Fender Music Man Repair
This Fender Music Man bass had a broken truss rod. To replace the truss rod, it was necessary to remove the fingerboard, which could not be done without destroying it. The fingerboard therefore had to be replaced. Several suitable pieces of wood (Pau Ferro, an exotic wood from Brazil or Bolivia, which was typically used by Fender for its "rosewood" fingerboards) were located, and the customer selected the piece he wanted (the first photo, with the original neck in the center, shows how the colors and grain patterns were compared).
The next photo shows the date when the instrument was manufactured (1979) as well as the date of a prior "repair" (1985), which actually caused the rod to break, apparently due to a failure to appreciate the mechanism of this slightly unusual truss rod, which had adjustment threads on both ends. The third photo shows the neck pocket with the original factory marks.
The fourth photo shows the neck after removal of the fingerboard and the filler strip that covers the truss rod, and installation of the new truss rod. The gaps on either side of the rod were later filled with graphite reinforcement strips, and a new filler strip was installed. Finally, the new fingerboard was shaped and glued in place, and the edges of the neck were touched up and blended into the old lacquer.
