Joined:
October 2012
Posts: 1034
Location: Yokohama, Japan | Inspired by seesquares' "Another Matrix Rehab - Replace Your Divots, please!" I thought I'd start work on my easiest project sitting on the shelf. It happens to be a non-O project, so I went to the Kramer Forum, and posted a thread and pics, but there is very little interest/knowledge regarding these pre-Gibson acoustic electric Ferringtons; so I thought I'd start a thread here. After an hour or so of preliminary work, I had some general questions about the condition of the bass that I wanted to throw out there, so please bear with me.
A friend gave me this Ferrington. It was severely neglected through a few cold winters and hot/humid Japanese summers. The bridge lifted off of the soundboard, and the 9V battery exploded. However, in its heyday, this beauty was actually professionally re-worked by Electric Sound Products (ESP) into a fretless configuration, and I have a feeling it will be well-worth repairing if repairing is indeed possible... 
After finding the bass in the case with the bridge torn off, the previous owner tried to place the bridge on the soundboard with some wood screws! Ouch! 
The batteries explosion spattered acid inside of the soundboard, and began a serious corrosive process. I'll obviously need to make my own preamp case as parts are no longer available. The preamp is marked "Active Tone Booster" with an apparent part number of CE852. One of the Kramer Forum threads suggested that the preamp was made by TC Electronics. Fortunately, the preamp is still working! 
The preamp is configured a bit curiously...there is the usual quarter inch output soldered into the preamp PCB, but there is also an output jack assembly that is mounted onto the PCB. I'm wondering if the soldered quarter inch output was soldered in later??? Or...if it came stock this way with an output jack on the PCB and an output cable soldered in...what was the purpose of the output jack on the PCB??? Hmmm... 
Based on my often rather misguided observations, the biggest repair issue is going to be the bridge. I cleaned up the soundboard area around the bridge, and cleaned all the paint and glue off of the bottom of the bridge as well. The bottom of the bridge is absolutely flat and in good condition, but when I tried to dry fit it to the soundboard, I realized that the sound board was buldging up just a bit, and the bridge wan't flush to the soundboard...the edges are floating up just a half-millimeter or so...You can't really tell by the picture, but... 
So my question is, if I go through the usual bridge caul and clamping route, the bridge can be forced into position, and will certainly adhere fairly well; however, I wasn't sure how the acoustic electric piezzo (made by Shadow) would be affected. A half a millimeter of twist or buldge under the piezzo element could cause some serious issues...I think...but the Shadow piezzo looks a little different from what I'm used to with Ovations... 
Should I route under the bridge and make the soundboard surface completely flat so as to prioritize adhesion? Half a millimeter out of the soundboard where the strongest bond between the bridge and soundboard needs to be seems a bit risky?... Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm kinda hoping some of you might own one of these guitars or basses. Are they worth the trouble? or Should I just re-assemble this thing and get rid of it? Your input would be most appreciated! Thanks a bunch! |
Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 3611
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Well, dunno. Perhaps, secure the base, with whatever gluing & filling is required. Clamp the bridge back on, then route the saddle slot, so it's flat again, to accomodate the pickup baseplate. Tricky issue may be patching the paint chips, where the bridge busted loose. I think I'd just shoot a bunch of electronic contact cleaner into the preamp. Might neutralize the acid, somewhat. Couldn't hurt, I suppose. I would speculate the "extra" 1/4-inch port is for direct-out recording purposes, or routed to some other processor device, though you would probably expect there to be a switched jack, at the additional port.
Have fun! |
Joined:
October 2012
Posts: 1034
Location: Yokohama, Japan | Hi BFLG'ers. I hope you all don't mind my sharing my finished Kramer Ferrington. After following some great advice from OFCers, I was able to disassemble the original preamp, and clean the rusting with white vinegar. The integrity of the casing was sound, but I needed to coat it with rust-o-leum to ensure the rusting did not continue. Gave it about five coats of gloss black paint, and I was even able to find a new chrome 9V battery holder... 
As I expected, the most difficult part of this project was painting the bare wood around the bridge after reinstalling the bridge. Unfortunately, I rushed through the final finish phase and did a poor job of restoring the paint. However, I was able to get some nice consistent clamping for the soundboard and bridge. The Ferrington has a pretty soft laminate soundboard so the "bridge" warping concern was a non-issue, but the soundboard is just slightly bent out of shape. 
Fully appreciating the fretless configuration of this bass requires that I use flat wound bass strings...final setup and a test run... 
Well...she's not a stellar performer. I'll need to change the piezo and install a new bridge saddle for that; however, all things considered, she was definitely worth salvaging! Thanks for the comments and suggestions!
Edited by arumako 2015-05-21 10:02 AM
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Help on a '87 Kramer Ferrington KFB-1. non-O Project...sorry!