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My worst case scenario

#182
Slight update - the assessor is still doing his thing on the instruments, no word on pricing for my instruments. I did get clearance to remove any basses I want to keep. The only real possibilities are the eight string, the A/E four string and the short scale four string (they were all upstairs and not directly in the fire).

If I'm honest the A/E is spent, it was laying on it's back and the inside of the instrument doesn't have a finish on it, so it got a good dose of soot that probably can't be removed. The eight string is my albatross, I got sick of working on that thing without success. I will probably save it, but I'm not sure what it's future will be. I will try to restore the short scale. I think a good wiping down followed by sanding, refinishing and possibly replacing the electronics and I'll have a bass that works. It was a fun little bass to mess around on.
 
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#183
I just looked through the above mentioned basses, the A/E four is toast. I wiped it off and set it aside, but it's done. I will just throw it away, as painful as that is. The top is really concave too, it must have gotten some heat. It's always been a bit concave, but it's really bad now. I wiped off the eight and pulled it aside, we'll see on that one. I have the short scale with me here. All the screws and metal is pitted/rusting. It wiped off pretty well. I will have to remove everything and sand it down. Getting inside the pickup cavity will be tough and may be the deciding factor in whether I can save this or not. The smell is so bad, it will take a lot of careful sanding to get rid of it.
 
#184
Jisch said:
I just looked through the above mentioned basses, the A/E four is toast. I wiped it off and set it aside, but it's done. I will just throw it away, as painful as that is. The top is really concave too, it must have gotten some heat. It's always been a bit concave, but it's really bad now. I wiped off the eight and pulled it aside, we'll see on that one. I have the short scale with me here. All the screws and metal is pitted/rusting. It wiped off pretty well. I will have to remove everything and sand it down. Getting inside the pickup cavity will be tough and may be the deciding factor in whether I can save this or not. The smell is so bad, it will take a lot of careful sanding to get rid of it.
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Sorry to hear about the A/E. Hopefully you can salvage the other two.
 
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#186
8 weeks after the fire my house pretty much looks the same as the day of the fire, we're still working through the insurance process.

I got some initial numbers on the basses I built, the numbers are really good, but seem somewhat random, I'm trying to negotiate the lower priced ones up. I don't feel comfortable putting the numbers up here on a public forum, but they are in line with what these instruments would cost commercially (pretty exciting really).

I was able to sand down and refinish the short scale bass, I'll get strings from Amazon today and get that one back in action - I'm still unsure if the pots and pickup made it through. I think they will be ok as the soot seemed to be just external and I don't think that one took too much heat.

The A/E four is not repairable. The top is warped badly and the inside is full of soot - there's no way I could sand inside the body. I think I'm going to save the neck (it's a bolt on) and try to remove the K&K system to install it in an acoustic I just put together. I installed that system with CA glue, so I will have to cut it out and carefully sand off the wood. I'll save the neck for a future build.

I will keep the eight string, but I think I will re-look at how to do the tuning on that one, the system I was trying to make wasn't working well. It's a nice body, but with the carve out for the tuning blocks, I'm not sure how/if I could get that to work in any way - that will be a back burner project for now.

I have just about all the parts ready to make a five string fretless. I have one more week of business travel then I should get some time to work on it. I'm looking at a cocobolo fingerboard with a wenge/walnut neck. I'm not sure on the body yet. I have some REALLY nice wood that I bought using some Go Fund Me money put up by my coworkers, but I bought it in haste and without really considering how I would use it, the thicknesses are a bit weird. I should have taken my time, but I'll get them used and it should be a nice looking instrument when I'm done.

I hate not having tools of any kind around, I've learned that I'm a tinkerer and not having stuff to tinker with is a bit frustrating.

After I get that fiver done I'll build a six string guitar - I need an electric around for recording.
 
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#189
Jisch said:
I was able to sand down and refinish the short scale bass, I'll get strings from Amazon today and get that one back in action - I'm still unsure if the pots and pickup made it through. I think they will be ok as the soot seemed to be just external and I don't think that one took too much heat.
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I'd love to see a pic of that short scale when you get a chance....:thumbsup:
 
#190
Sure. I'm having problems with the pickup (I think it's the pickup) so the guts are hanging out the back right now. I should get it fixed up soon, I hope and I'll take some pictures. I'm getting super distorted sound out of it, sometimes 4 strings work, sometimes I can only get sound out of 2. I'll figure it out, I ordered two sets of pickups and I think I pulled aside the second set and put them in my shed, I need to go look today. I don't think I'll be using these Guitar Fetish pickups again, I had trouble with them the first time around as well.
 
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#191
Jisch said:
Certainly the insurance process is frustratingly slow, but so far I have no complaints with the company, they've held up to their side of the bargain so far. I wish they would go faster, but as with any big business they have their processes and hoops to jump through.
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Again, based on my brother's experience as an adjuster, slow is typical.
I'm quite please that they appear to be offering market value (and above?) for instruments that you built. That is not typical. Continued best wishes, mate.
 
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#193
Jisch said:
It's still early, no celebrating until I have a check.
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FYI....directly from my brother, after I emailed him about your situation:

"Recovery estimates from an insurer are binding. In other words, if they give you a number on a specific item and you accept, they are obligated to pay that amount. It's implied that they have done their research prior to providing a number, and in this case, it's likely that your friend is being compensated for the labor he put into constructing the instrument."
 
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#194
desertrider71 said:
FYI....directly from my brother, after I emailed him about your situation:

"Recovery estimates from an insurer are binding. In other words, if they give you a number on a specific item and you accept, they are obligated to pay that amount. It's implied that they have done their research prior to providing a number, and in this case, it's likely that your friend is being compensated for the labor he put into constructing the instrument."
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Fingers crossed then :thumbsup:
 
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#196
It's been a long road, but I thought I'd update this (zombie) post. We moved back into the house yesterday.

The ultimate prices for my basses were not as good as the initial assessment, but I have an avenue to work on that with my Public Adjuster. Our house is beautiful, it is literally a brand new house. The studio is still in boxes, I should have that back up and operational by the end of the weekend. I finished a wing bass in the interim (see my avatar) and have a five string fretless about 90% done. It will take a few more weeks before I have my guitar building stuff in place and operational, but we reworked the basement to include some space for a workshop, in the past I was using a tiny corner of an unheated garage.

So all in all, not a terrible process, but man it seems like eons ago when I lived in this house. I can't wait for it to be "normal" again.

I re-read through this thread this morning, it might be the only place where I recorded my thoughts as we went through the process, super interesting to go through it now and thanks again for the support, it really does make a difference!
 
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