spool clamps

I have the same issue coming up - I made about 30 the way you describe a few years back & they worked just okay and I could have use many more

now I have a back that needs to be reglued and have been thinking about maybe using elastic bands the way classical guitar guys do on binding & tops

much harder to do at DB scale

 

Make fewer clamps and glue in sections. You don't absolutely have to glue the entire joint at once. Glue one or two bouts at a time.

 

yeah that's what I had to do last time but I'm afraid this back will need to be anchored in at least 4 places to keep the ribs aligned as I glue

 

Here's a few low cost ideas to get it done. Luthier James Ham has a technique of gluing the plates on using a steamer, you first apply glue then position the plate on the ribs, then clamp and apply steam. The steam softens the glue. You could modify this technique by using sand bags instead of clamps. Cut off old pant legs and shirt arms, fill w/sand, lay them on the plate and use the steam technique, you could even heat the sand bags. You could also "spring" clamp like the way acoustic guitar braces are glued onto the soundboard - wooden poles are bent between a frame and the top to apply pressure. Both of these techniques were employed in the old days before metal clamps

 

You might go online and find the hardware cheaper than at the Big Box. At Mcmaster.com for example (and not the cheapest place to get fasteners) you could get yourself 50 3/8" wing nuts and 24' of threaded rod for well under $30 + shipping. I'd use nylon insert locknuts at one end ($3.17 for 20 at Mcmaster) and wings at the other. Doesn't seem like much considering the cost of one bass string, and the clamps won't ever need replacing

 

The steamer wouldn't damage plywood, as mentioned you could heat the sand bags. Years ago hide glue was the only glue, used in chilly shops, heating the sand bags or cauls was standard practice. I've included the Jim Ham article. If you have scrap wood handy you can make clamps w/wood and wedges.

 

very cool piece -thank you for sharing I'll have to spend the time reading through it

 

This was great! I never heard of a treblebar. I wonder why basses don't have them?
Thanks.

 

Here are clamps used in the Stradivarius shop. I got the picture from this site, a great bass making resource. Wood threading equipment is pretty cheap

http://www.maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/328014-making-a-double-bass/

 

Are those clamps from the Stradivarious collection at the National Music Museum in Vermillion? if so, I've seen them; simple and effective.

If you only have seven clamps, then just glue one linear a foot at a time. In the time that this thread has been running, you could have glued the entire top plate on with this simple method and no out of pocket expense. I spent lest than $2.50 making each of my spool clamps and they have fixed several hundred basses. If you have a tablesaw, you can cut up a few dozen six foot strips of scrapwood and use them as a traditional "go-bar" where the bent strip forces pressure between the plate and the ceiling. I do some variation of that regularly. It is pretty standard for guitarmakers. If this is a low end bass with thick nitrocellulose or similar tough finishes, a simple roll of maksing tape will work to clamp the entire top. If you are not careful, it will shred the finish on less durable surfaces. Do not use the commercial "binding tape"- it will destroy finish; I use it all of the time on raw wood, but not on finished instruments....

I encourage everyone to be self reliant and creative beyond their own boundaries... with the caveat that they do their best to fix it right the first time or you'll spend the rest of your life fixing the "fixes" every six weeks. On any given day of the year, approx. 85% of the work that I do is fixing someone else's questionable work. Good luck and show us the results!

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

 

Just a note: I recently needed some threaded rod, and found that it's considerably cheaper in the electrical department of Home Depot, than in the bolt & nut department. It's sold in 10 foot lengths, for hanging stuff from ceilings in commercial installations.

Realizing how lucky I got with reassembling my first bass, there are some things I would do differently as an amateur. Notably, I would practice laying out the tools and going through the entire process, a couple of times, before committing to real glue.

 

thanks for the heads up

I had the same experience - folks were yelling and screaming here on TB - don't do it, you're crazy blah, blah

turned out pretty good - could have been cleaner but you learn

 

Go to the string section of TB, you'll get a ton of conflicting opinion over there too!

 

I'm sure we would all love to see pics of the work you've done so far.