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Double Bass sound post cracked the back

Cristofre

Cristofre

Jul 8, 2004
153
56
55
Georgia, USA
#1
This is my first post on here, howdy!
I have been playing electric bass for 18 years. I have always wanted a cheap upright to screw around with, I found a new cremona (I know...I can already hear the comments) a while back and it is filling that purpose. The problem is that I noticed recently that there was a crack in the back of the bass where the sound post is seated against the back. I do not remember banging the bass hard enough at any point to cause this to happen. My questions are: has anyone seen this happen before? will it get worse? I cannot really fix it with cleats as the post is pushing against it on the inside. obviously I am not going to spend any money to have this repaired by someone else but I have some limited lutherie skills I might try out on it. When I bought the thing I had to do quite a bit of work to it to make it playable , but now it is actually a pretty decent bang-around bass.
 
#2
Cristofre said:
This is my first post on here, howdy!
I have been playing electric bass for 18 years. I have always wanted a cheap upright to screw around with, I found a new cremona (I know...I can already hear the comments) a while back and it is filling that purpose. The problem is that I noticed recently that there was a crack in the back of the bass where the sound post is seated against the back. I do not remember banging the bass hard enough at any point to cause this to happen. My questions are: has anyone seen this happen before? will it get worse? I cannot really fix it with cleats as the post is pushing against it on the inside. obviously I am not going to spend any money to have this repaired by someone else but I have some limited lutherie skills I might try out on it. When I bought the thing I had to do quite a bit of work to it to make it playable , but now it is actually a pretty decent bang-around bass.
Click to expand...

Welcome to talkbass.com - many fine people here, and lots of good information.

If you're going to to the repair yourself, you need to drop the post, do the repair, and then re-seat the post. It's difficult without seeing the bass, to say why it cracked - it might be a temperature/humidity thing; it might be that the post was incorrectly fitted.

Yes - it's likely to get worse with time - it will certainly not get better…

<…obviously I am not going to spend any money to have this repaired by someone else…>

Not obvious to me - unless your skills are adequate, you will take it to a luthier eventually, so why not have done with it and take it to an expert earlier rather than later? IMNSHO ;)

Good Luck -

- Wil

(Oh, by the way, what does your teacher say?)
 
#3
The reason I was not planning to take it to a luthier is that I live in a somewhat rural area and can picture that getting it to a luthier and having it repaired could very possibly cost more than the bass did! As for your other question, I do not have a teacher, I have been teaching myself.

I was looking closely at the bass yesterday and noticed that there is a somewhat noticeable protrubance on the front of the bass also where the post contacts it there. I just ordered a new bridge and some Corelli 370TX strings for it, so I am going to have it taken apart sometime next week. I can only guess that, like you said, the post was fitted incorrectly. The new strings are supposed to have a lower tension so that might help some, I am somwhat afraid to mess with the post as I can picture trying to stand up a wooden post in inside a big wooden box through two skinny holes would be a bit of work...
 
#4
Cristofre said:
The reason I was not planning to take it to a luthier is that I live in a somewhat rural area and can picture that getting it to a luthier and having it repaired could very possibly cost more than the bass did! As for your other question, I do not have a teacher, I have been teaching myself.

I was looking closely at the bass yesterday and noticed that there is a somewhat noticeable protrubance on the front of the bass also where the post contacts it there. I just ordered a new bridge and some Corelli 370TX strings for it, so I am going to have it taken apart sometime next week. I can only guess that, like you said, the post was fitted incorrectly. The new strings are supposed to have a lower tension so that might help some, I am somwhat afraid to mess with the post as I can picture trying to stand up a wooden post in inside a big wooden box through two skinny holes would be a bit of work...
Click to expand...

That's exactly why it needs to be repaired by someone who knows what they're doing - there's no way on earth that the repair can be done without dropping the sound-post. The sound-post might be incorrectly fitted, or too long. The front table might be too thin (fixable by a good luthier if the bass is considered worth fixing). You're dropping $$ on a new bridge and strings - the money might be better spent on getting a decent set-up… (this is not a criticism, just a suggestion…)

Well, good luck with whatever solution you choose -

- Wil
 
#5
Not trying to be critical but, I think I would've sunk the money into fixing the bass and getting a setup rather than getting a new bridge. New bridge won't do alotta good when you still got a crack on the bass waiting to turn into a big hole. Besides, that things prob only gonna get worse. :(

I'd also heed all the luthier advice here and not do a soundpost setting by yourself if you have no experience. Setting it by an experienced luth prob won't cost that much. I just came home from getting mine reset and it only set me back $20. Although getting a crack repair done is whole nother ball of wax.

G'luck.
 

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