Tacoma Acoustic Bass repairs

[Greg Steil]

I have a Tacoma Bass in for repair, with all the back braces popped loose. There is very limited access through the "soundhole" such as it is, and not much more through the control plate. Any tips for long distance work?

[Peter Corp]

I have just done this job on a Tacoma Chief that didn't have the access through the electronic. I have big hands and decided the only way was to remove the back. It came off fairly easily and went back again perfectly after repair with a touch up of the glue line using a tiny brush and some hardware store matt polyurethane varnish. I know that for me this was the way to do the job. I would have taken longer to try and do it with long implements and would not have done a neat job.

Every back brace was loose at both ends yet the front bracing was fine. My guess is that the guitar had a blow on the back which flexed the domed back. I took all the braces off, scraped the back and braces clean of glue before regluing. I also used a strip of linen over each brace end, just in case of a repeat!

[Michael Lewis]

I think more likely the instrument suffered a severe humidity change to loosen the braces. Usually when an impact happens the braces tend to crack. It could have been a combination of the two causes, as a weakened glue joint would release with less force.

[David Collins]

I see these fail quite often (especially the older ones), and use both some high-strength magnet clamping systems and a couple of extra long cam clamps I made years back specifically for these instruments.

[Greg Steil]

Well, I got it done!! I made a "solid" tool to raise/lower the Stew-Mac jacks by fastening a socket head cap screw into a piece of Brass tubing on one end, and an Allen wrench into the other with CA. Very handy. To place the jacks way at the back, I found a small dowel will hold the jack vertical by putting it into the small groove in the plastic. I also made some small "V" blocks to fasten to the top and bottom of the jack, mounted loosely so they will pivot to align with the brace and get access to the screw. It went way smoother than expected, and I learned a lot. This stuff is really fun.

[Michael Lewis]

Well, it's fun when you win. Hopefully you will always win.