On to the dry fit...

The repairs to the inside are completed and Lonnie has begun to dry fit and then later glue the back…zipping it all up so to speak. The dry fit is a tug of war between the body and the back of the bass. Because the bass sides become flexible when the back it is off the dry fit is a necessary process before he begins to use any hide glue. As soon as the bass is all glued up we can flip it over and start on the next steps.

Once again…how many clamps does one bass need?

Lonnie is making slow and steady progress by working on the bass a little bit each evening. I stood and watched him for a while last evening; it is still amazing to me after 25 years of knowing him how meticulous he is. He cleaned the old hide glue from the edges of the front and back of the bass with warm water and a stiff brush moving along the edges inch by inch. The kerfling (the slotted rib lining on the inside of a Kay bass) was cleaned tooth by tooth to get the old glue out from between the slots...a slow process to watch.

During the process of removing the back some small pieces of wood broke loose with the old hide glue. Lonnie is taking each little sliver of wood and re-attaching to the font or back of the bass where it belongs. He is also gluing together any loose plies around the edges of the back. We have found in working on these vintage basses they produce the best tone and volume when the wood is making full contact and can vibrate freely while playing. This is why Lonnie takes such great pains to glue any open seams, plies or makes paper thin shims during the neck re-setting process…the more solid the bass is, the better it sounds.

The patch work on the upper bout is going well; the huge wooden C clamp is from his grand-dad’s workshop. Lonnie’s grand-dad passed away when Lonnie was young and he barely remembers him…but he remembers his tools and his work ethic very well. It is cool to see an old tool being used on and old bass, they go together like milk and cookies.

1942 Kay S-9 named Martha...

Meet Martha, a 1942 Kay S-9 serial number 9892. She has been selected to be the next bass for a full Bass Monkey make over. She is in good over all condition and sounded pretty sweet with some really old dead steel strings. This bass came to us from the mid-west and if I had to guess it has not been a gigging bass for many years. The 1950’s style pick up, the original canvas bass bag with the initials “M.S.” on the outside, the coatings of dust on the inside are all indicators to me that she has been sitting for quite some time…but we are here to change that!

This bass is your classic pre-war Kay and being the “S” model or a Swingmaster she has the fully factory carved scroll, a factory installed ebony fingerboard, real inlaid purfling and the classic ebony horseshoe detail at the button, which are all original and intact. These are features you will find on the professional grade Kay Swingmasters. These basses have just a bit more “frills” then a regular student grade Kay M-1B and only a few of the S-9’s were manufactured so they are more rare…especially a pre-war model.

We want to make this Kay last another 68 years or more so we are going to repair some cosmetic concerns in addition to a new set up and end pin. The first thing we noticed is the back of the bass had open seams on the upper bouts and a quarter size hole on the E side upper bout. My guess is at some point in its life the bass fell and caused the classic Kay neck break…which has been well repaired a long time ago and remains solid…but what was not repaired was the hole in the upper bout. Since the back was already loose it made more sense to remove the back, repair the hole from the inside to give a nice clean appearance from the outside. This also gives an opportunity to inspect the bass bar and the interior of the bass for other flaws. One additional curious thing is the large, fixed wooden end pin, it is larger then a broom stick and glued in solid to the end pin block. With the back off we can cut off the fixed wooden end pin, bush the oversize hole and install a new adjustable ULSA ebony end pin. This will make the bass much more user friendly for the next lucky owner. Also with the back off we can clean out 68 years of dust and dirt…and boy this bass was dusty and dirty on the inside.

The back is now off and it did not put up too much of a struggle. I wish we had time lapsed photography of this process, which I don’t because I was holding the bass. The process requires a steady hand, nerves of steel and trying to not listen to the cracking sound which is the hide glue releasing from the wood. It made me jump a few times and I got “the look” from Lonnie to be quiet…as to say “I’m not hurting the bass!”

With the back off, the dirt cleaned out we are ready to start the repairs from the inside out. The great news is the bass is in really good condition with no delamination in the plywood, the interior wood is beautiful and the bass bar is in perfect condition. I even see signs of bird’s eye maple on the interior laminates. I wonder why sometime the inside of the bass has more fancy wood then the outside…but then again they were trying to match the wood on the outside…and Kay did a fine job on this bass. It has a beautiful honey, blonde patina that only years of use and wear will give to the finish.

I’ll keep the updates coming as we want to have this blonde beauty completed for the holidays.

More to come, stay tuned!!!

Epiphone B-4 update...

Wow…where does time go? It has been almost two months and the workshop has been mostly silent. As festival season drawls to a close our time in the workshop will pick up. We have some pretty cool projects starting to line up for the winter. We can’t wait to get started.

To write the closing chapter on the Blonde, Epiphone B-4 bass, # 1854…it is completed and sounding sweet. This was a MUCH easier project then the 1950 AS bass. It only took Lonnie a few months in the workshop instead of a whole year…very nice. This Epi bass has gotten lots of compliments for its beautiful blonde finish…it is a looker for sure. It sounds pretty stout too. I am looking forward to putting some playing time on it with winter jamming. The bass has been silent for many years, so I think with some good playing time it will open up even more then it has just in the past month. It has a really sweet mid range and sounds a bit jazzier to my ear then bluegrass. The tone of the bass is more complex…not just thump…which is nice. It has Thomastik Spiro mittels which are a nice match for this bass. I feel it needs a new owner who is a better player then me to really bring out the potential on this big Blondie. I do not play arco but Lonnie has drug a bow over it…boy does it fill the room with volume. Because it needs played, we are offering this bass for sale and can be seen at our website in “The Showroom”. If we can match this bass up with a happy new owner would be fantastic. We have seven Epiphone basses…I think we can share one or two with another deserving bass player.

While we are on Epiphone’s…Lonnie is working on a little Epiphone arch top guitar that I thought I just had to have. I love my Martin guitar but wanted a pre-war Epiphone guitar for a few years…hopefully this one passed through Epi’s hands…maybe there is some mojo in it. Lonnie is giving it a good once over…surprise-surprise. It needs a neck reset, some touch up work, new bridge adjusters and strings. I want to have a custom soft case made for it as I plan to take it to jams and camping…it is a nice easy playing guitar…just what I needed.

I’ll keep the update coming as new bass projects get started in our workshop. Once the Epi guitar is in good playing condition we have to decide which bass gets the full Bass Monkey treatment…I think it might be the 1937 Kay O-100, # 785 that we have had for four years. We have never heard a note of music from this bass but it sure looks nice. A beautiful, dark red brown patina…both Lonnie and I have a sweet spot for dark, rich, brown basses. You can’t beat 73 years worth of patina and experience…a new bass can’t begin to scratch that vintage itch.

Epiphone B-4 #1854

We are currently working on a 1953-1954 Epiphone Blonde B-4 number 1854.

This bass has been on the bench for a short time but has been waiting in the wings for almost 2 years. It has interesting history and I feel it was one of the early Epiphone basses to come out of the Philadelphia factory. My history shows Epiphone moved their manufacturing from New York to Philadelphia after a long labor strike in 1953. The serial number being stamped on the end of the fingerboard, I think indicates this was beginning of a new era for the Epiphone bass manufacturing location. According to history, the craftsmen who refused to move from New York to Philadelphia formed the Guild Guitar Company in 1953. With this bass steeped heavily in the Epiphone legacy we are giving it the full Bass Monkey spa treatment WITH the super tuned Lonnie modifications. Over all the bass was in good condition. We found the old end pin was glued into place with a bunch of shims…a pretty poor job of trying to keep the end pin knob in place. After much wiggling Lonnie successfully removed it in preparation for a new ULSA rosewood endpin. The new endpin is a really nice match to the reddish rosewood fingerboard.

Lonnie has become quite impressed with the volume and tone of the 1953 Kay bass we just finished, so he has decided to do the modifications to the bridge and tail piece again. This time he has lightened the bridge even more and hollowed the tail piece. The rock maple tail piece on this bass proved to be more of a challenge then the Kay rosewood tailpiece. The rock maple wood was much harder…we had wood shavings and splinters galore in the workshop. Lonnie has even taken this one step further this time by adding color to the back of the tailpiece to give it the same patina as the front. The goal with his modifications is to keep the bass as original in appearance as possible but bring out the maximum volume and tone…plus he loves the challenge.

This bass is getting the following upgrades:

New rosewood ULSA endpin
Hi-Tec tail gut
Saddle re-shaped
Custom carved, fit and hollowed Despiau Bridge
Sound post refit with an adjustment
The rosewood fingerboard has been dressed and oiled
The nut has been re-shaped
New Thomastik Spirocore mittels (mediums)
The neck has been re-set and shimmed for a tight fit
The edges of the bass have been touched up and colored to match

Even though this bass visually was in great shape we have found ways to improve the playability and make it healthy for the next 50 years or more. This one will soon be completed and ready for a jam. We have been so enamored by the 1953 Kay bass “Vince” that we will need to set it aside and give this bass named “Jethro” some playing time. Yeah...the name Jethro came from a two bass purchase on one road trip…we acquired Homer & Jethro on the same weekend. For all you bluegrass fans…you will remember Homer & Jethro and their silly songs…these names just came from one long car trip where we got a little silly from lack of sleep.

Stay tuned for the final unveiling of Jethro…it is going to be a really nice Epiphone bass for the collection.

Miss Honey Epiphone #674...

Meet Miss Honey…Epiphone #674



Disclaimer: This is NOT our bass!!!

My love for Epiphone basses is no secret. I must have a kindred spirit to Epiphone’s. On a recent festival vacation we found possibly the only Epiphone at the campground and of course we were immediately drawn to it like a moth to a light. Just strolling along we saw the bass in a creative homemade bass stand and Lonnie said I think that is an Epiphone…well we just had to see!

This bass is owned by Dean from Altoona, PA and bless his heart is was a dumpster dive save…Miss Honey has her battle scars but let me tell you…I got to jam late into the morning hours on her and had no complaints…she held down the lowed just fine. Even though this bass was saved from a trash dumpster it has some interesting features…it is suffering from an identity crisis. The tail badge says B-3 but the back with the loop screams B-4 to me. The three piece neck is some what rare on Epiphone’s and the blonde flamed wood is pretty nice condition. Dean pieced her back together…by the way…Dean is one awesome banjo picker and we had a great time at their jam…his handy work has made this bass thump once again. Good Job!

I know this post has nothing to do with The Bass Monkey workshop but I thought is was pretty cool to see this recycled Epiphone bass make music once again…a passion we share with Dean and friends.

Have fun looking at the slide show of Miss Honey…you can recognize this bass any where!!!

http://s318.photobucket.com/albums/mm428/bassmonkey2/Epiphone%20674/?albumview=slideshow

1953 Kay C-1 is now completed!

The 1953 Kay C-1 named “Vince” is finished and sounding great. We went jam camping and to two evening jam sessions and so far the bass is winner. This past Friday was a large open jam with two basses in the house. I and the other bass player were taking turns playing and at one point the guitar player in the corner said…thump on that bass, I can’t hear that other bass…music to our ears!

This bass did not take near as long as the American Standard bass to restore, only a few short months and it would have been even faster if Lonnie had skipped the experimental “super tuning” ideas…but it has all worked out real well. This bass is a real good Kay and I am not in any hurry to see this one go…it can stay in the family for a while.

If you want to see the full slide shows of this bass click on the link below and enjoy!

http://s318.photobucket.com/albums/mm428/bassmonkey2/1953%20Kay%20C-1%20Vince/?albumview=slideshow