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Double Bass Old Kay Soundpost Cannon!!!

james condino

james condino

Spruce dork
Commercial User
Sep 30, 2007
5,443
13,478
asheville, nc
www.condino.com
#1
Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall....

This one came in last week; 'had to share it here. A fellow won a beautiful squeeky clean 1953 Kay on an obscure auction for a little over $700. Excited, he patiently awaited delivery and this is what F%$ #X dropped off on the doorstep; both the seller and the shipper refused every aspect of it- no insurance claim, no refund,no anything , suck it up, quit your whining, you got what you paid for.....

I spent a lot of years in engineering school but no longer have access to the resources there. Is there someone here who can give me an approximate calculation of how much force it would actually take to blast a hole that clean completely through all 5 layers and bust up half the bassbar? Short of running over it with a forklift, I can only imagine. I can supply a good section of a similar 1953 Kay body and a soundpost if someone has the equipment to simulate this in the lab and measure the forces.

I'll try to show more as I put Humpty back together; 'gotta get him back in shape for Merlefest and the summer tour season!

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com

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#5
If I had one shipped I would ask them to loosen the strings take the bridge off and knock the sound post down. The set up, which would probably be wrong to start with, could be re done way cheaper and with certainly less stress on the bass. I punch steel for a living and there would have to of been a very sharp heavy blow to the back with some kind of pressure on the top to make it blow through that cleanly. James please post pics when she is done. At least she is in good hands.
 
#8
Probably the most difficult aspect of a repair like this is the cosmetic work. Luckily, day one went about as smooth as they come; have I mentioned how much I like hot hide glue??? It almost never happens that all of the little micro pieces are intact and go back together with minimal evidence like this.

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com

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#14
james condino said:
It almost never happens that all of the little micro pieces are intact and go back together with minimal evidence like this.
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I suppose it helps to get on the job quickly after the event. I've observed that broken wood looses its property to fit back together with time, even if it has been carefully stored.
 
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#16
The most amount of credit goes to the owner who was diligent about keeping eveything intact and orderly before they brought it in. A new carbon fiber & spruce laminated "superpatch" for the inside of the belly is curing right now; more photos next week. I'll try to show the whole process.

What I really want to show off this week is the new bass superstation and a series of precise jigs I made up over the last six weeks that allowed me to do 4 (!!!!!) scroll grafts in two days with all the same interchangeable geometry and precision. I'll save those for later, since I'd bet that more than one person around here gets tired of me running my trap all of the time! Have a great weekend- sunny and mid '60s in Asheville today!!!!

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com
 
#17
james condino said:
The most amount of credit goes to the owner who was diligent about keeping eveything intact and orderly before they brought it in. A new carbon fiber & spruce laminated "superpatch" for the inside of the belly is curing right now; more photos next week. I'll try to show the whole process....
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I was going to suggest a CF belly patch as a joke. I just don't think big enough. You rock!
 
#19
Nobody ever comes by my place because they are feeling good and want to show off a healthy bass in top form. I see a lot of what many folks deem beyond hope plywood basses (lots of carved and others too)- the zombies and the flood damaged and the car wrecks and the carnage. A few weeks bench time usually brings everything back into fine condition- plys back together, arches reformed, soundhole wings back into original anatomical position, all with a bit of heat, steam, a half pound of hide glue, and some special cauls and forms to aid the process. For something like this, I wanted solid, reliable structure, but I don't want to create a huge brick of immobility. The bass still needs to sing and dance and let that big box pump air around.

A friend who works in an engineering lab recently sent me a big 6' roll of woven carbon fiber leftover from a racecar prototype hull to experiment with making some CF laminated tops. This was my first use of it; handy when you need the nuclear option, but toxic, messy, and oooooooohhhhhhhhhhh do carbon fiber splinters hurt!!!!! I made up a few test samples, destroyed them, and then picked this as a final, composed of three total layers: a bottom layer of spruce, a midle layer of spruce with a 4" disc of four ply 45 degree crossgrained carbon fiber inlet in the middle, and the top layer of spruce. That way it is attached to the body with hot hide glue, the carbon is bonded with a modern appropriate adhesive, and the outside layer is also spruce so that the soundpost can still bite in a little. A soundpost straight against the carbon fiber would be a slippery situation. On my carbon fiber soundposts, I cap the ends with spruce for the same reason. The bass should be going home next week, so I'll try to blog the whole process on the site sometime this month after it is finished. Anybody in the area this weekend is encouraged to stop by, check it out, and give it a nice little workout playing a few tunes.

j.
www.kaybassrepair.com
www.condino.com

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#20
james condino said:
A friend who works in an engineering lab recently sent me a big 6' roll of woven carbon fiber leftover from a racecar prototype hull to experiment with making some CF laminated tops. This was my first use of it; handy when you need the nuclear option, but toxic, messy, and oooooooohhhhhhhhhhh do carbon fiber splinters hurt!!!!! I made up a few test samples, destroyed them, and then picked this as a final, composed of three total layers: a bottom layer of spruce, a midle layer of spruce with a 4" disc of four ply 45 degree crossgrained carbon fiber inlet in the middle, and the top layer of spruce. That way it is attached to the body with hot hide glue, the carbon is bonded with a modern appropriate adhesive, and the outside layer is also spruce so that the soundpost can still bite in a little. A soundpost straight against the carbon fiber would be a slippery situation. On my carbon fiber soundposts, I cap the ends with spruce for the same reason. The bass should be going home next week, so I'll try to blog the whole process on the site sometime this month after it is finished. Anybody in the area this weekend is encouraged to stop by, check it out, and give it a nice little workout playing a few tunes.

j.
www.kaybassrepair.com
www.condino.com
Click to expand...
Oh, I like that! Care to sell a little bit of the CF fabric?
 

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