Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Cracked Up No More

Here's a quick creative solution.  We had an issue with a body that came back with a crack running from the neck pocket through our weight reduction chamber.  It looks like the chamber might have weakened the area a bit so that the crack had more space to develop.  Hard to say for sure, but in order to help prevent this type of thing in the future we decided to rotate the grain on the cover 90 degrees on the new basses we make.  This will give the area around the cavity more strength because the grain is much stronger perpendicular to the grain than parallel to it.

It's hard to know what caused the crack in the bass.  It probably took quite a hit and it's definitely not a warranty issue because of that.  But our modified cover technique will hopefully provide a little extra insurance against this type of damage in the future.

Here's the cracked bass:


We're going to use some thin epoxy to repair it and then it'll be refinished.  Should be good as new at that point.

Here's the solution on a new bass:


Just a little example of how looking at things from a different angle can help solve a problem or make an improvement.  Of course if someone wants to take the pick guard off the bass on a trans finish it may be a bit of an issue.  We'll cross that bridge when we get to it...
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2 comments:

  1. TeleguyMay 2, 2012 at 10:14 PM

    Carey, Do I see 2 cracks? In the photo, there appears to be 1 close to the truss rod cutout and one close to where the G string will pass over. I would think that if it's the 1st one I mentioned, that would be too far away from your cavity to cause a weakness. The other, sure, the cavity is probably at fault. I would agree with you that it had to take a good hit. Probably a freaky thing that you may never see again. I'm not sure that a perpendicular grain would help an awful lot, but it can't hurt! A little superglue our epoxy in there and touch-up, and it's gone! Good luck! -Keith Holland

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  2. Carey NordstrandMay 3, 2012 at 10:42 AM

    Hey Keith! Thanks for the comment.

    There is only one crack and it goes through the knot in the middle of the cover piece. Right through the weakest part of the cavity. So yeah, the cavity is a factor, after the impact that caused it of course. I'm sure we'll probably never see anything like this again. And we're going to turn the grain as well.

    Thanks again!

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