1951 Kay M-1 3/4 Double Bass

This is an old Kay M-1 (violin corners) double bass in what appears to be an original dark brown finish. Neat!

My friend Gus was given this bass and when it got here for work, it had some loose seams, a very-strangely shaved fingerboard, and a neck joint that was both loose, at a horrid angle, and brutalized by various old repair attempts. Andy did an excellent job resetting the neck, fitting the (replacement) bridge a lot better, and dealing with seams and general setup-side work. I did some work recutting the endpin so it could fit a Wolf Ball contraption, fit some side dots, and aided Andy a bit while working on the neck joint.

The neck itself has some warp to it and it's been cut very thin so we decided to string it up with LaBella Supernil strings as they're very low tension, sound great (especially on old, lightly-built Kays), and are perfect for the "boom-boom" plucking that this will be doing for its owner at jams and get-togethers.