Upton Bass: American Standard Repair

American Standard # 788 c1941

This American Standard double bass had a problematic neck. American Standard basses, however nice they are, were built with a fatal flaw in the neck heel design. Two pieces of wood were glued and doweled, and the heel is significantly tapered at this joint. If ever a bass heel is to break, it is in this area. So why did H.N. White make the basses in this way? Who knows.

The owner of this nice double bass elected to have a scroll graft instead of a replacement neck. One could argue that a factory carved neck/scroll would be sufficient on a factory made laminated bass, but being that this bass is in such good condition and the market value keeps going up on them (not to mention the owner absolutely LOVES this bass), we agreed that keeping the original scroll with the body was in it's best interest.

The 43 inch string length will stay, but the neck set will be about 1/4 inch deeper into the block. The over stand will be increased to 30mm and the neck projection (angle of neck heel) increased as well making the bass easier to play and more pronounced in tone.

A fun project, and in our opinion a 10 out of 10 in regards to degree of difficulty. It simply does not get any harder than a scroll graft. So many angles, measurements and aspects must be considered and must meet at the exact same time.

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