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Double Bass Help I have a Bump in the Neck

bluebird28

bluebird28

Guest
Feb 25, 2012
497
43
Tacoma. WA
#1
I have a new Stagg EDB (Electric Double Bass) and the fingerboard at the 3rd note all the strings vibrates or buzzes.
I have moved the strings out of the way and run my hand up and down the fingerboard and can feel a hump. The finger board on thes are made of a white maple and painted black. I don't mind the idea of a blond fingerboard on a black bass. Should I use a hobbyist razor scraper on the bump and sand the rest of the neck?
Should I use a cabinet makers scraper on the bump and sand the rest of the neck?
Should I paint the neck or oil it?
If I paint it what kind of paint should I use?

Thank you for your advise.
 
#2
If you bought it new, I would return it and get a another instrument with a better fingerboard. It's obvious that this is a manufacturing error and not coming from use.

The shaping quality of the fingerboard on the Stagg EUBs can vary a lot. I got two with some (announced) neck to body mounting issues for about a half to a third of the normal price on Ebay, one of them has a really good fingerboard, the other one needs a higher action to pizz without buzzing. For the price I paid it doesn't make sense to return the one with the bad fingerboard, but I was too lazy to plan it yet, since I have the other one and one more EUB to play.
 
#5
My truss rod was as loose as it could be. The string tension of the original manufacturer's string won't bend the neck. Maybe a little bit over a long time, but this is purely hypothetical.
You can hold a long straight thing like an angled aluminium or steel profile or a long lineal along the fingered area of the fingerboard. It should not wiggle (if it does you have a bump). If in the middle is some space unter it it is OK (probably good) as long as you don't see any bumps along the space.
I don't know the typical price for a fingerboard planing, but expect half the price of the Stagg EUB. And painting it afterwards dosn't make it more plan than before.
 
#6
I went to a luthier, who works on DB's, his comment was that yes there is a hump at the 3rd note on the fingerboard and that there is no relief on the E string. Yes the fingerboard needs to be planed. He showed me a Ampeg Baby Bass that he setup and how the relief needs to be on the fingerboard.
He wanted $300.00 to do the job. I paid $379.00 for the bass delivered. It was supposed to be a blem and the only one they had. The Bass is black and arrived with 3 broken machine heads and a broken bridge. I got all the machine heads and bridge from the distribritor free, put the bass back together to discover the fingerboard problem.

I will be using a cabinet makers scraper to remove the paint on the fingerboard and then sand the bump down. Then I will work slowly on the fingerboard to build in some relief on the E string.

I do not care for a painted fingerboard so I will look into using Tung oil on it. Comments appreciated. I will try to document the process in pictures.
 
#7
The price your luthier wants is reasonable. I might have a luthier in Germnay that may do it for $50 less, but this is in the normal range.
Seems you really got a lemon. Even my slightly damaged basses were in a better condition.

If you want to plan it yourself (which I can understand), keep in mind to check every few minutes with the lineal or profile. Get a long one for global and one or two shorter ones for local checking. If the wood looks good, use linseed oil as the final finish. Start with a scraper (always towards the pegbox, NEVER in the other direction), the use medium fine sandpaper when the bump has gone and everything is fine with low action and go at least up to 400 or better 800 sandpaper and then finish with the oil.

Good luck. You will at least have a very personal instrument.
 
#8
I've said this before but I think it applies. Dressing a fingerboard is like trimming a leg on a wobbly kitchen table. Before you know it you're left with a coffee table and it still wobbles! There is a real art to doing a good job and it isn't as easy as many people think. Also, I wouldn't recommend tung oil or any oils that have driers in them. These can get gummy. Try something like mineral oil ( light application and rub it out well).
 
#9
Oh, and that painted fingerboard... They didn't paint it because they wanted to hide some beautiful ebony underneath. You're likely to find something plain ( at best) or really nasty wood under that. It will likely be unseasoned so it will probably twist and warp. But just do the best you can. This kind of stuff is how you learn to become a luthier. It's like being put on the back of a horse and handed a rope. Then you realize you're in a pen. And you see the arena...and the rodeo clowns....and you finally notice the horse is a huge bull, then the gate flies open!
 
#11
Since I last posted “Help I have a bump in the neck” on 5/29/12, I’ve had some complications. At the end of June I was bitten, on the right hand thumb area, by a neighborhood cat and spent 4 days in the Hospital on IV antibiotics. On August 4th I was bitten by someone else’s German Shepard/Rotwiler mix on the same hand only on the pinky side. I could see 3 tendons. Twelve days later I started in on the Stagg EUB. I used to work on snow skis and did a lot of racing tune-ups. I have also made custom hand grips for hand guns as well as custom stocks for rifles. I was very apprehensive about scraping the paint off the finger board and under the paint is some sort of resin. The paint came off fairly easily but the resin underneath was another scraping altogether. The resin comes off in chunks flying up and hitting my eye protection. The wood in my neck is white maple and after sanding to 400 grit progressively from 150 girt and then 0000 steel wool and lots of lemon oil, I think it looks better than the painted original. From my experience, I would not hesitate to do this again if I had to. I do have pics but I have to resize them to get to upload
 

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