Bob Burger's vintage Harmony four string bass. This project entails the true essence of Luthiery. Instruments that were made through the 1900's had the sides of the bass or guitar bent by hand (called a dry bend/steam bending process) or the sides were laminated or solid and bent on a plywood form. Wooden forms for bending sides can cause inconsistent shapes. If you have a vintage guitar, take your hand and rub the sides and feel for bumps or dips; if you feel them that means it was bent on a wooden form that is accurate to the shape but not completely. That was the main problem with this vintage Harmony bass, the sides were not perfect, but bumpy, and the piece I made to follow the awful broken-out damage by the jack hole had to be the correct curve to fit the side, but also be a little wrong. Due to the fact that the side of this bass is made of American maple I used the same species to have vibrational continuity with the rest of the instrument. I did a three piece lamination of American maple and this strengthens the jack area so no cracks will occur when you plug into the jack or if it bends on the wrong angle. I sanded out the sides to start fresh with the brown/golden sunburst color. The hard part about sanding was to not sand thru the already thin white plastic binding, I had to be so careful. The great thing about a brown/gold burst is I can darken the patched area with a heavy coat of brown and hide the repair and then fade the brown into the golden vintage yellow. I purposely did a lighter brown inside the cutaway areas because eventually the brown will naturally patina from UV light and match the entire instrument over time. This bass is so cool and unique and I can't say no to the Burgers, especially when Deborah Burger said a while back on Facebook that Bob has a tough project for me, and I love a challenge. #petillo #petilloguitars #philpetillo #davepetillo #luthier #guitarmaker #guitarbuilder #bobburger #harmony #harmonyguitars #harmonybass #basses #pbass #jazzbass #fenderbasses #fender #flatwoundstrings #newjersey #asburypark #jerseyshore