Gibson EB bass restoration project

part 2 - neck, trussrod and fretboard

Neck repair

Thankfully this was not going to be problematic - the break was clean, with no lost chippings, and with a large surface area to glue. A relatively easy job. The completed repair can be seen below. Note the cracks are barely visible (1). The mahogany looks very light in colour - the sign of a new break. The surface tends to darken as time elapses.

Truss rod and fretboard

To restore this bass to its original specifications and hardware, the fretboard would require replacing. Why the original board was replaced with a shorter one is not clear, however the neck below the board demonstrated why it was removed. The rod itself had been moved a couple centimetres towards the headstock - the circular anchor and its old location are evident below (2). The image of the other end of the headstock (right) shows a small amount of wood has been removed around the tip, again to compensate for the broken rod. Neither of these adjustments are critical - the function, and adjustment of the truss rod is not affected, however the mounting of the plastic cover is, becuase the screw hole was in the reomved wood - the previous owner had clearly been using a non-original three-screw mounted cover instead.

The above image also shows the humbucker screw recesses (3). The pickup of this period was the height-adjustable EB humbucker which had a screw in each corner, deeper than the humbucker route. These had been filled, and required unfilling before mounting the pickups. One other point of note - the pickup route is stamped in large lettering 'EB3L'. This is the last trace of original finish (and its still there!).

If you have any questions, or comments about this bass or its restoration, please post them here