The long spine on the back of this bass is a "repair," right? I'm guessing no one was building basses this way 100 years ago. (Photos are from a Craigslist post.)
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Double Bass Unusual repair on an old German flatback
- Thread starter marcox
- Start date
I should add that the bass has hat peg tuners and is "estimated to be 100+ years old," according to the seller.
Bubba been at it. What happened is that the center seam started to separate with age, and some mechanical genius slapped a yardstick over it.
That is an expensive repair to do properly.
That is an expensive repair to do properly.
It was described as playable but needing restoration and listed for $500. Sold within 8 hours of being posted (or the seller pulled the ad).
I thought Bubba used duct tape!
I can't see clearly, was the spline attached with a staple gun?
Probably hot glue. I once restored an absolute nightmare of an old German bass that had cracks sealed with hot glue, and chunks of faux-wood wall paneling glued on pretending to be cleats.
Somebody paid good money for that work!
It was free, and I still cursed at it for a year until it was done.
Five bills to a professional or student luthier is fair. $500 to a player is something they’ll regret.
Somebody paid good money for that work!
It was free, and I still cursed at it for a year until it was done.
Five bills to a professional or student luthier is fair. $500 to a player is something they’ll regret.
I'm just glad it was 6 hours away and sold quickly. Otherwise I might have made a hatpeg-tuner-induced mistake.
Hatpegs look cool but are functionally inferior.
Like, a lot.
Like, a lot.
I'll confess that I am completely smitten with the look of hatpegs. If you don't mind explaining, what makes them less functional?
+1. Why are hat pegs functionality inferior?
(I once banged my head on hat-pegs on an unfamiliar bass, but that’s likely self inflicted.)
(I once banged my head on hat-pegs on an unfamiliar bass, but that’s likely self inflicted.)
Hatpegs have one advantage: If the ensemble is loud you can stick one in your ear to hear yourself.
The disadvantages are that they’re loud, creaky, prone to inertia and hanging up, and given that many of them were made 100+ years ago of the cheapest boxwood you could get, sometimes literally crumble in front of your eyes during a gig.
They do look cool, but are hopelessly obsolete.
The disadvantages are that they’re loud, creaky, prone to inertia and hanging up, and given that many of them were made 100+ years ago of the cheapest boxwood you could get, sometimes literally crumble in front of your eyes during a gig.
They do look cool, but are hopelessly obsolete.
I have a bass with hatpegs and this trick never occured to me. Have to try it one day, it will definitely look Martian. Talking about disadvantages, @KUNGfuSHERIFF nails it. Tuning my bass is not just turning knobs, it is a major operation. But I won't change it till they break, of course.
- Oct 12, 2004
- 1,327
- 587
- 72
- Disclosures
- Retailer: Shen, Sun, older European
I have hat pegs on the German bass I've played professionally since the '60's. The original wood gave out years ago. I sawed off the button(?) parts and glued them on to sections of an old pool cue for replacements-worked pretty well. Eventually I replaced them all with new ebony pegs- little fake pearl(I guess) inlays, looks great. As far as function, if I've kept them lubricated(no big deal) they've worked as well as any other pegs I've come across-no better or worse. I was careful to make sure they fit into the holes evenly, but it wasn't that hard. I've never been tempted to swap them for metal ones.
Precisely machined metal gears, high quality ebony peg, plus the benefit of being new and carefully made...you know what my answer’s gonna be.
One thing I forgot to mention about hat pegs- mine seem to be noticeably lighter than some of the metal ones I've seen. If you're part of the everything vibrates school, that might be an advantage.
