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Posted

I was at work when I came up with the wacky idea of getting a double (upright) bass neck and mounting it to a small body and ramping some electronics through it for sound. I was wondering if anyone else has been as adventurous?

Posted

yeah, something similar to that. I mean it seems simple enough. Look at the body size, plus you could easily make one if you were into building a regular solid body. You think that a piezo or acoustic undersaddle style pickups would work for that?

Posted

I keep coming back to the idea so it may happen one day, firstly you need to source the large chunk of ebony suitable for an upright fretboard and that isnt going to be cheap. You could use other woods but for meit would have to be ebony!!

For the pickup i would buy a peizo one that fitted onto the bridge-or was built into it rather thangoing for magnetic pickups

...

also check out barker basses foran alternative approach

http://www.barkerbass.com/

Although obviously thats a lot closer to a electric bass

Posted

Taking some twists and turns from the Mark Wood page, I ended up at the site for Dee Snider's "Van Helsing's Curse". Some of the women playing in the string section are somethin' else. :D

With regards to the upright electric bass-- aren't there even suppliers who carry contrabass fingerboards already? That would reduce the curve a bit.

For the person who suggested sourcing a LOT of ebony-- ebony isn't the only wood you can use. You can use pretty much any hard wood or even hard material. Pretty sure the Ned Steinberger ones aren't using actual ebony, though I haven't checked his site in a while.

Seems like a cool project. :D

Greg

Posted

Madinter sells ebony boards for double bass for as little as 40 Euros: http://madinter.com/b2c/index.php?page=pp_...odf=77&md=1

I've considered making one for a long time, I've already built up a small collection of "scraps" that could go into a small body. It seems like a project that is potentially very simple so you could spend extra time adding nice little touches.

Posted

Hmm, I've got a shop down the street that sells decent sized hunks of ebony. Perhaps a trip is in order. I mean, so basically

a: ebony fret board

b: maple body

c: maple bridge

d: transducer pickups.

I got a big bag of bass tone caps, so now its just a matter of determing the angle of the fret board in relation to the body if thats even a bother.

Posted
For the person who suggested sourcing a LOT of ebony-- ebony isn't the only wood you can use. You can use pretty much any hard wood or even hard material. Pretty sure the Ned Steinberger ones aren't using actual ebony, though I haven't checked his site in a while.

Yeah i am well aware ebony isnt essential for this, but i think thats what i would have to go for if intending to make something that appealed to most upright players. It just feels like it should be ebony to me

I think if i was doing this i would also be looking at starting with a partially pre-made fretboard to save on the learning curve and get something usable quicker, unfortunately that does push up the price a bit

Posted

i wouldnt bother with a truss rod because if you have a neck as think as uprights usually are a truss rod isnt going to be able to move it.

Maybe some CF bars but i think even they are unnecisarry fo this

Posted
i wouldnt bother with a truss rod because if you have a neck as think as uprights usually are a truss rod isnt going to be able to move it.

Maybe some CF bars but i think even they are unnecisarry fo this

I know, I know, stupid question right? I was jsut gandering at some of the various electric uprights and some of the designs are highly derivitive of the standard bolt ons that we all know and love and subsiquently have a trussrod. Now that first picture at the beginning of this thread is more what I was thinking of and does not have any. I was just throwing out info in case someone derives a plan from all of this later on and restarts the thread.

Mine most likely will not be any different. I an thinking of a 3x3x40 inch length of maple (or whatever) cut about 4/5 at the top about 10 degrees or so give it that neck angle along the single piece to a maple bridge with string through or possible tailpiece. An ebony fingerboard slightly radiused (20 inches maybe?) to a shaped head stock with 2x2 tuners. Any design ideas starting develop people?

Posted

I can't help but like the -concept- of a more traditional tight-radius fingerboard rather than a flat one. Seems somehow more "upright-bass-ish". But there's no actual reason to prefer the tight radius, and if your hands are already used to an electric bass then the flatter radius might actually be better for ya.

Greg

Posted

Most of those electric uprights are essentially normal bass guitars. They almost all have either a 34" or 35" scale neck. Upright basses have a 43" scale neck, and the neck is at least 2.5-3" think (if memory serves).

Posted (edited)
Most of those electric uprights are essentially normal bass guitars. They almost all have either a 34" or 35" scale neck. Upright basses have a 43" scale neck, and the neck is at least 2.5-3" think (if memory serves).

I'll have to remember that. My full size upright isn't in my possession anymore so I couldn't remember. Thanks. :D Greg, are you referring to the almost 45 degree angle slant for the E string compounded against the A thru G string radius?

Edited by weaponepsilon
Posted

I was definitely thinking of compound radius, but I didn't know that some models have one string even more offset than the others. I just meant that in my own head when picturing any sort of upright (even an electric), I always visualize that really noticable tight compound radius-- almost like playing on a cross-section of a cone.

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