Get in touch if something on our website catches your attention. Maybe you have a bass in need of restoration – what if that box of bass parts is worth putting the work into? These restored Juzeks often make excellent jazz basses that sound great amplified. 

On the topic of amplification: The Upton Bass Amplifier is getting near an official release. The first one has been shown off at the ISB convention along with a dozen of our basses. For the first one, we went a little nuts: sapele finish to match the client’s bass, antiqued brass plates, and ebony knobs. This is an amp that is made to be a natural extension to your double bass – it can even be hard to realize it’s on, because it doesn’t color the sound. It can of course be used for an electric bass as well.

Shiny underneath, with weathered paint. Very few come through in original condition – it’s pretty cool! Many have been stripped and polished to hot rod chrome, they definitely have a cult following.

Eric wrote on aluminum bass history, going back to 2005. These Alcoas actually were prewar, and may have been built for Interlochen music camp so they were easily stored. The Alcoa basses differ from the Pfretzchner versions in that aluminum is used throughout. Super rare, we’ve only seen a handful of either in over 20 years.

While the Pfretzchner basses were used for the military, these Alcoas (ALCOA – Aluminum Company of America) went out of production before the war effort ramped up. Never really caught on either – but a double bass unlike almost any other. Loud and…different, not too unlike plywood in tone and certainly tough. Indestructible pit or weather bass!

This Martini upright bass, made when he was 32 years old, was brought in to us to make it playable again after years of neglect.

The owner had never seen the back flat and knew the bass had tremendous potential. We knew this was going to be one of the biggest projects we’ve ever taken on, and after having the opportunity in 2019 to photograph and study a Martini made in 1919, we knew we could bring this bass back to its glory!

The first step was complete disassembly. Everything was taken apart…every lining, cleat, block…if it was glued together, it was carefully unglued. The back had been so uneven that previous “repairmen” fit new braces around the undulations! Braces were screwed or pegged to keep them in place. It became apparent that this bass most likely was the victim of a flood as we do not believe the spalting (spore stains from fungus) were “original” in the wood choice and helped explain the severe damage to the back, top, and ribs along the lower half of the bass.

The back was disassembled and steam flattened on a press. Everything was rejoined and rebraced using our more modern bracing system. The label was not removed from its original brace and was relocated to the more traditional bass side so as not to be damaged by the soundpost (see original sound post placement in proximity to the label). Next, the ribs were one by one stabilized and reassembled onto the back. The original corner blocks were retained while a new neck and lower block were fit. This process took several months to complete!

Once the ribs were reassembled onto the back, it was time to focus on the top. Sections had been replaced with poorly executed and mismatched areas, so we began by building up the non-original areas. The top was very thin and very delicate and would often break just handling it. Once stable, we began to look at getting it back on the ribs. Although the back outline was preserved, it was clear the top could never meet the outline, so we had to backtrack and glue on a new edge to re-establish the outline. Everything was removed from the purfling out and a new spruce perimeter was grafted to the top.

We could then outline the top, close the body, and re-purfle the top.

The finished bass! Considering the relatively young age of this bass (1925) it has lived an extremely hard life of abuse, accidents, and poor repairs. The voice of this bass was resonant, rich, and clear with lots of volume. We feel honored to be able to reset the clock for this amazing bass and can only hope the next 96 years of its life are much easier than the first 96 years!

This is one of the great Mittenwald basses we have had through the shop.  The varnish is to die for, and tone is even better!  But, these things we like to haul around are BIG and AWKWARD, and sometimes you bump it on things.  This one took a little bump and got a rib crack…so the owner, a dear friend of the shop, brought her in for a patch and since we would have the top off, let’s reglue that upper brace that’s been working itself loose.

When tops come off…that usually when you find rabbit holes…

Let’s start off by just taking a look at a bit of the stuff we planned on.  Upper brace, no problem.  Rib crack, no problem. Clean her all up and redo a bunch of old cracks and cleats since you’re already in there, par for the course.

The Top.  It’s always the top. And why not…look what we are asking it to do!  Spruce…millimeters thin, holding up hundreds of pounds of string tension for centuries, getting bumped, whacked, dried out and tortured.  It’s a miracle they do as well as they do!

Miracle or lots of skilled labor and money?  Meh…who’s keeping score?

So this top has seen some pretty bad repairs, with whole sections being replaced, poorly.  And this top is thin…and dangerously thin in spots. But hey, great tone, right!?!?

We started picking apart the top, taking whole sections off with ease.

Some of these cracks are so old and have been cacked up with so much glue, that when you clean all the old glue out, its a horrible joint that left, and often time there’s not enough clamps in the world to pull sections back together again.  Splines are used to make up wood that’s lost through truing up the joint.  With everything square and straight, glue up of the splines is easy and they’ll not cost the owner repeated trips back into the shop.

KEEP CHECKING BACK, THIS IS AN ACTIVE REPAIR

This old bass has been restored, badly, numerous times before…with the most recent restoration utilizing a lot of epoxy and wood filler!  The bass was brought in because it was feeling too tight, and the owner wanted to look at setup items needed to reduce the feeling of tension.  Once on the bench…we started pointing out structurally deficient areas, most notably the damage and “repairs” around the end block.  So, what started off as just some setup tweaks turned into a top off, new end block and trim in the lower ribs to restore edge margin as the ribs were hanging off the plates at the lower bouts.

Once the top was off, we kind of regretted taking it off, as it was a rabbit hole that seemed to have no bottom.  Consulting with the owner and setting some guidelines for what was needed, we began a long process of rebuilding the bass, redoing past sins and making sure the bass would be healthy enough for another 100 years of service.  Here’s a video we did to better show the owner what we were looking at:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFAsZRcCCWY&width=undefined&height=NaN&centervid=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&fs=0[/embedyt]

Keep checking back as we upload more working pictures!

This French-made double bass had a past scroll fracture that failed after the crafting of an extension for it.  We began by using water to completely disassemble the scroll…which wasn’t hard!

The original repairs were simply glued, there were no reinforcement grafts added.  We began by making a simple caul, shaped to the back of the scroll, and packed with thick cork.  Initial glue up went as predicted but with the added tension of an extension, we have opted to reinforce the glue joints with grafts, as well as brass plates.

First, the peg hole was reamed heavily and a maple bushing was turned on the lathe.

The wood grafts we glued in place in a “non-traditional” grain orientation as our goal was reinforcement over aesthetics since the plates would all but hide the cheek grafts, and they create a “blind” bushing.

All touched up!  Now to start the plate crafting.

Carefully laying out the tuners balancing function and form.  Adding to this challenge was only two of the 4 thumb screw assemblies matched (although all 4 gears are matching).

After a gentle bath in our antiquing solution to match the patina of the gears, we’re ready for final assembly.