Building Slowly

[Matt Liebenau]

I pulled out the electronics and someone was frolicking about in there. The potentiometers are Korean Alphas, solid shaft, possibly the ones Radio Shack used to sell as the shafts are crudely cut off and not smoothed out in any fashion. Judging by all the crud and grime they’ve been in there a while. Also the output jack is TRS and the neck pickup is connected to the ring terminal. Even with a stereo plug the switch doesn’t do anything so I’m not sure what the goal was with this setup.

On the other hand, I found some other “happy little repairs” that I missed. There’s a crack under the tailpiece and the switch cover doesn’t cover the edge of the opened up hole.

Plenty of repairs to think on.

 

[Videojunkie]

Ah yes, when Carpenters become Luthiers.

Some of us resemble that remark...

On the other hand, I found some other “happy little repairs” that I missed. There’s a crack under the tailpiece and the switch cover doesn’t cover the edge of the opened up hole.

Plenty of repairs to think on.

That is a special little bag of poop you seem to have discovered!

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Some of us resemble that remark...



That is a special little bag of poop you seem to have discovered!

I was more looking at the condition of the headstock break. Shouldda taken a few more minutes and a deep breath or two and looked again. If I never do these kinds of repairs I never learn how, right?

 

[Bruce Johnson]

In my little special world of Ampeg Scroll Basses, I've restored a few that were horribly abused. Sometimes from exposure to conditions (like being underwater for 2 weeks) and sometimes from deliberate human abuse. Where other Luthiers had just pointed to the dumpster. It was a lot of work rebuilding them, but it was very satisfying. To save a rare bass from the dumpster and restore it to its original dignity and beauty. I gave it another 50 years of life, or more. It's valuable enough now that several generations of owners will take reasonable care of it.

That feels good.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

The crack on the end is glued and clamped. The binding there was loose for about 2” either direction from the seam in the middle. I tacked that back down with CA glue and tape. After letting it dry for a while I brushed and suction cupped good ol’ Titebond into the crack and clamped away.

That picture is after clamping and wiping away the squeeze out. Hope I didn’t glue my belt to the body! My pants will be loose all day at work!

 

[Flamingo21]

View attachment 4852363

Man, that redburst is gorgeous! I wouldn't have been able to resist that either.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

The body’s out of the clamps and no stuck belts! I may not get much done this week as I actually have some parts to learn. We’ll see.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I managed a little time over the last week. I glued some patches in the body where the switch cover goes. The one on the lower left is to cover the gap that was showing when the switch cover was on. The other one is there because if I placed the cover over it’s original screw holes the screw in the upper right corner was over an open space. I used a plug cutter for the round one. Cut a 3/4” plug out of maple, then cut it approximately in half and glued the half in and trimmed it down even further with chisels. I may do some additional filling on the diagonal one although as is just a sliver shows when the switch cover is in place and you don’t really see it.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I also started to fix the broken post in the pickup ring. Again, I cut a plug out of maple and glued it in. The first plug was 1/4” and didn’t really survive attempting to drill the screw hole so I chiseled it back out. For the second try I cut a 3/8” plug which fit in the corner of the ring fairly well. I marked where the screw hole needed to go, drilled, then glued the plug into the corner of the ring. After a few days (CA glue dries slowly, right? ) I trimmed the bottom of the plug down and cut down the inside edge of the maple until it mostly matched the top and the ring sat down nicely on the body. Glop on some black paint and it’s like brand new! Ehhhh… would you believe newly repaired? The paint is water based and still fresh in the picture. It will dry black… trust me…

I took down most of the material with my smallest finger plane. I’ll admit it’s one of the cheapo Ramizon ones but after giving the blade something adjacent to a sharpening it seemed to work although I have nothing to compare to sooo…. It seemed to work best with a sort of scooping motion going through the wood, maybe because of the curved sole? Anyway, it certainly bears further trials.

 

[Beej]

Nice save on the trim ring.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Thanks. I thought about just making one from pickguard material or something like that even if I had to glue up a couple of layers but I figured it was worth a try. The ring was busted anyway and my time is still free for me.

 

[TerribleTim68]

...Sometimes from exposure to conditions (like being underwater for 2 weeks) ...

Were they trying to pickle it?

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Were they trying to pickle it?

Not intentionally. A very rare '67 Ampeg Devil Bass. The owner had a townhouse with a basement. They went away for a month and, while they were away, a pipe broke and put 4' of water in the basement. Where he had his home studio, amps and basses. A lot of expensive equipment was underwater for two weeks.

He got the poor Ampeg dried out and sent it to me for a full restoration. A lot of paint peeling off and some delamination of glue joints. But it wasn't really that bad. The pickup, controls and hardware were all fine. It's all repaired and repainted now, and looks and sounds like new.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Alright, I told you the paint would dry black. (Sheesh!)



The pickup ring came out ok. The original screws are pretty rusted and there’s not much Phillips (actually JIS) left to the heads so I opened up the holes a little for #6 screws.


There’s still some gouges that I might scrape out later but the fretboard oiled up nicely. Not a whole lot left to the frets so I may refret the neck. I’ll probably assemble and play it for a bit to see if I like it. I took the back of the headstock down to flat then polished it to a semigloss. Pictures to (maybe) follow.

 

[reverendrally]

Ok. I guess I’ll do this even though I usually feel like I’m just doing things I learned from everyone else on here.

This thread is going to be in the spirit of @Andii Syckz and the right @reverendrally (where are you reverend? I enjoyed your threads.) and be more a record of stuff, probably mostly for me.

There will be some new stuff and some done stuff. Some repairs and some building and probably some miscellaneous woodworking. Even some non-bass instruments! Hopefully that doesn’t run me afoul of the ban hammer…

Hijacks, as long as they’re amusing, are ok and you’d probably have to make some effort to be less amusing then me…

Wow, I feel honored. Sorry, hombres, I've been without a workshop/tools and I've been limited to terrible car projects. I have many crazy ideas, but just no space (or time, ahem) to make them happen... and a datsun might have been distracting me.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Wow, I feel honored. Sorry, hombres, I've been without a workshop/tools and I've been limited to terrible car projects. I have many crazy ideas, but just no space (or time, ahem) to make them happen... and a datsun might have been distracting me.

Good to see you Rev! Project posts or not it’s good to know you’re still kicking. You came up with some interesting stuff and I hope you get the workshop sitch figured out. In the meantime, give the Datsun heck!

 

[Mickey666]

and a datsun might have been distracting me.

Hope it's a Skyline...

 

[Matt Liebenau]

I got the electronics redone. I didn’t take pictures but imagine a lot of soldering (pronounce the “l”! ) interspersed with wire stripping, shrink wrap shrinking, testing, swearing, repeating.

I think the setup it had may have been stereo and the slider switch shut the individual pickups off and on. Anyway, it’s mono output and a Tele style slider (I believe cheesecutter in England) switch now.

I cleaned up the body and headstock. It still looks played and almost as old as me but the gunk is removed and it’s looking good.




Hey Bob, pass the Marlboros!


I don’t think I posted a picture of the headstock repair. This is it with the splines, all sanded down purty like and oil modified poly applied until I didn’t fell like doing anymore then sanded level(ish) and scrubbed to semigloss.



I guess when I’m in the mood for some self abuse I’ll string all the electronics back through the body. Good times!

 

[TerribleTim68]

Hope it's a Skyline...

Or a Fairlady.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Well, that took too long… The electronics are fished through the body. I’ll finish mounting the rings and covers in a couple of days. I finally had to break down and solder an old output plug to some brass rod and grind it down so I could get the output jack into the hole. I ended up having to shave down some tubing and run it through the body to get the volume pot that’s furthest from the F hole mounted. Good times! One thing I didn’t notice when I took things apart is that the springs taper in the middle. Kinda cool.