Warwick Thumb 6-String Re-fret

This customer bought a fretless-converted Warwick Thumb 6-String, and wanted to get it re-fretted.

On the bench, ready for restoration.

We decided to go with the original Warwick bell brass fret wire for this job. Bell brass frets are a little more malleable than nickel silver frets, and I had to be careful not to over-seat the fret ends before fitting the tang.

Masking off the fretboard around the soon-to-be re-cut fret slot.

When you buy the bell-brass fret wire from Warwick, you get exactly the number of pieces that you need, pre-cut. If you make a mistake with a piece, then you have to but another bag of 26 pieces. I made sure I took my time on this job.

Cutting the slot and checking the depth. The fret wire is also ready to go.

Re-slotting my way down the board.

Installation begins! The fretboard is waxed as a barrier for the gel-type glue in the slots.

Fretted all the way down the neck, ready for clean-up.

Shiny.

Bevelled and ready for levelling and crowning.

Cleaning up the fret ends.

Taped off and marked for levelling.

Crowning begins.

Crowned, polished and ready to go.

Strung up and happening!

Finished!

I always like working on Warwick basses because they behave in a predictable way. They are very well engineered instruments and can almost always be brought back to top notch condition.

Somebody likes my repair work!

A customer wrote a very nice review of the work I performed on his Carl Thompson bass.

Here is the bass in question:

I'll be making a post in the near future detailing the work that went into getting this bass back to its former glory.

Stay tuned!

Setup Procedure

Here's another video showing how I set up our basses before they hit the shop floor:

Truss Rod Replacement Part 2

Finally finished that truss rod replacement, like so:

Trimming the excess fret position marker material.

Levelling the fret markers.

More levelling.

Cleaning up the epoxy on the fingerboard edge.

Levelled, sanded and treated with oil.

Preparing the new ebony nut.

Nut complete!

Finished!

This kind of job is a lot messier than it looks. On the days I worked on this bass, I went home dustier than a butlers' duster. A butler that has a lot of dusting to do in a giant mansion that doubles as a sawmill.

Potential band name: Butlers' Duster. Potential low, about 3/10 or so.

New Mahogany Heel

Sometime in the past, this bass had the neck re-glued at the wrong angle. WIth epoxy. So the whole damn thing came apart like a fart.

The glue they used on this bass in the 70's wasn't the best, and here's the result.

New mahogany block, being carved for a new heel.

More carving.

Even more carving.

Still more carving.

Perfect fit!

Clamped up, lined up and glued.

More to come once finishing starts. Adios.

Blast from the Past

Fact: old-school Steinberger basses are hollow:

The body and neck were moulded from one section of graphite, and the top (with electronics) was attached via allen-head bolts through the back of the body.

Happy freaking new year.

Broken Truss Rod

Today was spent mainly working on a bass with a broken truss rod. The fretboard had to be removed, the truss rod replaced, and the board re-glued, restored and levelled.

Look out! Hot knife!

Fretboard removed.

Busted truss rod.

Routing template for new rod.

Routed and new rod installed.

Guide dowel for aligning the board during re-glue.

Stabbed my finger removing the melted fret markers. Watch it, kids.

Kept going, though.

Levelling! Check out the dip at the 12th fret. That's got to go.

Re-radiusing. The chalk shows what's left to be done.

Fret markers installed and epoxied in place.

That's all for now, more once I get back to the workbench. Dig it.