James

I was mostly thinking about necks that are still straight but somebody somewhere was a little too generous with the plane. Just curious about how others go about removing excess camber

As for a bowing issue and the repair you described, I have done something similar using a heat lamp to bend the neck back straight and then after making sure the neck and fingerboard gluing surface is flat, gluing the fingerboard back on to hold it in position. Your technique sounds a whole lot better. I'm just getting my feet wet in the larger world of repair!

Hopefully one day I will have a chance to try carbon fiber reinforcement. Thanks for the reply.