#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

Building cbg version of upright bass (sort of)

Have you have heard about 12 string basses like ones that Hamer makes, they have tripled every string so you have Eee Aaa Ddd Ggg strings on them, for example E is for lowest string and ee are 2 strings tuned octave higher, and so on.

So my plan is to build an instrument with string scale length of 39.40 ¨ (100 cm), that is part that shares similarities with upright bass, but it will have only three strings on it witch will be tuned to Bbb lowest string is B0 and other two are B1 an octave higher, and that is the part where its similar to 12 string bass.

I would really like to use regular round-wound bass guitar strings (not the ones that are made for upright bass), But there is a catch, I am not sure if they are gonna be long enough for this, cause scale length is 39.40 ¨ and I will probably need additional 2-4 inches for winding those strings, so required string length would be around 43.5 inches. I don't know how long are bass guitar strings when you take em out of package, as I never measured them before, and I don't have any laying around to check that, although I'm think they are not that long.

So if anyone has some ideas how to find such strings or if anyone makes those please help, required string gauges are 0.120 for low B and 0,060 for high b.

Thanks for ideas.

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sean on August 14, 2017 at 3:51pm

"Extra Long Scale" bass strings are for a 38" scale bass. Those might work for a 39.4" scale, esp because you decide where tuners go. I don't have any on hand, but you can find them on juststrings.com. 34" standards ("Long Scale") won't work.

I'm working on a two string upright bass, but I'm going to make it 34" scale because I like being able to get an extra bass string anywhere. Going to make it like a CBG on a cane or crutch.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on August 14, 2017 at 6:57pm

If you make it a short scale bass(28" to 30"), you could use strings for the Fender Bass VI and Baritone guitar strings to mix-match what you need.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JL on August 15, 2017 at 4:46am

Is there a reason you need 100 cm (39 1/2 in) scale specifically?

You could reverse engineer it, get the normal electric bass guitar strings, lay out the parts on your benchtop, then decide how much you can push the scale length out and still leave some for the winding

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dejan Nišić on August 15, 2017 at 6:09am

Thanks guys, those informations are very usefull, and JL, there is reason I'm looking for specific kind of sound, and of course for experimenting sake, sound that can be described as piano played with hammer, only drawback is that only one tone at time could be heard, but I'm ok with that cause it has very specific purpose.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dejan Nišić on August 15, 2017 at 6:18am

Another reason also is that I have build baritone 29" lenght scale and I liked way it sounds so I have decided to give bass try, also because I always wanted to try to play 12 string bass like ones that Hamer makes, but never had chance.