the Bass Docto

The Shop

This is where is all happens. I believe that keeping an orderly shop is imperative for efficiency, which helps me do the best job possible.

My re-hair bench is fairly simple, yet highly efficient copy of my mentor’s bench, who studied with John Bowlander. This is where bows are coaxed back to their original condition. Here is where I re-hair, camber, straighten, re-grip and re-tip, repair frogs, pin broken heads, and french polish.

I made this bass gurney from clear heart redwood locally milled and air dried. There is a standby rack below and an adjustable neck cradle above.

This is a 1927 9" South Bend Junior lathe. I use it to manufacture soundposts, endpins, bridge adjusters, end pin plug bushings, and various other made–to–match components.

My method of installing adjusters is more involved than most luthiers in that I do not drill through the bottom of the feet. This allows more contact with the top of the instrument. Bull’s-eye level is the only way to go when installing bass bridge adjusters.

After the bridge has been carefully fit, I draw my horizontal lines on the legs, subtracting the amount of height the wheels take. I then cut off the legs and sand to the lines.

Now I’m ready to draw an x using the corners to find my centers.

As you can see, I have installed a digital caliper to my quill. This allows me to find the exact depth of the posts. The bottom of the unthreaded post which faces down, actually touches the bottom of the mortise while the horizontal wheel lays perfectly flat on the top of the feet. The threaded portion of the post goes up into the leg of the bridge.

Threading up into the leg as opposed to down into the feet allows me to keep more original bridge wood in the leg and decreases the amount of stiffness in the bridge, which in turn gives a warmer sound.