Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Piht Bull (Delta Dawg Guitars) on January 19, 2014 at 8:45am

im gathering parts now . im going to ship it to a friend and then im sure he will post a vid . i dont want him to see it before its in his hands ;)

Permalink Reply by Will T on January 19, 2014 at 1:57pm

We'll be watching for it!

Permalink Reply by PKB on January 18, 2014 at 4:53am

What do you have on the back of the wooden tail piece to keep the string ball ends from digging in?

Permalink Reply by Will T on January 18, 2014 at 1:50pm

That's a little bit complicated, but I like challenges! I made a grooved tail piece that the strings could wrap right over. That got attached to a block directly inside the box. Then I attached a "cross piece" directly over it, holding the ball ends down tight.  I also included a very clear "warning" about not removing that with the strings under tension! :-)

Permalink Reply by PKB on January 17, 2014 at 6:49am

Another consideration...

I bought some weedwacker strings a few months ago planning on a homemade upright bass build (I'll get round to it someday honey, I swear!) and those are at a much lower tension than standard steel strings.

25$ off ebay and you're set. Bass strings are expensive anyway...

Permalink Reply by Piht Bull (Delta Dawg Guitars) on January 17, 2014 at 9:48am

yeah they are . i trust the neck im 240lbs and my usual neck i can balance it between two bricks and bounce on it . lol i want to use a mag pup so weed wacker strings are out on this one but not out for good . 

Permalink Reply by PKB on January 18, 2014 at 4:52am

Roger. I am assuming you're doing this fretless?

Permalink Reply by Piht Bull (Delta Dawg Guitars) on January 18, 2014 at 7:02am

yeah fretless . 

Permalink Reply by PKB on January 23, 2014 at 5:28pm

Longer scale lengths = Less tension which means less bowing in the neck. Fretless you really want as constant action as possible and on basses lower actions have a nice 'snap', especially for a nice upright bass tone. Higher action strings combined with an imprecise fretting will be difficult to play in key. Finding the note may involve a little hunting on the fret board.

In fact that's the name sake of the Fender Precision Bass: "Precision" because it was fretted. At the time when it was introduced most basses were the double bass and unfretted.

Here's a little information on the tension in pounds for a particular brand of strings: http://www.elixirstrings.com/stringtension/stringtensionbass.html

As you can see it's quite a bit of tension. Marcus Darrell suggestion a laminated neck which is an excellent way to good to keep the bowing down. You could even try a threaded stock truss rod.

What are you using for a fret board? I am going to finish my upright bass next week and I am going to try and use some nice walnut for my fret board and I am making the bridge with a peizo today.

Keep us up to date, I'd love to see what you come up with!!

Permalink Reply by Gwil Colman on April 23, 2015 at 5:02am

"Longer scale lengths = Less tension" ??

Don't think this can be right - making a string longer lowers its pitch, so you have to increase the tension to bring the pitch back to what it should be. 

Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on April 23, 2015 at 5:05am

Correct, Gwil. One reason that Gibson's are easier to do string bends than a Fender. Gibson scale length is 24.75" and Fender is 25.5".

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