The King Moretone is coming along nicely after getting the fingerboard back on and the edges cleaned up. Lonnie had it off the table to work on another bass (that is a whole other story) and when he picked Popeye up to put him back on the table he felt a slight wiggle in the neck. Never a good sign, the previous repairs are beginning to fail. Now is the time to reset the neck while the bass is apart and before the set up. These vintage beauties are a fickle animal. You can take two steps forward and one step back, more then one time during a restoration. You need persistence and patience or they will drive you crazy.
After a short consult it was agreed the neck needs removed and reset. Now in the past this can be an easy task or a long drawn out mess. Well today Lonnie was the dog and the neck released in less than five minutes. That is by far the easiest neck removal in Lonnie’s repair career. There was not much glue holding it in place, with the fingerboard repair I guess the neck wanted some attention too. Lonnie was over the moon happy the neck came out easy. He started in the workshop at 7:00 am this morning…this was a good day.
I know that look. When I finally got my Mortone's neck out of the pocket I brought it upstairs, showed it to my wife, and went back downstairs without a word.
ReplyDeleteVery interested to see how Lonnie re-sets the neck, because that's where I'm at with mine.
-- kungfusheriff