Hi Again DBers,
Well something I never mentioned before, my 3/4 DB as pictured in my other threads, the one with the "Made in Germany USSR Occupied" label inside, also has a Vee shaped neck. Since I have not been able to find any other instruments around here with a similar neck, I have to ask a couple of questions.
1. Is practicing on an instrument with this sort of neck going to present any sort of obstacle to a beginning player?
2. Does this feature help to identify this bass or indicate anything about the relative quality of this instrument.
I am facing the decision of whether or not to invest significant money to bring this bass totally up to snuff. It appears as if it probably could use a new fingerboard and nut, a new or modified bridge along with some other basic setup work, endpin, tailgut, soundpost etc. Changing the fingerboard, possibly also using a small thickness of the old fingerboard as as a shim would allow more than enough thickness to reprofile the back of the neck if I want, though I may not want to (I do like thick necks but may also like the VEE - I don't have enough experience to know yet). The instrument does play decently and sounds surprisingly good but...
1. The string spacing is way off - very uneven - at the nut
2. The current replacement fingerboard appears to be either screwed and/or doweled into place in a probably weird way and also when someone hands me a bass with a really nice ebony fingerboard, I can feel the difference in the quailty
3. Whoever put the bridge adjusters in should be shot - they did not leave enough "meat" in the bridge legs so the adjusters are set with the bridge way up at the end of their range. means a new bridge or grafting a section onto each of the legs (if I want the cheap way out)
I am being assured that if I am willing to get this all set up, I will end up with an instrument that easily has the potential to be superior to a new Engelhardt that has been set up with a thicker fingerboard + shim to compensate for the thin neck. I tried one set up that way and it felt pretty nice to me. I am being told that my bass sounds better but I cannot always tell subtle differences at this stage, only the large jaw dropping differences I hear when a better player picks up a higher end carved bass.
If I jump in and do this, my total investment will be close to the cost of a new Upton Hawkes laminate or a bit less than one of Bob's Bulgarians before it is set up - never mind what I may be able to get from bassesonline and have cash to spare for upgrades. I know I can easily get what I paid back out from my current bass because, despite the needed work, someone can pick it up, play it, tell that it is solid and sounds pretty good.
So I am in a quandry, invest in what may be a nice but slightly quirky bass that I already own, start from scratch with something new that I may or may not be able to lay my hands on before I buy or once again spend months fishing through the used market. I am not so far that visiting CT or NY are out of the question but my health does limit my energy level and makes travel a bit of a hardship.
My major concerns aside from finances
1. That I have an instrument that does not impede my ability to learn proper technique or enjoy making music. I am to old and my hands are too damaged to waste my time on poor playability - did that with Japanese Wonder guitars back in the mid 1960s 8(
2. That the instrument, while good sounding also be reasonably durable and likely to stay reasonably stable over time (points to my current bass for being totally neglected, and stored with strings under tension for 10-15 years in an uncontrolled environment and showing almost no ill effects)
Anyway, thanks to any of you who have had the patience to stay through this long ramble, I think I am still dazed and sticker shocked at the prices of having work done on these sort of instruments. For now I will sleep on it for a bit and hope that some of you can offer me a bit of wisdom when I return.
Peace,
S
Well something I never mentioned before, my 3/4 DB as pictured in my other threads, the one with the "Made in Germany USSR Occupied" label inside, also has a Vee shaped neck. Since I have not been able to find any other instruments around here with a similar neck, I have to ask a couple of questions.
1. Is practicing on an instrument with this sort of neck going to present any sort of obstacle to a beginning player?
2. Does this feature help to identify this bass or indicate anything about the relative quality of this instrument.
I am facing the decision of whether or not to invest significant money to bring this bass totally up to snuff. It appears as if it probably could use a new fingerboard and nut, a new or modified bridge along with some other basic setup work, endpin, tailgut, soundpost etc. Changing the fingerboard, possibly also using a small thickness of the old fingerboard as as a shim would allow more than enough thickness to reprofile the back of the neck if I want, though I may not want to (I do like thick necks but may also like the VEE - I don't have enough experience to know yet). The instrument does play decently and sounds surprisingly good but...
1. The string spacing is way off - very uneven - at the nut
2. The current replacement fingerboard appears to be either screwed and/or doweled into place in a probably weird way and also when someone hands me a bass with a really nice ebony fingerboard, I can feel the difference in the quailty
3. Whoever put the bridge adjusters in should be shot - they did not leave enough "meat" in the bridge legs so the adjusters are set with the bridge way up at the end of their range. means a new bridge or grafting a section onto each of the legs (if I want the cheap way out)
I am being assured that if I am willing to get this all set up, I will end up with an instrument that easily has the potential to be superior to a new Engelhardt that has been set up with a thicker fingerboard + shim to compensate for the thin neck. I tried one set up that way and it felt pretty nice to me. I am being told that my bass sounds better but I cannot always tell subtle differences at this stage, only the large jaw dropping differences I hear when a better player picks up a higher end carved bass.
If I jump in and do this, my total investment will be close to the cost of a new Upton Hawkes laminate or a bit less than one of Bob's Bulgarians before it is set up - never mind what I may be able to get from bassesonline and have cash to spare for upgrades. I know I can easily get what I paid back out from my current bass because, despite the needed work, someone can pick it up, play it, tell that it is solid and sounds pretty good.
So I am in a quandry, invest in what may be a nice but slightly quirky bass that I already own, start from scratch with something new that I may or may not be able to lay my hands on before I buy or once again spend months fishing through the used market. I am not so far that visiting CT or NY are out of the question but my health does limit my energy level and makes travel a bit of a hardship.
My major concerns aside from finances
1. That I have an instrument that does not impede my ability to learn proper technique or enjoy making music. I am to old and my hands are too damaged to waste my time on poor playability - did that with Japanese Wonder guitars back in the mid 1960s 8(
2. That the instrument, while good sounding also be reasonably durable and likely to stay reasonably stable over time (points to my current bass for being totally neglected, and stored with strings under tension for 10-15 years in an uncontrolled environment and showing almost no ill effects)
Anyway, thanks to any of you who have had the patience to stay through this long ramble, I think I am still dazed and sticker shocked at the prices of having work done on these sort of instruments. For now I will sleep on it for a bit and hope that some of you can offer me a bit of wisdom when I return.
Peace,
S
- call it sweat equity if you want but it also helped to compensate for the lack of a resource like this forum at that time.
