Trade Secrets: Reinforcing a crack under the bass-bar of a double bass

A particular double bass I worked on had a commonly occurring problem: a crack that ran from the saddle to where it intersected the bass-bar near its lower end. The crack was caused by shrinkage of the top due to drying – locally restrained by the saddle and lower block – combined with the added stress of the string load on the bridge, which is carried down the bass-bar. The bass was otherwise in a good condition and the original bass-bar was well fitted – there was no need to replace it other than to reinforce the crack. Once the crack was glued it had to be strengthened, but a normal crack cleat placed so near the bass-bar would almost certainly have caused a new crack to form at the weak point between the cleat and the bar. The reinforcement had to run under the bass-bar, but could that be done without the added time and cost of removing the existing bass-bar and fitting a new one? I had a power tool on hand that I had originally bought to remove a neck, and I tried using it to cut an opening under the bar for the reinforcement. With a bit of modification, the tool could be used to make an opening that I could further refine with a hand tool improvised from an old hacksaw blade.

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