1950s Kay M-1B 3/4 Double Bass

This beat-but-beaut Kay M-1B (for "blonde") upright was in the shop to get its neck reset and a followup setup.

When we got the strings off, the whole joint wiggled just a bit. I was able to pry it gently with a screwdriver and pads under the extension to get it loose enough to whack-off with a mallet. After that, my guy Andy cleaned-up the joint and we tag-teamed it into submission with some heavy-handed clamping and shims. Some sort of shim-job repair had been done in the past but it hadn't been "made fast" so that the joint was sturdy without glue. It looked a bit like a spray-n-pray kind of solution.

At any rate, once fixed, it had that lovely, tubby, wide-sounding Kay thing going on and it didn't handle poorly under a bow at all, too.

Here's a shot of Andy hard at work on this beast shortly after we got the neck set...