Chubbuck Guitars / Kevin Chubbuck, making & repairing guitars in an old building just north of Boston, Massachusetts.
Viewing entries tagged
acoustic bass
This guy was finally picked up after 2 years (!). I reglued the bridge, repaired a split in the headstock and glued up a loose tailblock-to-top seam. There was also a loose top brace and the undersaddle pickup was humming so it needed to be replaced.
Quick video originally posted on my snapchat (@chubbuckguitars) and shared to IG:
New saddle, bad pickup & no relief :: 2008 Kinal Kompact Bass [4.5 lbs]
Here's a 30" short scale acoustic bass that came through the shop recently for a setup. The low E was having some low-output issues that I tried to correct with a new properly fit bone saddle (the original was way too loose). I tried every trick I know but ultimately could not improve that string's output. Ultimately I found that the B-Band undersaddle pickup was damaged under the E string (pickup was delaminated) and needed to be replaced.
The player strung this bass with super-low tension Thomastik-Infeld Acousticore strings #AB344 (0.041" -0.086"). These soft-feel strings did not have enough tension to pull the neck into a favorable forward bow (relief) and the neck needed to be heat-pressed into relief.
Heat pressing a straight neck :: 2008 Kinal Kompact acoustic bass
The combination of a 30" short scale and low-tension light gauge strings was not enough to pull this neck into a forward bow (relief). The neck was dead straight with the truss rod backed off and needed some relief in order to get away with lower action. Here I'm using my temperature controller along with a fingerboard-sized heat blanket to warm the glue joint between the neck and fingerboard. Strategically placed feeler gauges arranged along a rigid clamping block gently flex the neck into a forward bow while the glue softens. This forward bow now allows the truss rod a usable range.
2002 Tacoma Thunderchief flat top acoustic bass :: regluing the tail block to the top along with a split headstock.
Michael Kelly Dragonfly 4FL TBK fretless acoustic bass :: plane fingerboard and set up.
This had a nasty fingerboard rise over the body that needed to be planed down. This amount of extensive inlay is not ideal for a fretless instrument as the wood is hygroscopic (reacts to moisture) and the pearl is not. Also the fingerboard is much softer than the pearl and wears faster. Areas of the pearl were proud of the wood and caused odd buzzes.
![Peghead & body damage :: 2002 Tacoma Thunderchief CB28C [6.7 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1451420351155-RZZK9JC8X4SKJ8MD1R4A/image-asset.jpeg)
![New saddle, bad pickup & no relief :: 2008 Kinal Kompact Bass [4.5 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1435252626355-0UH1UOHPK7E47TEEOON4/image-asset.jpeg)
