I have two of them. The one pictured below was purchased in 2002 from the Cincinnati Bass Cellar. It has a removable neck by Luthier Jed Kriegel of Somerville Massachusetts. Scroll by Bruno Destrez. The top has been removed twice! The first time was to repair a crack that could not be done from the outside. Bruno ended up putting some 115 cleats inside. He used tone wood from an old Steinway piano.
Next, it was Jed’s turn. There was another crack, the result of a fall, and the top was beginning to give up near the G string foot of the bridge. A sound post patch was needed, and the table needed to be re-arched. Jed made a plaster cast, corrected the curve, and vacuum pressed it back into shape. He also gave me a shot of fine Bourbon.
The removable neck is Jed’s design and execution. When the original neck was removed and fingerboard taken off in preparation for the conversion, the maple part warped, so he made a new neck. He routed a channel and installed a fixed carbon fiber truss rod under the fingerboard. This should keep it from flexing.
The sound of this instrument is rich dark and strong with a precise attack. I recorded with this bass on every record save for a few European touring projects. She stays in Berlin.
