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Double Bass Replacement Fingerboard

C

CDickinson

Feb 22, 2020
14
32
Forest Ranch, California
#1
I need some advice about replacement fingerboards.

I’ve been working on a Kay from the ‘60s that had several cracks in the grain across the neck heel. One seemed to go all the way through. They wouldn’t close up with humidification and clamping. So I removed the fingerboard with a heatlamp and spatulas and putty knives, then steamed the neck off.

In removing the fingerboard it took on an extreme curve that I have been trying to straighten with heat and weight but it ain’t budging. It appears to be a piece of highly figured Rosewood so maybe it could be cut up into other things.

Anyway, I’ve found several sources, Ebay (China or Indonesia) at about $75, Southwest at about $160 or Sound Composites graphite for $240. There are several others closer to $400. Of the first three examples, what would you go with?

Thanks, Carl
 
#2
$275 from International Violin or MET music will get you a great, high quality, thick, well seasoned ebony fingerboard that will last for decades; you can get lower cosmetic grades from the same folks for less that will work just as well. Call up and ask, as they don't always advertise the ones with color variation that work perfectly fine.

Avoid the $75 fingerboard shaped objects from Epay at all costs!!!! They will warp all over the place in a few months and all your hard work will be lost.......
 
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#3
Thanks for those recommendations. I'll check them out.
Steven Ayers encouraged me to use the Brazilian Rosewood one, but I doubt that I can straighten it. It actually has a kink, not a curve, at about 11.5" from the nut. There is extreme runout (30 degrees) across the fingerboard at that point. The bottom of the fingerboard is straight (flat) on either side of the kink. It's a pretty piece of wood otherwise. It'll make several acoustic guitar bridges or something.
I'm leaning toward the carbon fiber one. I'm hoping to make this an easy player for a grandson. He's the bassist in his high school jazz band.
 
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#6
They come with a maple veneer bottom, slightly recessed from the edges for use with hide or fish glues. Their regular surface glues with TB. I was thinking of routing a groove and installing carbon fiber reinforcement in the neck, I wouldn't have to do that with this kind of neck. It took quite a bit of sanding with a bar to level it.
 
#7
It was a flat sawn neck but the grain lines took an abrupt upturn in about a 3" length.
IMG_20200301_172303_3.jpg
.That's where the kink was.
 
#8
Got the neck glued back on today. Built a new neck heel by laminating maple, manzanita and curly maple. Cut the matching dovetail on the table router and came pretty close. Used sanding blocks cut on the same router setup to fine tune the dovetails in the neck and block. Used garrett-wade glue and squeezed it in with clamps the last 3/32". Should last until I'm gone.

IMG_20200305_162326_2.jpg


Still need to get a fingerboard.

Carl
 
#9
That PVA won’t last a week. Ask me how I know.

If you’re going to ignore the advice you get from experienced professionals, why even ask? Post on a hobbyist woodworking forum where they don’t know anything better than plastic glue and sloppy joints.
 

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