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Double Bass Source for replacement flatback crossbraces?

KUNGfuSHERIFF

KUNGfuSHERIFF

Feb 8, 2002
10,677
6,684
50
Upstate NY
#1
Hello all,

I'm considering buying another old, sad-sack bass to restore. Its' worst problem is the back braces have warped outward, separating the back from the ribs on the G side of the corpus.

I just called Metropolitan Music, whom I usually buy new wood from, and they told me they don't carry anything big enough to carve new crossbraces out of. Can anyone recommend a source for some nice spruce?

Thank you!
 
#2
Would this be a suitable source if available? Piano sound boards are pretty big.

basswraith
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Boston

Go to a piano restoration work shop. They throw away sound boards. Just ask them if you can have what they are throwing away. Thats enough old dry spruce to last 3 years.
YOu can make any many cleats as you need from the old spruce sound boards.
 
#6
Buy a "B" or "C" grade set of top wedges. For around $150 you should be able to find what started out with the intentions of a nice top, but there will be a big knot or some other flaw that downgrades it substantially. Cut around that and you'll have plenty of back brace spruce. If you ask, a lot of the tonewood sellers will have odd sections or the last one off the saw that is not a full set. Many will just cut what you need out of an old log or section.

Metropolitain are nice people, but they are not tonewood specialists; they are a retail shop. They buy from other folks , adjust the price, and then resell it to you. Start shopping with tonewood dealers- Guys Like Bruce Harvey at Orcas Island Tonewoods, John at Old World, Alaska Specialty Woods. Those folks and a host of others all around the world have the wood on hand, cut it, mill it, season it. They are serious spruce dorks. Start buying from them and the prices you pay will be half of what you now do and the selection options open up greatly. WHenever I've called Bruce, if he did not have something on hand he was able to track it down for me from another source.

There are also plenty of places in this country where for the price of a $20 firewood permit, you can fill up your pickup truck with beautiful spruce- Engleman, Adirondack or 'reds, black, white, Lutz hybrids, sitka.....you don't even need any fancy equipment. I cut trees up to 10' diameter with a simple crosscut saw when I worked for the forest service....

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com
 
#17
KUNGfuSHERIFF said:
Hello all,

I'm considering buying another old, sad-sack bass to restore. Its' worst problem is the back braces have warped outward, separating the back from the ribs on the G side of the corpus.

I just called Metropolitan Music, whom I usually buy new wood from, and they told me they don't carry anything big enough to carve new crossbraces out of. Can anyone recommend a source for some nice spruce?

Thank you!
Click to expand...
M.L. Condon Co., White Plains, NY carries all kinds of lumber including vertical-grain sitka spruce.
 
#18
arnoldschnitzer said:
M.L. Condon Co., White Plains, NY carries all kinds of lumber including vertical-grain sitka spruce.
Click to expand...

I forgot about those guys. They've been in business for a long time. I bought the materials for my first guitar from them- maybee 1979 or '80!

If you are near the coast or any reasonable size body of water, the local marina hardware stores usually stock sitka spruce for very reasonable prices.

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com.
 

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