OK, so I'm finishing up my 2nd CBG and it's time to move on to a bass.
I've got a great Box and some strings (electric). I'm doing a 2 string.
But I need to figure out pickups (and tuners).
I'm looking at this:
Which is a '6 string modified to look like a 4'. My question there is:
Do the strings HAVE to be over the poles? I imagine the strings would be right between two poles.
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Or could one of the two piezo setups work as good? (actually like the idea of being able to use the box as a drum for looping).
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For tuning pegs I have a few set of strings, up to 3mm in diameter (yeah fat ol B string). I have heard about drilling out guitar pegs but I don't think I can go that thick (wanting shorter neck so I'd have to tune with thicker part of string).
Any good options for that? Bass tuners are a bit pricey unless going with the ones straight from China.
I want to do a double bass style headstock.
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I've used those p bass pups a few times,they are fine for c bg's,just a small note,if you don't want the big pup exposed,you can mount it under the lid,and just cut a small slot for a piece of steel bar to slide in and sit on the pup,so all you see is a 1/8th thick bit of bar from the top
Ah that could be really cool, thanks for the tip
image.jpeg
That looks pretty cool.
don't worry so much about the ohms of a mag pup, for most folks its a misleading spec that is often misinterpreted as volume instead of partial impedance, just like blade pitch on a ceiling fan for your bedroom, it has meaning to an engineer, but most decent ceiling fans from the big-box hardware store work well enough that you don't have to understand the effect of blade pitch to get what satisfies your needs.
ohms measure resistance - how difficult it is to push electricity through the wire. think of it like your hallway littered with your kids toys you have to step over and around. the more and bigger the toys, the harder it is for you to get from one end of the hallway to the other. being more difficult doesn't make it a better hallway.
pups use very thin wire, so thin in fact that is has 1-2 ohms of resistance per foot. 40 gauge has about 1000 ohms per 1000 feet, 43 gauge wire has about 3000 ohms per 1000 feet.
What the ohms of a mag-pup tell you is how much wire is wrapped in the coil IF AND ONLY IF you know what wire it is wrapped with. What makes a mag-pup work is a dense magnetic field that is cutting back and forth through the coil wires as the metal string drags the field around when vibrating. magnet strength, closeness of the wires to the magnetic core, closeness of the string to the denser part of the magnetic field, number of turns of wire in the coil, inherent capacitance of the coil, all have an effect on output of the pup.
I'm not saying ignore ohms altogether. first and foremost its the easiest way to tell if a mag pup is dead if you can't get a measurement in the 1-20 kilo-ohms range. and when comparing very similar pups the more ohms implies more wraps which implies a stronger signal. when comparing dissimilar pups though, ohms don't really give you insight.
ok, sorry, I'll take of my Mr. Wizard hat and crawl back under my books, sorry, sorry, sorry
Thanks JL, great info, I understand much better now.
Yeah, drilling out tuners didn't make sense to me. I went ahead and ordered some from China...The wait begins.
I also ordered a jack with 3 piezos attached (parallel). I'll see how that goes for my first electric build, if it doesn't cut it for my bass I can throw that in a guitar and try something else.
Either way it's cheap and I'll know :D
Bass strings need bass tuners. Get ones made for straight strings, since you can use straight or tapered strings in them, but not the other way around. Do not drill out a guitar tuner, that weakens the post and it could snap on you while playing, AND it will leave a sharper edge that can cut/break the stings there. also the guitar tuner post radius is much smaller, it would bend the bass strings back on itself too tightly and risk the string breaking. And the gear ratio is different on git and bass tuners due to the higher tension on the bass strings, you get more mechanical leverage with bass tuners.
Pegs are a little bit tricksies to do on a git, you need a peg hole ream and matched peg shaver to get the tapers correct so that they grip and not slip. they work well on low tension small diameter such as nylon ukulele or violin/viola strings, thicker strings with more tension make them fussy. (that's why upright/double/orchestral basses have had mechanical tuners for over 250 years).
Pegs don't turn smoothly like a git tuner, they 'creak/jump' a few degrees at once. with thin strings under light tension you can use pegs with a small shaft and a 5-deg turn only pulls the string a fraction of a millimeter, with thick strings under higher tension you have to use bigger pegs with bigger shafts and a 5-deg turn of the peg pulls the string more than a millimeter and you overshoot your attempt to get it in tune ( its flat - creak - its sharp - creak - its flat - creak - its sharp - creak - its flat, dang it I can't get it right on ) . that's why violins, violas, and especially cellos have pegs in the headstock for gross tuning and fine tuners (screw-lever) in the tailpiece and upright basses gave up and went to machine heads.
sounds like a hybrid would solve all your concerns .
you can use number .60 and.52 strings from a special set of drop d “ ghs boomers “ guitar strings . and they still fit regular guitar tuner holes . you can even use a regular pickup closer to the neck . this may not have the same freq response of a bass pup , but also alows you to use a regular amp with less concern of blowin the speaker . you can also keep it standard length .
all as i did here http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/swamp-witch-2-string-bass-guita...
and these strings http://www.ebay.com/itm/GHS-Boomers-Electric-Guitar-Strings-GBZW-10...
Cool, thanks.
I think I'll be ordering some tuners. I can wait a few weeks and I found a set of four for around $8 shipped. So I can split that between 2 2strings :D (and I've got spare strings.
I also have bass amps/di box, etc..
I saw in the bass group someone suggested a overdrive pedal with a piezo set up so I might go that route first. I have a pedal with OD so...
If it's not loud enough I can always pulle the piezo set up and use it for another CBG. The box I have now is kind of small but real cool, but since it'll be electric not worried about size.
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That's the best thing about CBG's. They can be pretty cheap to build so I don't mind trying different things :D
I used those pups on my green 4 string CBG build and they work well. If you've ever seen a Fender P Bass(what these pups were designed for) the strings pass between the poles. Bass strings are so massive it doesn't really matter.