The Bass
Monkey Workshop has hit a new high point;
we can now say one of our basses is an international traveler. Miss Penelope a 1944 Kay M-1 is packing her flight
case for a voyage down under. Yep, she
is moving to Australia
to live with her new owner Greg.
This Kay
bass sat for many, many years as a decoration in a gentleman’s library. While she sat silent all those years she
remained in untouched and well preserved condition. Though her gut strings rotted off the neck the
rest of the bass remained in beautiful pristine condition. The back of the neck shows no signs of wear,
all the finish remains in tack. Lonnie
restored her a few years back and she stayed in our collection as the most
pristine Kay we owned. Then one day Greg
came a courting for her…the story goes (and you know there is always a story
with our basses) he was looking for his “bucket list” American made Kay
bass. We offered slide shows of several
basses and Miss Penelope won his heart.
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| Before Restoration |
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| After restoration which included a neck reset and full set up |
I offered
for him to visit in person to audition the bass or we can ship the bass to
him. Little did we know at that time
what an opportunity this would become to learn all kinds of new things? It happens that Greg lives down under in Australia. Shipping a bass to Australia would be a challenge but
we were up to the task and Greg was so very nice and thoughtful we wanted to
help him acquire his bucket list bass.
Well…little did we know that exporting a vintage bass had become such a
difficult task? Just months prior to
this I had gotten international shipping quote to the UK with no stumbling blocks. Only a few months later I was told by our international
shipping vendor they would no longer export vintage instruments of any kind because
of the Lacey Act.
If you have
time Google the Lacey Act and CITES to learn all kinds of stuff about exotic
wood, ebony, ivory and tortoise shell and how it has become so restrictive to
export the rare and valuable items.
George Gruhn wrote an excellent article that we have posted at our
website in the “Bass Tidbits” page. It
is excellent reading and very educational.
Long story short, we had to contact Greg and inform him we could no
longer export a bass because of the USA government laws. It was far too risky even if we could find a
shipper to export the bass as it could be seized and destroyed by customs. We love our basses far too much to take the
risk of losing one of them for such silly, over restrictive law. So…sorry…no bass for Greg…end of story!
But that is
not where it stopped. Three days later Greg
came back with a very professional proposal.
He would take care of all the legal paperwork which includes the USA inspections
with the USDA and FWS and fly to us and pick up the bass in person…WOW! Lonnie and I were both overwhelmed and
honored that a bass player would put forth this type of effort to acquire a vintage
American made plywood bass. Our answer,
OKAY we are all in! And so the next leg
of the journey began.
Greg has
worked the past 9 months to acquire all the specific documents required for
legal exportation while keeping us in the loop. The next step was how to fly the
bass safely home to Australia. Greg has chosen and purchased a flight case
from Jim Laabs Music. The case arrived
on our door step while we were away on vacation. This is what we saw upon our return home.
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| The flight case as it was delivered |
All looked
fine until we unpacked the box. There
was light damage to the outside of the case.
Greg was not concerned after reviewing the pictures I sent to him, he
made a good point. Until he gets the case
home it will have a few extra bumps and bruises. Just a good reason to find stickers for the outside
of the flight case. It will give it that
well traveled feeling. So on to the next
thing…does the bass fit in the case…NOPE!
I am unsure what dimensions are given for the case but we can say a Kay
bass does not “drop in” to the case. So the
next step, modify the case?
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| After un-packing |
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| The first fitting...NOPE...won't fit |
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| The padding is to tall and the neck does not clear the internal storage compartment |
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| The bottom pads are too tall |
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| This is how much space Lonnie needs to gain to make the bass drop in the case |
As with all
things Lonnie says “it is never easy” and some how he always needs to modify
things to make them work. Part of that
is because he can. So with pictures of the
case sent to Greg and his permission Lonnie began to modify the padding inside the
case to accommodate the total length of the bass. The bottom bout pads were too tall to allow the
bass to drop into the case. Lonnie removed
the pads, cut down the Styrofoam and the re-glued the fabric to the point where
the bass now fits in with no wiggle room.
With Lonnie's years of working on custom vans for the handicap and
modifying the interiors he was totally confident this was WELL with in his
skill level. We reassured Greg all would
be okay, this would be an easy fix and we could make the case work for the
proper packing and safe shipping of the bass.
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| And the modifications begin |
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| Re-covering the Styrofoam using the left over fabric |
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| He had to cut several inches out, these are the cut offs |
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| Re-gluing the cut down pads back into place |
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| Just like new. You would never know anything had been modified. |
So as of
right now the case has been modified and all is good. The next step is to make set up
modifications to the bass with Greg’s specifications and install his string of
choice.
Stay tuned
for updates as once Greg visits, auditions Penelope and spends time vacationing
in our country we will have more stories to tell. We are very excited for his visit and look
forward to spending time with our international visitor. He even wants to attend a local bluegrass jam
to hear us play and sing.
It will be
all good fun!
