Looking to build a 2 string license plate bass for a friend... plays country/americana...

Need suggestions on strings.

Since the license plate has limited real estate, would a Single coil P-Bass work OK, or would I be better off with another pickup?

I have a humbucker for a violin style bass pickup (Artec Soap Bar 4 String Bass Pickup Black )  but it's bigger than I expected...  

For those of you that PLAY, what would you put in the bridge position?  Which strings, and why?

Thanks!

John

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Oh, I'm planning on short-scale... 30"

I've built a 28" scale before. It complicates things when you get over 26". The thing to think about is this.. Adding inches to a build.. Every inch adds more complications but only 1.. 2.. 3.. Notes deeper than a 26" scale.

Going from a 25&1/2" scale to a 28" scale adds 2 notes. It also lengthens the neck creating more neck dip. You do need this as bass strings have a wider string.. 'Wobble circumference'.

Talk to the guy you are building it for and ask him which notes he wants to realistically go down to. Have a look at the notes on a bass guitar fretboard and see which strings and at which length the notes on a bass guitar sit at. Jiggle with it for your scale length.

There's also the fact of intonation with thick strings. Thick strings tend to go out of intonation as they get shorter and at a point no real bridge compensation makes up for it. Bass players work up near nut to fret 6 for the fat strings, if you really want good intonation on fat strings you are better going fretless and have a good ear.

You want great sustain.. Fix the bridge (heavy and metal) to a through neck and forget about acoustic. It takes great skill to build a bass acoustic without a big box and lots of experience and still produce sustain.

To get your strings.. Ask the player what range they want and check out a bass guitar fretboard. Your going to be able to find the strings you need from there. Amongst other things.

As for the bridge.. Make it solid, heavy, deliberate and bolted into the wood of the neck if possible.

Bass pickups are different from normal pickups ( I'm not sure about the electrics). If I were to use a bass pickup for thin strings the sound volume and quality would-be terrible. For proper bass strings you will get a better result from a cheap bass pickup than an expensive normal guitar pickup. I've only tried this once and I could be wrong so take advice from a pickup builder about this, ask wayfinder, he's very knowledgeable and helpful.

Thanks for the input.  I'll be going with 30" scale, fretted (Jumbo frets), and Light gauge Bass Strings.  Decided on a flat pickup - now I don't have to cut the neck OR the license plate, increasing the neck strength, since it's a neck-through design.  no 3" joint screwed together.  This baby will be solid.   1x2 maple neck with a Jatoba fretboard. 

I almost bought a fret template, but not sure how often I'll be making basses in the future.

Oh: re: talk to the guy I'm building it for:   He doesn't know... Christmas present from his wife...  Makes it hard to figure out...  :-/

Thx.  The descriptions don't seem any different than the standard guitar stuff that I'm familiar with.

Then why does my bass pickup drop sound quality and volume when I run thinner strings through it. The smaller the string the worse it gets.. 

I mean, it hardly picks up signal from anything thin and if it's unwound, it's nearly nonexistent.

Edit. I had the idea of using 4 pole bass pickups for 4 string CBG's. You can buy 2 of them, in a pair and split them for 2 CBG's. But.. Woah.. They were useless on tests but worked good for bass strings. Nice and punchy. Thin strings were just a no no.

I like the lighter gage strings. Punchier and brighter in sound.

As far as a single P bass pickup. Yes they work alone. But be carful of what you buy. I got a set that was cheap. So cheap that only two of the four polls were wired up in each pickup. 

Remember to keep you neck a bit thicker. Even two bass strings will put a lot of pressure on it. 

I bought light gauge strings, which two would you use, and what tuning?

EA? AD? DG? ED? EG? AG?
Here she is... work in progress...
Attachments:

As a Bass Player my thoughts.....

Use the E & A strings, 80% of what I play for an American style band can be done with those 2 and very little relearning, another 10% can be done with some time/practice working new bass lines.

30" minimum for the scale length, shorter gets the strings too floppy and too far out of what muscle memory tells me where to expect the fret I'm looking for.  My stage bass guitars are all 34" scale, I have a 30" for occasional travel, but I have to watch my left hand more, and the strings feel a little floppy.  I also rebuilt a 1/2 scale (25.5") student bass I found at a yard sale for $10, its fun to goof around with but it is really for lessons to younglings.

Bass String tension is about 2x guitar string tension, so make the neck the same strength you would if you were building a 4 string baritone (29.5" scale) git. 

Exactly what I needed, thanks!

just finished this one over the weekend-Bassitone#3

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