Mr PC:
Thanks for the response to my question. No offense intended, I was just curious if you had been there. Regularly I see folks giving advice with not much experience to back it up; it sounds like you have plenty and I respect your opinion. I too prefer the sound of the original Brazilian rosewood fingerboard over an ebony one, but I understand that they wear out a lot faster and it is the sum of the whole bass that matters, not just the individual parts, and to replace a Brazilian rosewood 'board in this market is cost prohibitive compared to the lesser priced, yet harder ebony. For those that don't know Brazilian rosewood is much more expensive than a comparable board of ebony. A straight neck is a different conversation than a bent or warped old flatsawn neck. One of my old Kays has been rebuilt like a massive, old German style neck and the more I play it, the more I like it. That one is not for sale.
There you have it, mutiple folks, multiple perspectives on how to fix your old bass, likely multiple ranges of what we are all hearing; nothing new around here. An ideal situation is to find someone who has a working example of the bass your are talking about that has had similar modifications and then you'll know if it is the way to go for your bass. As a blanket statement, I always tell folks: Well, if you are not happy with it, stand back, I'll lock it in the vise and break the neck in half again, just like it was when you brought it in, and we'll just call it even......!!!!
BTW: Jake's bass story came from some other bass nerd in the southeast, not me!
Old Kays are funny. They are not the best sounding, or the best looking, or the easiest to play, or a lot of other things that we all like in a fine instrument. They are not what I would even call a fine instrument- not even close. Yet, for all of that, 95% of the time when I have a gig where the ladies are shakin' and grindin' all night long, and both the crowd and the band are all jacked up and on fire for the whole night and it is dark and there is drinking and smoking and the air is flooded with sexual tension and I'm running through my LOUD rig and playing like it is my last day on the planet.....my fancy carved bass sits at home safe in the corner, my old aluminum bass is there too, along with the vintage European beauty.....and without hesitation I reach for my old beat to $--T, flood damaged, Willie Nelson's Trigger meets Stevie Ray Vaughan's stratocaster half the finish gone, honest real mojo HOSS of an old Kay and I absoulutely love it and I'm high off just the gig for days and I wouldn't trade anything for that old piece of plywood junk. Pack me up in it when I die and set us both on fire on our way up to the big gig in the sky with Ray and Django and Miles and Michael Hedges for my rhythmn section!
j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com
in any case that fact that the neck is floppy without a fingerboard makes talk of adding back bow seem silly. Maybe on guitars or electric basses with less mass at the peg and heel portions, but maybe not.
