Double Bass neck joining

[mnormand]

I have a Cremora/whatever I picked up for almost nothing. The neck joint is cracked where it attaches to the body. How are the necks attached? What holds it to the body, obviously pretty good tension there...hide glue? How would you remove it to first repair the break, then re-attach? Anyone knows of some details pics here or elsewhere?
I've searched some but not found any pic details yet.

I do have some woodworking skills (have built cedar strip kayaks) and might like to try to repair just for kicks. I know, I can hear the experts groan. But how else to learn except for a project bass like this? I enjoy learning new deals like this and not afraid to try. I can certainly post pics as well, here or elsewhere.

Thx for any help. If I can see some pics, that would be a great help.
Regards,
Mark

 

[PB+J]

I'm not a lluthier, so hopefully someoone more knowledgeable will chime in. The neck is traditionally attached with a dovetail joint. There's a large block of wood at the top of the bass, where the neck attaches--this ends up being the "female" side of the dovetail joint. The butt end of the neck is then carved in the "male" half of the dovetail. The glue used is traditionally hide glue, which is strong and easily undone with heat and moisture, so the bass can be repaired

Ideally, stresses in the neck joint should result not in cracks but in the neck popping out of the dovetail. I can't tell if the crack is in the neck or in the block, but--and i may be wrong--I suspect either it's not a traditional dovetail or it's s not hide glue.

I had an old Kay bass I got for 75 bucks--the neck was held to the block with massive screws. Some garage mechanic's repair. Eventually the whole block disintegrated

If you can take pictures you'll get more help

 

[mnormand]

<<--the neck was held to the block with massive screws. Some garage mechanic's repair. >>

Massive screw...exactly what we have here from previous owner. I want to take the whole neck joint down and start over. I did find some luthier repairs pics of how they fixed a break similar to this one, so thats been a big help to understand the concept.

I'll have to strip off the finish and see how things are put together. Hopefully a carefully applied heat gun will start to loosen that joint area.

Between working daytime and jamming most evenings, hopefully can fit this in !

I will certainly try to add pics shortly.
Thx!

 

[PB+J]

That's why it cracked then, I'll bet--the big screw prevented it from giving way the way it's supposed to.

I bet you'll have to replace the neck block, not a trivial job

 

[mpm]

I had a Cremona with the same problem. It turns out there was no dovetail/mortise&tenon/anything. The bottom of the neck was flat, the top of the block was flat! Just two flat surfaces glued together, go figure...anyway, I doweled the whole mess and called it good.