Double Bass Sound post crack patch - fitting pics

[Matthew Tucker]

There was a fair bit of interest in Kurt's fine work on his plaster cast and soundpost patch.

But he didn't take any pics of the fitting process, and as I've just done one of these, and taken pics, i'll show you mine.

I didn't make a plaster cast for this one though - the bass is no Testore, and the belly was quite strong - so I rested the belly firmly on a sandbag for carving and clamping.

This is the soundpost crack – going off in three directions. i glued this up first.

Then on the other side of the plate I started carving:

in the next pic you can just see the back of the crack peeping through. the belly is now about 2mm thick in the middle.

for clamping, i've improvised a miniature go-bar deck. I prefer this way to using c clamps and it allows me to apply pressure where and how i want.

The finished patch. Not a patch on Kurt's, but for this lower-priced bass it'll do the trick and get the bass back playing again.

 

[forester]

timely & nice repair...did it take a big hit at some point to cause the 3 way split ?

 

[Matthew Tucker]

Fell on its face.

 

[eh_train]

Matthew,

Nice job, and thanks for posting the pics! I'd like to find a bass to try this on, but it seems around here that even beater basses are going for quite a bit of money...

Cheers,

Paul (Eh_train)

 

[kurt ratering]

nice matt, gotta love trauma cracks!

 

[Caoimhín]

Nice one Matt, thanks for the pics.

Do you use a shard of glass as a scraper? Mind yer fingies!

 

[Matthew Tucker]

Yes I use glass scrapers often. I keep them small and use 3mm glass to avoid breaking them. Yes, fingies valuable.

Mind you, on the weekend I did some damage to my right forefinger with a completely blunt instrument ...

 

[Cody Sisk]

Nice work! The glass scraper is a cool idea. Do they indefinitely maintain sharpness? I seem to spend more time burnishing than scraping..

 

[Matthew Tucker]

No they don't last forever but glass is cheap and if you know what you're doing you can cut a new scraper in about 10 seconds.

Mind you, it only takes 1/10th of a second to cut yourself.

So far though, I still have most of my original flesh.

 

[tonequixote]

Nice job Matthew.
It might be worth your time to make a handle for the glass. Doesn't have to be anything more than some scrap wood with a rabbet let in to hold the glass. Hope this helps.

 

[timobee4]

Amazing!