Post by ken1953clark on Jun 19, 2020 20:06:36 GMT
Well the new acquisition looked good (Mint, hmm with a hole) but didn’t sound right. It had been detuned too much before dispatch and the cone had moved. The base side was totally choked because the biscuit was rubbing on the coverplate, and the treble side was only slightly better.
It wasn’t a total surprise, it had been understrung on the tail piece, a sign that there might be a break-angle/ cone issue.
Time to take it apart and have a look see. The treble issue was because the strings were embedded in the saddle and had to be forcibly removed. Once in pieces it was obvious that during its history the cone had been glued and nailed (!) into the well and looked like it had been used as a ping-pong racquet.
A bit of a problem considering you can’t get replacements. The biscuit was flopping around and the tailpiece was loose too.
A chat with Michael for advise gave me several possibilities from massaging the cone back into shape, routing the body out (even more) to take a standard cone, or modifying a standard cone and maybe inserting a spacing hoop into the well if there was a break-angle issue. I might have considered rerouting had the body been tatty, but the body was in good nick, and with a larger cone it would not sound the same. I decided to start simple and ramp up if necessary so I set to massaging the cone on my workbench with fingers and a tea spoon. After 20 minutes it didn’t look too bad...
I then removed the nails and excess glue from the well, replaced the biscuit with one from a modern Chinese copy and put it all back together again (after checking the break-angle) and it sounded much better, like a resonator. No rattles or buzzes. I’m happy with it now. I’m sure I’ll get used to the ‘baseball bat’ neck eventually.
I may revisit in the future, I’m not entirely happy with the quality of the biscuit, it needs new strings and the cone could probably use some more work but for now it’s cool and strung correctly...
Cheers
It wasn’t a total surprise, it had been understrung on the tail piece, a sign that there might be a break-angle/ cone issue.
Time to take it apart and have a look see. The treble issue was because the strings were embedded in the saddle and had to be forcibly removed. Once in pieces it was obvious that during its history the cone had been glued and nailed (!) into the well and looked like it had been used as a ping-pong racquet.
A bit of a problem considering you can’t get replacements. The biscuit was flopping around and the tailpiece was loose too.
A chat with Michael for advise gave me several possibilities from massaging the cone back into shape, routing the body out (even more) to take a standard cone, or modifying a standard cone and maybe inserting a spacing hoop into the well if there was a break-angle issue. I might have considered rerouting had the body been tatty, but the body was in good nick, and with a larger cone it would not sound the same. I decided to start simple and ramp up if necessary so I set to massaging the cone on my workbench with fingers and a tea spoon. After 20 minutes it didn’t look too bad...
I then removed the nails and excess glue from the well, replaced the biscuit with one from a modern Chinese copy and put it all back together again (after checking the break-angle) and it sounded much better, like a resonator. No rattles or buzzes. I’m happy with it now. I’m sure I’ll get used to the ‘baseball bat’ neck eventually.
I may revisit in the future, I’m not entirely happy with the quality of the biscuit, it needs new strings and the cone could probably use some more work but for now it’s cool and strung correctly...
Cheers
