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Double Bass Why hide glue?

#61
Because talkbass comes a lot closer to being interested in my project than my girlfriend or dog..
IMG_0430[1].JPG IMG_0431[1].JPG

I put a little blo on the fb and neck, the camera flash highlights the different colors but in normal light it's hard to notice the shim. Neck/fb combo is done, will need to do a little resurfacing on the board but I want to string it up to see. Nut is in place with just a dab of glue in case I need to pop it back off to shape it. Cut some very shallow string grooves just for alignment. This'll be my third time fitting a bridge, hope I've learned some things by now.
 
#63
1st Bass said:
Is that neck likely to feel too thick? You did a nice job on the shim, but, to my eye, it looks a little thick in the ceck, now? Is it just my eye?
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I'll take too thick on a Kay! It's probably just a flash photo illusion though, it's still only 1.5" front-to-back at the thinnest part (about F# on the E string)

And this is what I think when I hear "set up for bluegrass."
IMG_0432.JPG
But really, it's on the way. Bridge feet are good, still have to remove a lot from the nut and top of the bridge.
 
#66
1st Bass said:
I had forgotten how thin Kay necks tend to be.
Click to expand...

Yep skinny neck was their style, I assume Englehardt still makes them that way?

This one is even thinner than most, and when I got it the fingerboard was also so thin that the whole neck/fb would bend like an archery bow under tension - the strings were closer to the board in thumb position than down in the money register. I could actually bend the pitch of an open string lower by stopping a note on another string. Seriously. Wanted really badly to fix it while it was my main bass but I couldn't take the downtime without it, had to get another bass in order to fix this one!

Could have done a new fingerboard obviously but the rosewood is pretty on the existing one, I figure with the fatty shim it should go another large number of gigs before it needs replaced. And now, should I or anyone else go to replace the fingerboard, it should be a whole different game because it's now glued with hide glue. I think it was gorilla glue before, not totally sure, a royal pita though.
 
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#67
I'm calling it done... not perfect but infinitely better than it was! A pro would have done more on the fingerboard relief and radius, I did a bit but opted to widen the string spacing ever so slightly to get some more radius out of the existing profile. And I got a little lazy with the nut (grooves are the right depth, just didn't take much extra off it). But it plays great and the important repairs seem solid. The spiros are bright again but I reckon they'll deaden back up soon enough.


IMG_0433.JPG
 
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#71
Thanks y'all, of course I owe my understanding of bass anatomy and repair to this forum, it's an invaluable resource for the relatively small world of DB. Hopefully it might inspire someone to make repairs considering the possible future owners of the bass, and ideally having this type of information readily accessible will let us see more of these cool old basses heal their hack-job wounds.


I'm particularly proud of the fingerboard joint. I expected to have to do it a couple times but I was able to hit the mark with my improvised "clamping" setup (which worked marvelously, but I dare not disclose here ;)


In my view, the learning curve with working wood is steep and requires knowing one's tools very well. I'm still not there, but this job required little enough of it that I was successful (if slow). The learning curve for hide glue, conversely, is really easy, easier than making pancakes. There's no reason anyone should be scared to work with the stuff, just do some practice with it before you take it to your baby bass.


One thing to know about the fingerboard shim - fitting it to the fingerboard pretty much requires removing a little bit of fingerboard material from the sides, and so to have it fit the neck properly again requires removing a bit of length from the nut side. The highest note (aside from harmonics) on this bass is now G (second octave of the G string, or what BG players would call 24th fret). It was almost a B before, so I lost 4-ish notes. Francois Rabbath might notice but the folks I play with won't (if they need those notes they hire a cello :) But it is something to consider that didn't occur to me at the beginning.

And no mistake, this was a lot of work. Enjoyable, patient work that I did while listening to good music, but not something I'd want to do over a weekend if I need the bass on monday.

Maybe it's the neck angle/overstand, maybe it's the lack of a pool of sound-absorbing glue in the neck joint, maybe it's just my imagination, but I swear the bass is louder than it was before. It always sounded good to me but now it's like a cannon.


Oh yeah, the bass has been dubbed "Elmer" after the glue
 
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#72
unbrokenchain said:
Thanks y'all, of course I owe my understanding of bass anatomy and repair to this forum, it's an invaluable resource for the relatively small world of DB. Hopefully it might inspire someone to make repairs considering the possible future owners of the bass, and ideally having this type of information readily accessible will let us see more of these cool old basses heal their hack-job wounds.


I'm particularly proud of the fingerboard joint. I expected to have to do it a couple times but I was able to hit the mark with my improvised "clamping" setup (which worked marvelously, but I dare not disclose here ;)


In my view, the learning curve with working wood is steep and requires knowing one's tools very well. I'm still not there, but this job required little enough of it that I was successful (if slow). The learning curve for hide glue, conversely, is really easy, easier than making pancakes. There's no reason anyone should be scared to work with the stuff, just do some practice with it before you take it to your baby bass.


One thing to know about the fingerboard shim - fitting it to the fingerboard pretty much requires removing a little bit of fingerboard material from the sides, and so to have it fit the neck properly again requires removing a bit of length from the nut side. The highest note (aside from harmonics) on this bass is now G (second octave of the G string, or what BG players would call 24th fret). It was almost a B before, so I lost 4-ish notes. Francois Rabbath might notice but the folks I play with won't (if they need those notes they hire a cello :) But it is something to consider that didn't occur to me at the beginning.

And no mistake, this was a lot of work. Enjoyable, patient work that I did while listening to good music, but not something I'd want to do over a weekend if I need the bass on monday.

Maybe it's the neck angle/overstand, maybe it's the lack of a pool of sound-absorbing glue in the neck joint, maybe it's just my imagination, but I swear the bass is louder than it was before. It always sounded good to me but now it's like a cannon.


Oh yeah, the bass has been dubbed "Elmer" after the glue
Click to expand...
 

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