Comment

Comment by Tyler Higdon on May 13, 2010 at 11:04am

I understand I have about five different projects to build and no time. Best of luck.

Comment by Eric Townsend on May 13, 2010 at 11:02am

Not sure if the bass or a drone 'harp-like' contraption is next...will post whatever manifests itself! ET

Comment by Tyler Higdon on May 13, 2010 at 11:00am

Let me know how the build goes. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Comment by Eric Townsend on May 13, 2010 at 5:01am

That's the info I wanted to hear...Thanks mucho. ET

Comment by Tyler Higdon on May 12, 2010 at 2:23pm

I had two to three inches of the wrapped part of the strings left after tuning it. I guess I should have specified that when I measured the strings it was to the end of the wrap not the whole length. 34 inches should not be a problem.

Comment by Eric Townsend on May 10, 2010 at 9:51am

Thank you for the info! --- I like the idea of a fretless CBG bass that actually sounds the notes relatively clean --

STRINGS: so I guess you're saying the Baritone strings are perfect gauge but just barely long enough? So you mean the length from the nut to the tuners and from the bridge saddles to the string ball mounts should be a short distance? Maybe I should get the strings and spec the neck etc to the accommodate them? and I think I will try a three-piece laminate neck to give a little extra width and rigidity.

Thanks again! ET

Comment by Tyler Higdon on May 10, 2010 at 8:41am

First of it is tuned like a normal bass. I used guitar tuners. The neck is an oak 1 X 2 with a 1/4 inch oak fingerboard. It is fretless. The frets were drawn on with a sharpy. The neck is not reinforced. The success and wonderful sound comes from the strings. They are light baritone guitar strings. The E string on this bass is a 0.068. The strings out of the package were about 39 inches, so a 34 inch scale is a stretch. The bass has both piezo pickups and a humbucker. I never got the piezo pickups to work correctly after adjusting the action. It has a pretty low action and is played without a slide. It has a mellow tone with the EQ set flat. Boost the bottom end and it has that wonderful hollowbody bass sound. I encourage you to use a wider neck. Best of luck.

Comment by Eric Townsend on May 8, 2010 at 6:13am

HEY THERE! Looks very cool. I was just thinking of building a 34" scale CBG bass.

I need your must-dos and must-don'ts on this -- or anything you learned during the build --- I wanted to keep the string gauges as light as possible (so the tension doesn't bow the neck too much) but beefy perfect enough for a good recordable tone.

I also thought I'd try fretting this one so it's more like a real bass. Thoughts? Also for tension resistance and coolness, thought I'd do a laminated neck with a 1/4" strip of oak sandwiched between two strips of poplar (the oak placed like an all-the-way-through skunk stripe, with a 1/4" fretboard cap of something) then the whole long block sculpted to shape and size.

So I'd sure appreciate anything you can tell me about:
__the STRING-GAUGES (are they light-gauge bass strings or baritone or super-duper heavy acoustic, or...)
__and the TUNERS, are they bass tuners?
__Is yours fretted? If not, is it set-up low enough so it plays like a fretless, with just slots for markers? Or do you play it with a slide?
__IS it standard CBG neck width (1.5")?
__Normal bass tuning, or alternate tuning?

Thanks in advance for anything you can tell me about your and how it turned out.

Eric T.