This is a great old bass I have used professionally since the early 1980s for both Jazz and symphony work. We currently have the back off for some end block issues, and we noticed a couple of repairs like this one.
Does anyone have thoughts as to whether it's worthwhile to thin them, replace them with cleats, etc. They appear to have been there for a very long time, and there are no structural issues. It's not a bad repair so much as perhaps too much was done. That repair may be a hundred years old.
The bass may be a composite of a couple of very old instruments. The hole for the endpin isn't centered, but is 4 inches closer to the back than the front, so the ribs have apparently been cut down. Even so, the ribs appear to be no smaller than most 3/4 basses. At the time I bought it, I probably payed too much, but I loved the sound. Back then, there was no Upton or Chinese instruments, and everyone wanted something old. It's had issues over the years, so I'm sure I'm so underwater on it I'd never recover what I've sunk in it. I'm 70 now, and retired now anyway.
Parts may have been damaged in a fire at some point. There is a tag for a bass bar replacement by Milan Mike Trapovitch in 1950 in Hollywood.
Am I going to hear a difference for the money it will cost to remove these and replace them with proper spruce cleats?
Thanks.
Does anyone have thoughts as to whether it's worthwhile to thin them, replace them with cleats, etc. They appear to have been there for a very long time, and there are no structural issues. It's not a bad repair so much as perhaps too much was done. That repair may be a hundred years old.
The bass may be a composite of a couple of very old instruments. The hole for the endpin isn't centered, but is 4 inches closer to the back than the front, so the ribs have apparently been cut down. Even so, the ribs appear to be no smaller than most 3/4 basses. At the time I bought it, I probably payed too much, but I loved the sound. Back then, there was no Upton or Chinese instruments, and everyone wanted something old. It's had issues over the years, so I'm sure I'm so underwater on it I'd never recover what I've sunk in it. I'm 70 now, and retired now anyway.
Parts may have been damaged in a fire at some point. There is a tag for a bass bar replacement by Milan Mike Trapovitch in 1950 in Hollywood.
Am I going to hear a difference for the money it will cost to remove these and replace them with proper spruce cleats?
Thanks.
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