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Double Bass Warped Fiberglass Bass Neck

W

WilliamJames

Mar 2, 2011
98
2
Disclosures
Seller of Hand-Knit Strap Pads
#1
My old 60s fiberglass bass needs a little lovin'. The neck is bowed in a little and needs a fix. Still playable but the action gets high toward the middle of the fingerboard. Anyone have experience working on these and can the neck be saved? I know this is a common problem with these basses.

If not is it even possible to replace the neck on this sort of bass? The neck and body look like they may be fused together as one piece but I can't really tell.

Any help? Thanks
 
#2
The neck is also fiberglass? I thought most of these basses had wood necks. What is the fingerboard made of? If the neck if fiberglass, than I bet the problem is glue creep. This is also a common problem on cheaper wood basses when something other than hide glue is used to join the FB to the neck. The bending force from string tension pulls strongly on this joint, and both epoxy and carpenter's glue will creep over time, bowing your fingerboard and raising your action in the middle. This might not be a terribly expensive thing to correct, though. If your luthier can get the FB off without destroying it (a crapshoot if epoxy was used) then he can flatten the top of the neck, maybe insert a graphite bar, and reglue and redress your fingerboard. If you have a dyed maple board, then you'd be wise to invest in a thick ebony replacement, which would much better resist that bending force. Not many bass luthiers are going to like the idea of working with a fiberglass neck, however. You're really going to travel a bit to find someone comfortable taking this on, unfortunately.
 
#4
Thanks. The neck and fingerboard are both fiberglass. The only wood on this bass is the bass bar, bridge, sound post and tailpiece.

I don't know the history (nor does anyone else apparently) but it is supposedly early sixties. It is marked "Roth Made in USA" not Roth-Finch like most of the fiberglass basses. I don't have any pictures of my bass but it is the same model as this one for sale as a movie prop in Wisconsin.

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#5
In the ad the seller mentions separation at the neck. How does your neck/fingerboard joint look? I think whether or not a repair is possible will come down to whether or not the fingerboard can be removed without damaging the neck, and the FB will have to be replaced. Repair costs will likely exceed practical value, but this seems like a real one of a kind historical specimen. Might be worth the investment.
 
#6
The fingerboard is tightly glued to the neck with something strong. It's probably not gonna just pop off in one piece. It's basically fused to the other.

Still I don't see any reason why you couldn't cut it off with a saw or even grind the entire thing off with an angle grinder, bit by bit.
 
#7
tap the neck and see if you get a hollow sound...the neck, like the scroll maybe hollow and stuffed with insulation. the FB maybe attached as a cap. if it is the model i'm thinking of it also has paper thin ribs and the f's are edged to the inside of the top,makes it look like it's real thick.

.02
 
#8
forester said:
tap the neck and see if you get a hollow sound...the neck, like the scroll maybe hollow and stuffed with insulation. the FB maybe attached as a cap. if it is the model i'm thinking of it also has paper thin ribs and the f's are edged to the inside of the top,makes it look like it's real thick.

.02
Click to expand...

That would make for a very interesting repair. Perhaps you could cut off the FB with a sawsall and prepare a maple insert which you could epoxy into the hollow in the fiberglass neck. Then you'd at least have a wood surface on which to glue the new FB. You need to find someone who not only is a luthier, but also restores old boats:)
 

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