Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on March 21, 2017 at 3:59am

Interesting topic. What about a proper bass string with a bass tuning pegs above a set of three in your chosen tuning? You might have to reinforce the neck and figure out the scale difference (unless you go short scale bass) but I bet it would sound awesome. I think I'd be up for a bit of that myself to be honest.

Best of fortunes with the build. Post images and/or videos of it, please!

Bear :)

Permalink Reply by Jim Brown on March 21, 2017 at 5:02am

I'll be following this with interest as I'd like to build something similar. My own plan is for a short scale bass but I don't know enough about string travel OR (more importantly) the effect of stress on the (through) neck. I will likely laminate a neck rather than using a solid piece of wood, with the outer layers being hard maple, in the hope that this will contribute to stability without the need for a truss rod.

Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on March 21, 2017 at 5:36am

If you want to use actual bass strings you need to go with a longer scale than regular CBG which is usually 24 - 25 inches. Bass scale is usually 28 - 34 inches. If you go fretless it simplifies things. For fretted you'd determine which scale you want and use a fret calculator to give measurements. Good luck. Here's one I made a while back on a 32" scale.

Permalink Reply by Jim Brown on March 21, 2017 at 7:14am

Jim, looks great! Looks like a 3-layer laminated neck? What species did you use, and did you include a truss rod? Any problems with the neck bowing under tension? I assume the bridge is attached to the through neck?

Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on March 21, 2017 at 7:34am

Thanks Jim. You're correct, 3 piece neck 2 outer pieces are padauk and the center is walnut. I pay close attention to grain direction to avoid bowing. The grain lines should be very close to vertical as you look at the end of the neck.No truss rod. and 2 years later absolutely no signs of bowing. Yes, the bridge is screwed into the thru neck.

Here's a link to this bass in action and some of the details are a bit clearer in the vid.

https://youtu.be/IU8eBKmjMak

Permalink Reply by Ro'Nique Staley on March 22, 2017 at 11:07am

hey  would you happen  to have the  dimension  for  yours  available  ,  we need  soem  good plans,  yes  fretless will be simpler.   I want to do about 30in scale  with  nut to bridge being solid  piece of wood,  carribean cherry.  and  place magnetic pick ups,  i think an adjustable bridge w ould be cool too. 

Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on March 22, 2017 at 11:35am

The length of the neck will always depend on the size of the box and where you plan to put the bridge. I always start with the box first, then determine where do I want the bridge. That tells me about how long the neck needs to be. So from the bridge to the nut, in your case would be 30". Add another 5 -6" for the head and there you have it. The cool thing and also frustrating thing about these homemade instruments is that each one will have different measurements depending on the box size and scale length you're working with. The box I used in this build was quite a bit longer than most cigar boxes so it's a thing you have to lay out for each build.  I hope this helps!

Permalink Reply by Ro'Nique Staley on March 22, 2017 at 11:07am

yours really look amazing  though

Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on March 22, 2017 at 11:36am

Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Gus K on March 21, 2017 at 7:25am

Some interesting info here.

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/long-short-scale-bass-differences...

Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on March 21, 2017 at 10:25am

Thanks for that link Gus. I learned a couple of things!