The Aria Diamond (Hi-Flyer) is here!

[Pilgrim]

OK - here it is!  It's here, all the electronics work, and I've set it up.

I had one big problem - the neck had too much bow, so I snugged the truss rod and then put a bit of stress on the neck to help it settle in.  Unfortunately I included the body in the push I gave it.  Then I heard: CRACK!

The body wood is extremely light on this - undoubtedly a Japanese wood of some kind - and when I pushed against the neck and body, the neck cracked the body on both sides of the neck pocket!  DAMN-DAMN-DAMN!!!

But keeping in mind the advice of The Hon. Dr. Bassman and others, I surveyed the damage and determined that it wasn't fatal.  I grabbed one of the small syringes I recently bought to work on a separated fretboard, diluted some Titebond about to about 2/3 glue, 1/3 water by mixing it in a Dixie cup, and injected the diluted Titebond into the cracks on both sides of the neck.

I then came up with this rather elaborate clamping setup, with one set of clamps holding the body together, and a third (the C-clamp in the middle) pushing the neck support in back of the neck pocket just slightly forward so that I'd get good contact resulting in a solid glue joint.  I also used wax paper between my clamping wood and the body so that I wouldn't accidentally bond the wood to the body.  The Titebond that I couldn't wipe off while it was clamped did wipe off the finish quite easily once I removed the clamps:




And after 36 hours I got brave enough to remove the clamps and set it up.  I had to use the toothpick and Titebond trick on all six screws holding the bridge on, and as I speak I'm doing the same for the strap holder screws - the holes were wallowed out with about #12 wood screws which had been substituted for strap holders.

It's strung with Ernie Ball .45-.100 Custom Flats, as those are what I had handy.  Note that the original bridge cover is still present, the truss rod cover is present, and overall the bass is in pretty presentable shape.  





The label on the headstock says:
(treble cleff) Musikhaus
Robert Schonau
63 Giessen
Bahnhofstr.76 Tel. 73269  

So I assume it was originally sold in Germany and made its way to the US with a serviceman or other traveler.

Its worst fault is a number of finish chips on the edge of the body, which is in the all-black area.  I welcome suggestions on how I might fill some or all of these chips, and what material I might use.  The bass is the equivalent of a 20/20 car (looks great from 20 feet away at 20 MPH), but it can be a bit cleaner than it is.  There are some surface scratches on the body, but the edge damage is really all that's noticeable from more than 3-4 feet away.



The sound?  BIG.  This thing through my Sunn Coliseum will shake the room.  These pickups both seem to put out a fairly hot signal.  I'll be trying it out tonight with my surf band.

[Highlander]

If the sound "works", Al, then I'd be tempted to do a full strip and refin with a ReRanch sunburst kit (sez he with all the experience in the world and absolutely no access to this gear on the wrong side of the pond...  )

Refin, then you won't have to think about it...

[Pilgrim]

The bottom with chips doesn't look quite as bad as the photo indicates - some of that is dust.

Maybe I could try some acrylic lacquer or super glue with black dye in it?

[Lightyear]

Mmmm, I think I would just clean it up and play it

[Pilgrim]

You have a good point - it is what it is...and it's 40 years old.

OTOH, I could pick up some lacquer on the way home, drop black dye in it and dab with a toothpick........I probably will do that soon, as I'm a hard-core fiddler.  It just takes me way too long to get around to doing anything...