Monday, October 3, 2011

Double bass lives

The repairs were just about as structurally sound as they could have been. Clean, clear wood to bond to on all surfaces and good mechanical fits where required. Elmer's yellow was deemed the proper adhesive.

I took a couple of hours with sharp chisels to clean up the factory glue and casual fit. I used ratcheting tie down straps to clamp the neck in place until it was set and a more conventional metal clamps to secure the scroll back into place as the glue set there. I felt it all went swimmingly.

I used to be very impatient with wood. Now I'm a little better at taking the time to work with it and enjoy the ride. That same thing could be said for a few other tasks too actually. This repair felt luxuriously rewarding.

There remains a gazillion things to learn about this instrument, not the least of which is how to play it. As always, I'm at least as interested in the set up as I am about the music. I'll continue to dial it in and be grateful for such adventures coming my way.

It tuned up reasonably well and I'm gaining some sense of the scale, but it's very different than anything else I've ever played. The strings are huge and it seems to have a demanding physicality that is unique. This will be another strength training exercise, I think, as I get up to speed with this one.

assembled_tuned_750