Big Daddy's return...

Well…after such a long and involved restoration with the previous Epiphone we were looking for an easy Epiphone to get up and running. After looking around at our fleet of choices Lonnie and I selected Big Daddy a 1941, B-5 #548 as the next bass to get a little Bass Monkey TLC.



Big Daddy as named by his previous owner, came to us from the west. The owner had this bass in his care for many years after his step-father passed away. This bass has to be one of THE most clean and pristine pre-war Epiphone’s I have laid my eyes upon. I think this bass represents the absolute height of Epiphone pre-war opulence. This bass has it all. The tuners are 24kt plated gold, the flamed wood is the finest there is and the milky white overspray was an extra detail for the finest of basses.

This bass is in excellent condition and requires only a new set up. We are leaving the original end pin and tail wire intact. It will be a crown jewel in my Epiphone bass collection.

I have selected a new bridge and a full set of Thomastik Spirocore mittels for the bass…the bass is solid and in good health. It should not take to much TLC to get this one thumping.

I hope my expectations are quickly met.

And she's home...

The bass has arrived after her long journey home.

Here is what her owner had to say...

Thank you Wendy and thank you and Lonnie so much for this awesome instrument. I'm amazed to have found you and discovered you and Lonnie's passion for fixing up these old basses. I feel like I made a couple of new friends in life - I'll keep you updated on any gigs when I take her out!

I don't know if I ever told you that I was Counting Crows' bassist and co-founding member - I don't know if you know much about them, (we weren't U2 or anything) but we did pretty good in the mid 90's. I wish I had this bass during my Counting Crows years - we would have sounded better with her!

Anyways great to know you Wendy and also please give Lonnie my best - he's a true artist and I'm now a fan of his work.
All the best and let's please stay in touch - Matt

Doesn't get much better then that.

THE END :-)

The long journey home!

Lost all my money but a two dollar bill, a two dollar bill...

I'm on my long journey home!

The bass is all packed and ready for its long journey home to California. It won’t be too much longer until this big beauty is back home and making sweet music again…WHEW…what a ride.

Safe travels and make us proud.

The final chapter...

California...Here I Come!

Right back where I started from where bowers of flowers bloom in the spring each morning at dawning birdies sing at everything a sunkissed miss said, "Don't be late!" that's why I can hardly wait open up that golden gate California, Here I Come...

Here is the final slide show. The pictures can do all the talking.

http://s318.photobucket.com/albums/mm428/bassmonkey2/Matt%20Malley%20-%201948%20Epiphone%20B-4/?albumview=slideshow

California here I come...

The Epiphone is almost completed. The final detail, as small as it may be, Lonnie is trying to find the small brass “tack nails” that hold the Epi badge in place. He has the badge glued in place with a small dot of an adhesive as insurance so it won’t be lost. Since the tailpiece is not original for this bass the three pin holes for the badge are missing. He has been searching for the small tacks and an even smaller drill bit to make the pilot holes. As they say the devil is in the details.

Yesterday we had a visitor to the workshop. We asked if he would indulge us and play this bass. Jim is a local music teacher and a professional jazz musician for 30 years. He made the bass sound great and pulled tone out of it that we never could.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS8EqQcDD0k

It was very rewarding to hear this bass make sweet music after many years of silence. She will soon be packed up for her long journey west…California here I come!

A good day indeed!

Well…today was a very good day! This bass was tuned up and played notes for the very first time in a long time. Things are going well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKNW_SIQp5E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-46Ya4ZwvdE&feature=channel

Below is the bridge pre-final detailing. At this point the feet are fitted, the final detailing is not completed.

Now that the bridge has been cut, carved and detailed we can put the neck under some pressure by tuning the bass and playing it. The photo below is Lonnie detailing the bridge...his way.

The bass sounds great! Has a really great E string. True to form Lonnie went the extra mile and hollowed the bridge after we tested the volume. We did a test of before the bridge was hollowed and after the bridge was hollowed. I can say with a scientific measurement of a sound meter the hollow bridge makes the bass louder…two decibels louder.

Below you can see the bridge blank before it was detailed (on left) and after the final artistic carving and signature of a Bass Monkey bridge (on right)…awesome.

Lonnie will move on to mounting the Epiphone badge to the non-Epiphone tail piece. Detail the back of the neck with his secret Bass Monkey "speed neck" treatment. There are some final cosmetic details to the button at the neck and nut, but this bass will be jamming this Thursday and Friday for sure. I am excited to play this bass in an open jam to see how well it holds down the low end. It has a killer growl…but then again…it is an Epiphone!

The home stretch...

Tuesday evening Lonnie worked on re-fitting the sound post and nut. The original sound post is in good condition but poorly fit, barely making full contact with the top and back of the bass. Fitting a sound post through the FF holes either goes really smooth or really slows…some what like building a ship in a bottle.



This one wasn’t too bad; Lonnie needed to sand off the top and bottom of the sound post to make it more flat. The previous fit was too tight and the sound post was wedged in at an angle. Though he has the sound post fits well right now, the bass will get a final tweak once the strings and bridge are in place. We take great effort to move the sound post around to find the “sweet spot” where the bass comes alive and sounds the best (at least to our ears). The nut is in good condition and is the standard factory original two piece rosewood nut used by Epiphone during its 20 years of production. It had to be reshaped for the new steel strings which require smaller grooves then the red gut strings (possibly Red-O-Rays) that were previously on the bass.



Last evening I was in the kitchen making dinner when Lonnie came up from the workshop and said, “Come down and pick out a bridge for this bass”. Whoo-hoo! Sweet music to my ears only followed a few minutes later by another request, “pick out the strings you want too” (I get all the really important jobs!). Double whoo-hoo…we are coming down the home stretch. What a great feeling.



After dinner Lonnie went down to the workshop for another three hours (this was after a 10 hour workday at his real job in a 100 degree warehouse) to begin to fit the bridge. He get’s into a zone when he can see light at the end of the tunnel and doesn’t want to stop. He can’t wait to hear the bass make a sound for the first time…something you have worked on for so long finally speaks to you. It is a very exciting and rewarding feeling.

I think I’ll need to make a video just for posterity.