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Double Bass Need advice: repairing a Mortone basket case

#21
No problem. I finally got it stable enough to play. After popping the top, rearching it, removing the original (sprung) bass bar, fitting a new (unsprung) bass bar, prying out the neck, cleaning it up, shimming and resetting it, and doing a terrible job on the bridge after I put it back together...man, it was a lot of work. But it's a cool old bass. Guts, etc. Lotsa fun.

I was blown away by how you managed to get your bass to take tension on those crazy shims without falling over. Thought about driving out to pick that up, but I'm glad it went home with someone who's serious about taking care of it.
 
#22
Yeah, I was very careful when tuning it to pitch (for lots of reasons). I also had a second set of hands to help keep everything from moving. I figured it would work just so I could see if my work had payed off.

It is nice to have a plywood again! I'm going to try and get that bass in for setup work in the next couple of weeks and buy a set of guts for it. I think all the little detail work will progress at a much slower rate... I just wanna play it now!
 

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