Restoring a Lake Placid Blue '63 Bass VI

[JSett]

Look, play and sound like this:

I think it'll be significantly nicer than a Squier

[Highnumbers]

Well it was all going too easy….

When you see this freshly glued slab of alder, just know that this project took a small step backward.

I believe in documenting my successes and my failures, so I’ll post some more soon to explain. (The body is intact, all good!)

[OffYourFace]

interesting! my guess is that it is too thin now?

[Highnumbers]

interesting! my guess is that it is too thin now?

Nope! I’ll explain with photos but basically there was a visible gap between the repair slab and the body at the bottom edge (due to an imperfection in the template at the top).

Since the slab was epoxied to the body, and there was a gap, it had to be cut off with a bandsaw and a new repair slab made.

But! I’m back on track, having spent most of today working on this. Pics tomorrow.

[bulrich]

Wonderful project and once complete, all will be corrected in the universe. Humanity will resolve into a centuries long era of peace and 30” scale 6 string basses will be required in all homes.

[OffYourFace]

interesting! my guess is that it is too thin now?

Nope! I’ll explain with photos but basically there was a visible gap between the repair slab and the body at the bottom edge (due to an imperfection in the template at the top).

Since the slab was epoxied to the body, and there was a gap, it had to be cut off with a bandsaw and a new repair slab made.

But! I’m back on track, having spent most of today working on this. Pics tomorrow.

ah ok. I couldn't tell how big those pieces were. It looked like enough wood for a full body to me.

[Biloxide]

Gosh, balls, not cool epoxy bonding
the start of this fantastic restoration, don't let us predict such a bad plan.

Will you change the glue to facilitate assembly and solid and stable tightening with strong and definitive wood glue ?

Hoping that the new collage will go smoothly and that we can assiduously follow the resurrection of this antiquity, we are in suspense over this epic story.

[Highnumbers]

Gosh, balls, not cool epoxy bonding
the start of this fantastic restoration, don't let us predict such a bad plan.

Will you change the glue to facilitate assembly and solid and stable tightening with strong and definitive wood glue ?

Hoping that the new collage will go smoothly and that we can assiduously follow the resurrection of this antiquity, we are in suspense over this epic story.

Epoxy bonding is a perfectly strong and appropriate option for many wood repairs. It doesn’t shrink, it has excellent gap filling qualities and it’s a permanent bond.

That said, epoxy does not expand the grain like a water-based wood glue. I did switch to wood glue the second time around because I wanted the end grain to expand and form a tighter seal.

But don’t discount epoxy or try to shame others for using it. Epoxy is extremely useful in many repair situations. Especially a high quality epoxy system, West is popular among guitar repair shops for all the reasons I list above.

[graceless]

Proper epoxy is friggen legit. Often used for wooden sailboat repairs in high-load high-stakes applications without issue.

[Highnumbers]

As promised, here's some background pics on my setback this week.

After the original joint cured, there was a visible airgap. It's hard to explain, but basically clamping tight at the top part of the body made the bottom end flare out slightly and there was a tiny imperfection in the negative template which allowed this to happen. It wasn't even apparent when clamping, but since epoxy sets so thin and doesn't make the wood swell up like wood glue, this wasn't apparent to me until taking the clamps off.



The only real downside with two-part epoxy is that there is no separating the pieces easily. The quickest way to take the body off the repair slab was cutting it off with a bandsaw..



But the great thing about shaping a guitar with a template, is that it makes things really easy to re-shape. My "positive" template was perfectly good, but I'd need to cut a new "negative" lower template without the aforementioned imperfection.


Unfortunately, as you can see in earlier photos, my previous repair slab was just barely long enough for the body shape, it went right to the corner. This left no room to reshape the piece by moving the new template down a 1/16" or so. Ultimately, I had to go back to the lumber yard and pick up some longer pieces of Alder and start that part all over again. This time I was able to get wider pieces of better quality wood, so it only required two pieces, seamed exactly where the factory seam is on the original body.



After switching to a high quality wood glue and clamping up, the result was a nice tight seam all-around. Much better than the first time!




In addition to the Faction guitars printout template, I was able to get some very helpful measurements from @smjenkins off his original Bass VI (thanks Mike!) to confirm that the Faction template was correct. It generally was, although the location of the control cavity is off on the Faction template by 1/4" or so (which doesn't affect me since I'm not routing anything. I generally used the trem as my locating point for everything, and it makes a fine paperweight too.



Finally, you get an idea of what the body shape will be, and how much is added on versus original. Next up is flat sanding the backside, fixing some small stuff, then cutting out the body and shaping/contouring everything. I must admit it's going to be extremely difficult to accomplish a nice flat body while still preserving the LPB under the switch plates and between the pickups. We'll see, at least the finish in the cavities will remain intact.

[MattK]

Brilliant fix - and an immaculate result! I like that the seam is matched as well.
On a technical note, did the wood glue also contract slightly as it set/dried to form a more snug joint? I know you mentioned the grain fanning slightly but I wondered if it also added a bit of self-clamping as it dried.

[Highnumbers]

Brilliant fix - and an immaculate result! I like that the seam is matched as well.
On a technical note, did the wood glue also contract slightly as it set/dried to form a more snug joint? I know you mentioned the grain fanning slightly but I wondered if it also added a bit of self-clamping as it dried.

Thanks! Yep, to an extent the wood glue contracted slightly, pulling the seam tighter. You get a decent working time with PVA glues, but once the moisture draws out, it really sticks.

The other option would have been hot hide glue, which I use for neck sets and other guitar repairs. But it has an extremely short working time (like a matter of seconds), making it a poor choice for complicated clamping situations like this, where it all needs to be flush and square.

[MattK]

Regarding the paint preservation, obviously there will be some thickness of the existing sealer/primer/finish. Beside that you have a nicely flat patch piece and stripped surface. Would you consider using a primer that has a little bit of “build” on the patch and existing surface, and then smoothing it off after that? That way the primed surface might be closer to level with the remaining paint.

[JVG]

Love the way this is progressing.

Perhaps an unpopular view, but i wouldn’t worry about preserving the areas of paint under the control plate and between pickups. Sand that bugger smooth!

There’s not really anything to be gained by leaving those bits of paint, except to get fuzzy feelings from looking at 60+ year old paint next time someone removes the hardware. The original paint inside the control cavities can provide that link to the past.

[MattK]

Eh, for me it would be about the challenge. Someone heedlessly wrecked this, is it possible to undo what they did without any further compromise. Would have been quicker to make straight cuts for the patches!