I originally wrote a very long post about this on Easter, shortly after getting this incredible instrument back from the luthier. Unfortunately, I tried to upload right when the server went down, and lost the entire thing. I’m not going to try and recreate it, I’ll just roll with where I’m at now.
I owned a very old fragile instrument that was never going to see a gig and I didn’t want to care for it anymore. Unfortunately, it had an ugly headstock repair that was actually super solid and well executed, but nobody was going to bite online unless I let it go for low dough. So... I started looking around at vintage dealers within a days drive to possibly trade for a bass. I found a dealer in Providence (an hour from me) that had some promising looking basses. I tried a couple, and one really caught my eye. Actually, my ear and shoulder. It had a great, hot, full range pickup with some “hair” to it and was very light weight (SIX POUNDS) It wasn’t very left-hand friendly, however.
It was a 1955 Multivox Marvel.
They were manufactured without a truss rod, or even a separate fretboard. The neck is just a big oil’ billet with a flat milled surface and frets sunk into it.
This particular one had lived a very hard life, many gigs. I suppose the neck had actually held up for awhile, but when I played it, the neck had about 3/16” -1/4” relief at the twelfth fret. The first five frets actually played okay, almost well enough to gig on... almost. I loved the way it felt in my hands, hung on the strap, looked, and most importantly,sounded. I thought- I will deal with this somehow, and make this a gigging instrument. The scale length was actually 34 1/2, so it played rather like a fender, although the string spacing is much tighter (16-17 mm). The tech at the shop actually did a pretty good job getting it to play in tune up the neck and making it marginally playable. A Herculean effort, since the bridge was just a crude “biscuit” design. Apparently he spent many hours doing so, much to the chagrin of his boss. I don’t know what I was thinking, I guess I just fell in love. We reached a deal-in addition to the bass, they gave me a nice, unusual nylon string guitar and a decent wad of cash. They made out like bandits, but I was actually pretty happy, even though over half of my trade value went towards a project bass. This is what I brought home:
So, my first thought towards addressing playability was to actually procure an adjustable bridge with the proper spacing. I ordered one from Hipshot. I was thinking I could actually get the action low enough to handle light strings/detuning and still intonate. That may have been the case, but I started making inquiries to local luthiers (there are several top notch ones here- I am very fortunate in that regard). I talked to one about installing a truss rod and he flat out refused- but offered to make a repro neck instead, telling me it would be much cheaper and would likely be much stronger and more durable than a retrofitted rod. I said “Yes please!”
We discussed the details, and he offered to make it with a Macassar Ebony board since he got a good deal on a whole bunch. I love ebony, so although it’s taking it far from being a repro, I couldn’t resist. He balked a little at using guitar tuners, but I really wanted to keep the vibe and balance of the original. When I told him I would custom order them from Hipshot as well, he agreed.
If anyone out there is thinking of doing something similar, please know that Hipshot will bore out the string holes on certain guitar tuners (*not all models) up to .060 to accommodate large (I.e. bass) strings. I think it’s a modest up charge and adds to the wait, but boy, is it worth it! They work beautifully.
So after waiting several weeks for the tuners, (I already had the bridge, too) I took the whole mess over to his shop and dropped it off. He said it would be quite a while before he got to it, I said “I don’t care, as long as I can gig it next summer”. He laughed and told me I would have it long before then, but it might be six months. It was more like eight. I didn’t care, I’ve been keeping busy. After I got it back, I REALLY didn’t care! This thing is amazing.
I owned a very old fragile instrument that was never going to see a gig and I didn’t want to care for it anymore. Unfortunately, it had an ugly headstock repair that was actually super solid and well executed, but nobody was going to bite online unless I let it go for low dough. So... I started looking around at vintage dealers within a days drive to possibly trade for a bass. I found a dealer in Providence (an hour from me) that had some promising looking basses. I tried a couple, and one really caught my eye. Actually, my ear and shoulder. It had a great, hot, full range pickup with some “hair” to it and was very light weight (SIX POUNDS) It wasn’t very left-hand friendly, however.
It was a 1955 Multivox Marvel.
They were manufactured without a truss rod, or even a separate fretboard. The neck is just a big oil’ billet with a flat milled surface and frets sunk into it.
This particular one had lived a very hard life, many gigs. I suppose the neck had actually held up for awhile, but when I played it, the neck had about 3/16” -1/4” relief at the twelfth fret. The first five frets actually played okay, almost well enough to gig on... almost. I loved the way it felt in my hands, hung on the strap, looked, and most importantly,sounded. I thought- I will deal with this somehow, and make this a gigging instrument. The scale length was actually 34 1/2, so it played rather like a fender, although the string spacing is much tighter (16-17 mm). The tech at the shop actually did a pretty good job getting it to play in tune up the neck and making it marginally playable. A Herculean effort, since the bridge was just a crude “biscuit” design. Apparently he spent many hours doing so, much to the chagrin of his boss. I don’t know what I was thinking, I guess I just fell in love. We reached a deal-in addition to the bass, they gave me a nice, unusual nylon string guitar and a decent wad of cash. They made out like bandits, but I was actually pretty happy, even though over half of my trade value went towards a project bass. This is what I brought home:
We discussed the details, and he offered to make it with a Macassar Ebony board since he got a good deal on a whole bunch. I love ebony, so although it’s taking it far from being a repro, I couldn’t resist. He balked a little at using guitar tuners, but I really wanted to keep the vibe and balance of the original. When I told him I would custom order them from Hipshot as well, he agreed.
If anyone out there is thinking of doing something similar, please know that Hipshot will bore out the string holes on certain guitar tuners (*not all models) up to .060 to accommodate large (I.e. bass) strings. I think it’s a modest up charge and adds to the wait, but boy, is it worth it! They work beautifully.
So after waiting several weeks for the tuners, (I already had the bridge, too) I took the whole mess over to his shop and dropped it off. He said it would be quite a while before he got to it, I said “I don’t care, as long as I can gig it next summer”. He laughed and told me I would have it long before then, but it might be six months. It was more like eight. I didn’t care, I’ve been keeping busy. After I got it back, I REALLY didn’t care! This thing is amazing.
. Nice work, I love the finish, and good call on the tuners.
