I guess first off, greetings all, love the sight, prior to signing up I found lots of good info and ideas. Don't remember exactly when I stumbled across the sight, but shortly thereafter I was at the local gas station/carryout, they had 1 cigar left in a display box....and I immediatley envisioned making a bass out of it. Is that some sort of sickness?? Anyway, snagged it, pictures of my first attempt are attached.
I was a little obsessive about not wanting to have to buy "traditional bass parts", maybe that's a bit much for a first build, but it seems to have worked out so far.
I made a "stick bass" version first, to check the scale length, make sure the tuners, piezo, etc. I had in mind would work.....then started in on the CB version.
Ace hardware trimmer line, .130, .105, .095
Radio Shack Piezos
Maple 1 x 3 neck, left over from another project, no truss rod
Same maple for bridge and top nut
Strange tuner configuration, haven't seen anything exactly like it before, influenced by what I saw on here, combined with Steinberger. I would really like to find a 1/4-20 x 4" fully threaded machine screw with a knurled head on it, or at least an allen head, but the slotted ones will work for now.
I really wanted a low B, just used to having one, and the .130 string wouldn't quite do it on a 34" scale. The pics show a fretless 39.5" scale. I was shooting for 40", ended up at 39.5". The spacing is a little "wide" for the first few "frets", but gets manageable around the 5th "fret" or so.
Also my first time playing a fretless, so this is really a learning experience for me.
The "fret markers" are still in pencil, I want to make sure of the intonation before making them more permanent. At the moment, using calculated fret positions, I'm off by about half a fret by the time I get to the 12th fret, but (and I know this sound weird) it seems to "move around a little". I think I'll play it as is for a while, and let it "break in" before I kill myself on the intonation. I'm still playing around with some different size caps, I can't turn my practice amp past about 1/4 and my big amp lives at the church, I may need to let the response of my big amp determine which to use. The "growliness is sort of nice, sometimes, but I might like to be able to switch it in and out, or vary it. I also need to add a volume pot.
Anyway, here it is, criticisms are welcome, and thanks again for all the helpful info posted on the site.
-Dan
Replies
Your version is so much cleaner, with the slotted headstock. Cool!
As for fretting, I'm having good luck with paper templates that I tape on, taped between each fret line so the rest stay as I saw through the paper on each line. I've tried using an x-acto razor saw with both the x-acto miter box and with a piece of wood clamped to the top, lined up with the fret line: MUCH better results with the latter, as even that narrow slotted miter box (their little aluminum one) has too much room for play. I just hold the saw blade against the side of the block of wood with two fingers pressed against the side of the blade. I use a tri square to square up the wood clamped to the top. I found by accident that the wood I first used was just about the right height to stop the blade at the proper depth. I sanded it down a tad, and now the metal brace on the back of the saw blade reaches the wooden guide block right when the cut reaches the right depth. I'll buy a proper fret saw some day, but this lets me buy other things I need first.
You can find various scale length templates via google, but I make my own since I've found errors in a few I downloaded. Not sure if this helps, but there you go.
I do need to lower the action at the nut a little.....just not relishing the idea, I just need to grind down the topnut until the strings hit the fretboard, then "ungrind" a little to make if perfect?? Seems I always end up with shims under the topnut, for grinding off just a "bit too much".
I also wonder, the strings I'm using are nylon weed whacker strings, and I wonder if I need to go a little lighter on the highest pitched one? I get much less "bang for the buck" as I'm tuning the highest pitched string, like I'm WAY past the linear portion of the stress-strain curve (if there is a linear portion for nylon).
I'm going to play it for a while as-is.....see if it will hold a tune, then see how it's behaving, maybe experiment with some different strings.
Thanks again.
Larry McInnes said:
I ran into the exact same issue with the strings falling a half-step out of tune by the 12th fret. Here's a link to that discussion by people who are a lot smarter than me.
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/forum/topics/fret-spacing-and-sharpening
Cheers!
Good looking build!!!
Tim
YES!
ok, I had thought about all sorts of nuts.....but kept envisioning having to thread them onto a piece of threaded rod maybe weld them to keep them in place.......*face-palm*......I hadn't considered just getting longer screws and screwing them through from the top......head---->desk :)
Picture me getting my butt to the hardware store to pick up three of anything that might work.
I guess 2 heads are WAY better than one.
Matt
btw-
great build, keep up the good work!!!
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