Category Repair and Restoration

From small jobs to large restoration projects, our shop stays busy performing repairs of all sorts. The approach we use involves time honored techniques and traditional glue for best results.

We also pride ourselves on our playing setup work. The fit and shape of the fingerboard, bridge, nut and soundpost need special attention for an instrument to play and sound it’s best, and optimized for the needs of the individual player.

EXTREME neck repair

Have a lot of time on your hands? Of course not, and neither do we. But sometimes it’s fun to go nuts. I know that many shops would recommend simply replacing a neck when you have damage to the neck…

blockless neck conversion and restoration

This was a demanding project involving a large South German bass with “blockless” construction and an integral bass bar. The bass was in rough shape and had suffered through many of the typical amateur repairs. First we started with the…

top reforming

A German “shop bass” came to us where the top was badly sunken and cracked around the sound post area. After opening the bass it was clear the the top had been regraduated at some point and had been thinned…

new tuning machine spindles

The tuning machine spindles on this Eastern European made bass were made from soft die cast zinc and the driven end eventually deformed. We made some new ones from hard wearing stainless steel and this little project was a good…

New neck for a Kay bass

We installed a new Engelhardt neck on a nice Kay bass from the Forties. You can get the new neck without the dovetail precut which allows you to get a tighter fit in the old mortise. In this case we…

French Style Scroll Graft

Here are some shots of a new neck we installed on a nice old Tyrolean bass. Originally “blockless”.

Center seam insert

Older flat back basses often need an insert to restore the original width of the back.

Carbon fiber neck reinforcement

Here’s one way of stiffening the thin neck of a bass – using a carbon graphite bar. Shown is the routing setup post cut, the carbon rod and the maple filler strip that goes over the top.

Doubling the button

This nice Romanian bass suffered a blow to the neck and as a result the button broke from the back and stayed with the neck heel. The repair involved reattaching the button, then removing the back. Then we prepared the…

New Bass Bar

We installed a new bass bar for a smaller German shop bass. The bass had cracks right along the bar at the top and bottom of the plate so we decided to reinforce the glued cracks with egg patches and…