Double Bass Anyone heard of Epoxy'ing a Double Bass fingerboard?

Jake Reber

Jake Reber

Apr 2, 2008
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#1
Alá Jaco Pastorius famously using Marine boat epoxy on his defretted bass guitar neck to make it harder, has anyone expirimented with doing this for Upright bass?

I was gifted a beater bass that I'm using to learn slapping techniques and I find myself wondering if the epoxy would brighten the attack and protect the board fromt he roundwound La Bellas. Implementing this is probably more than I'm willing to invest in monetarily/labor-wise but am curious all the time
 
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#4
It shouldn't be too much trouble to DIY. Use system-3 "rot fix", which is thin enough to flow when brushed on.

RotFix

It's sandable/scrapable after it cures. You can use a blow dryer to speed the curing process. Sanding will cause it to turn cloudy, which means you'll want to wets sand it by stepping thru a series of grits -- something like: 120, 240, 400, 600, 800 should render a smooth shiny surface that you're after.

Tape off the side of the neck including the FB to neck glue joint, else you might never get the FB off if you need to replace it.

You prolly wanna pop off the nut as well and tape off that area including the top end grain of the FB. Alternately, could coat the end grain with some bees wax.

Don't forget to drape a sheet drop cloth over the body of your bass. Be prepared to reset your sound post, which will like fall when you start sanding.

Also, try to prop your bass so the FB is horizontally level to minimize at least one vector of runs. Apply product with a disposable 2" Chinese bristle brush -- thinly and evenly. It can take some amount of over rushing, but don't overwork it. It's similar to polyurethane in this regard.

I've used this product on my old home window and door restoration projects.

Good luck? Let us know how it turns out.
 
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#5
#6
I've actually seen this done. Im originally from South Florida and the Kevin Kaufman/Jaco epoxy mod was very popular.
A shop I used to work at did the epoxy thing regularly and became somewhat known for it on electric basses.
One time a cruise ship musician came in with his upright. It was a CCB that he played several shows per day for years at a time. There were significant grooves worn into the maple fingerboard. The bass was almost unplayable. Since the bass wasn't worth putting a new board on (he didn't want to invest much either), we suggested the Jaco method. To my knowledge that bass never needed any other work to the board after it was done. He played it on ships for another 5 years. It probably had over 4000 shows at that point with no sign of any more grooves or ruts.

Oh. And I just remembered Sam Chiodo. A wonderful bassist from South Florida that played with Ira Sullivan and Dizzy Gillespie. He had a weird 5/8 size bass with a homemade cutaway and a lined fingerboard covered in epoxy. That bass was bought for him by Jaco in the late 70s. The last time I saw it about 10 years ago it still hadn't had any work done to the fingerboard.
Screenshot_20240202_125205_Gallery.jpg
Sam's one of a kind bass


I'm actually toying with the idea to do this to my #1 bass to get a few more years out of the worn out board.
 
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#7
Rebop said:
Oh. And I just remembered Sam Chiodo. A wonderful bassist from South Florida that played with Ira Sullivan and Dizzy Gillespie. He had a weird 5/8 size bass with a homemade cutaway and a lined fingerboard covered in epoxy. That bass was bought for him by Jaco in the late 70s. The last time I saw it about 10 years ago it still hadn't had any work done to the fingerboard.

Sam's one of a kind bass
Click to expand...
Ouch!!
That lined fingerboard really hurts the eyes.

Besides the fact that I doubt he needs lines at all, drawing lines all the way to the very end of the fingerboard, where the distance between lines is smaller than the distance between the strings and the fingerboard, is utterly meaningless.

Furthermore, if the bridge moves slightly, then everything you play is out of de tune if you play on the lines...
 
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#9
Rebop said:
Oh then you'll really hate this view.

View attachment 5339143

The first time I saw this bass back in the 90s, I thought it was the coolest thing. Part of the reason why I play upright bass today.
Click to expand...

Three takeaways here.

He plucks across the strings, same as me.

He does not appear to be enjoying it.

Props for the Florentine cutaway. All the other DB cutaways I have seen have been Venetian.
 
#10
GretschWretch said:
He does not appear to be enjoying it.
Click to expand...
what, you don't recognize "stank face"?

that's when you're up there killing it
Papageno said:
Furthermore, if the bridge moves slightly, then everything you play is out of de tune if you play on the lines...
Click to expand...
the lines do seem a bit over the top, but all he'd have to do is mark on the body where the bridge goes so it's always in the right place to match up with the lines
 
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#11
Papageno said:
where the distance between lines is smaller than the distance between the strings and the fingerboard, is utterly meaningless.
Click to expand...

Rebop said:
Oh then you'll really hate this view.
Click to expand...

I agree it is quite a visual challenge. Worth noting that in the second picture it becomes obvious that the fingerboard itself has a relatively flat (in the context of string bass) radius, and you can also see that the action is, in the context of string bass, very low. So the error margins in the lines are minimised.

Appearances aside, it looks like a great purpose-built pizzicato setup that would just not work with a bow.
 
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