I have there questions before I build my BASS.
1. Can I use a guitar Pickup? I bought a bunch of Humbukers and Single Coils from Gitty.
2. How many strings 2 or three
3. Which strings.
Unlike a guitar OPEN TUNING / SLIDE bass is not something I can immediately wrap my little brain around.,
Replies
I built a 2 string fret-less bass with a 25.5" scale and a 3/4"x1.5" red oak neck and one of Gitty's "Bass" pickups. I sized the strings so to be tuned it "G" and they can be tightened to an '"E". The "G" is very convenient when playing with other "G" tuned CBGs and when used with a looper to add bass to your CBG. I did have to order special length flat wound strings to fit the short scale even though I used "Bass" tuners. The flat wound strings are great and virtually eliminated finger/string squeak.
With a Bass amp this bass guitar sounds great.
At one of the Blues Jams that we watch, one of the Bass players heard I built a 2-string bass and he kept bugging me to bring it to one of the Jams for him to try. I did. Before the band started, he took it on stage and fiddled with it with a tuner and no amp for about 5 minutes. Without ever listening to it through the amp, he used it for the first song the band played and it sounded great. I knew I had built a great bass and he showed what a versatile musician he was to try an untested, different instrument without any rehearsal.
Correction:
There's some grammar errors that can be figured out and the strings can be loosened from a "G" to and "E".
Sorry,
Uncle Fred
I'll 2nd Paul's headstock comment - Make sure that's long enough. I have a 30" scale CBG (chugger, I guess?) and two 30" basses, and the standard strings will snap on the E sometimes if you don't have enough headstock and a bass-sized tuner.
A guitar humbucker would be my choice of your pickups. I just don't like 60 cycle hum from single coils. I used a high output guitar humbucker in one of my bass mods, and it sounds great. I ordered a couple nice bass humbuckers for builds; a 2 string bass, and a .125 gauge B string diddley bo.
You can also mix bass strings and guitar strings, like the Lowebow 1+3 stringers, or my two string chugger here, the Boomstick Sr. (on the left...). There is a huge chunk of 2x6 that fills most of the box inside, and it balances really well for a 30" scale CBG. I like 30" inch scale better with slide than the 34" I built, but the 34" was my first build and it's not so good... And I'd probably go EA with a 2 string bass, cuz, E is where the bass boom is... Enjoy building yours!
The P Bass pickups that CBGitty sells come in single or a set. The set is 2 single coils wired together in series for humcancellation. You can stack them or put some space between them and they do very well for Bass. I used them with a 4-way switch in my CBG in my avatar. Worked better than I expected for a guitar. A guitar humbucker will work fine too, works well enough for Billy Sheehan in the neck position of his P Bass. Just remember to use 250k pots and a .047 cap.
http://www.bassuke.com/U-Bass.html
Not all basses are 30-34" scale...
I have one of these, with the weird-feeling-but-great-sounding Pahoehoe strings.
Yea... I have played those wonky strings. I might explore that one day,
OK, I got all my parts ready. Any opinion on neck length? My Fender P-Bass is 34 inches.
that's a little more subjective...do a dry layout on your work table, placing the bridge on the box where you want it, lay the neck stick out, put a scrap of wood where you think you want the nut and lay out the tuners, look at it from an aesthetics point of view (does it look good)
Standard bass guitar scale is 34", but you can do a 33, 32, 31, even 30 with a standard set of strings. I use standard strings on my 30" goldfish bass.
If you are using a cigar box for the body, it will be very neck-heavy, much more than a CBG even, you may want to go for 30 or 31 in scale for that and to lessen the stress on the neck without a truss rod.
Thanks, yes I think I will go for 30 Inch two string E/A as suggested.
And you might want to put a weight in bottom end of the box too.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next