Hello all,
Can anyone help me with suggesting a course of action to take? We have a vintage Gibson Ripper Bass in need of repair and I am looking for opinions on what to do. We payed $530 for the bass, the truss rod just snapped and knowing that the repair may cost more than we paid for the guitar, I am searching for creative solutions. The bass was originally built with a maple fretted fingerboard. Someone else added a fretless ebony fingerboard on top of the original before we bought it. My thought is that if we are going to pay an arm and a leg for repairing the truss rod, the only thing that makes sense is to have it restored to original in the process so at least the guitar will retain some value if we hang on to it.
Do any of you have ideas for various courses of action that could be taken and costs involved? Do you know a great, value added repair person? I'd like to have good options before I hand it over to someone...could I save some money by removing the old board myself? Problems? I'm willing to be very creative in my approach to find the most cost effective solution that will maintain the value of the vintage guitar. I've posted close-up pics for you to see at I've tried to cover everything.
Thank you so much in advance for your help.