I reattached the neck to my 1940 M-1 this weekend. Of course the soundpost fell over in the process. What to do? Pretty hard to find a bass sound post tool in Caribou Maine on a Sunday. I took the first section of a gun cleaning rod, found an appropriate machine screw that threaded into it, and dug around in the scrap bins until I found a piece of flat brass stock. I drilled a hole in it, and mounted it into the cleaning rod with a nut to lock it in place. I then ground the head of the screw into a sharp point. The Kay soundpost was the old split type, the slot of which I stuck the sharpened tool into. I don't know if it was by accident or design, but based on the taper of the sound post ends, the split faced the treble f-hole. There's a disc on the inside of the back with a recessed hole, so that was easy enough. I was able to determine where the soundpost had spent many years (right or wrong) by looking at the inside of the top with an inspection mirror. I got it as close as I could with the pointed end, then applied pressure on the top with my left hand to hold the post in place while wiggling the tool out of the soundpost slot with my right. Then using the inspection mirror and ever so slightly varying the pressure on the top, I was able to nudge the top end of the soundpost into place using the brass piece. Once I got it where it needed to be, I brought the string tension up.
Not rocket science, I know, but I thought I'd pass along a photo of the crude, quick, free, and effective tool.
Not rocket science, I know, but I thought I'd pass along a photo of the crude, quick, free, and effective tool.
