Bass Ukes Ideas for specs

Posted by Brian Lemin on April 17, 2010 at 3:06am
I see a few of you have made bass ukes but some ideas of the specs for such an instrument would be good.
I have an idea i would not want to amp it! (Willing to change my mind)  I have whipper snipper chord for strings.  Probably not an upright model, I would like it to look "Uke like".

So, string length?  Fingerboard width?   Tuning?  Any thing you would like to suggest.

Playing in an oldies Uke orchestra.... I hope!  :)

Many thanks

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Replies

  • Brian Lemin April 19, 2010 at 2:36am
    Great observation and makes sense to a non physicist! I am sure that volume inside the body has some effect too, that is why I was looking at the Mexican acoustic bass guitar. This is the fun thing about CBGs and instrument making.

    I will be talking to the Uke Orchestra conductor tomorrow to discus amplification or not. If amplification is OK then the Yellowbelly version will almost certainly be the basis of my build. If not then I will experiment.
  • David West April 18, 2010 at 11:54am
    I have been playing with ideas about volume in my head. The standard ukulele/guitar construction has the strings very much parallel to the body, with a small angle to where the strings attach to the body. The physics of that connection don't put very much pressure onto the soundboard. A violin, viola, cello, or bass have a very angled neck, a very high bridge, and an angle between 30 and 45 degrees where the strings attach. The taller bridge and greater angle will put much higher pressure on the soundboard, even though the strings are under the same tension. I am planning on building a bass like that to compare and see how much louder it is than a more traditional construction.
  • Brian Lemin April 18, 2010 at 3:00am
    Today i looked at a 23 inch string length and if it is to look Uke like I think that will be difficult. 20 inches looks possible and retain the Uke look but then Amplifying will be almost essential. (Do I have to knock the "non amp" idea out of my head?") What about making the depth of the box considerably deeper, a bit like the Mexican acoustic bass? (Not that size of course!) Will that make it sound louder?
  • Brian Lemin April 18, 2010 at 2:55am
    I have a few old "wooden 35mm slide boxes" I collected for CBGs. I sounds as if one of these could be pressed into use?

    They are not very deep but larger "squares" than a CB.

    David West said:
    Check out the U-bass by RoadToad/Kala. It isn't a cigar box, but looking at it will give you the ideas you need for building the a CigarBox bass. I am currently building two. One is a silverware storage box...bigger than a cigar box, but will look at home with the cigar box guitars. The other I am building is using an antique carved jewelry box for the body. One has a standard guitar 25.5 scale, the other will have a 20" baritone ukulele scale.
  • David West April 17, 2010 at 9:59pm
    Check out the U-bass by RoadToad/Kala. It isn't a cigar box, but looking at it will give you the ideas you need for building the a CigarBox bass. I am currently building two. One is a silverware storage box...bigger than a cigar box, but will look at home with the cigar box guitars. The other I am building is using an antique carved jewelry box for the body. One has a standard guitar 25.5 scale, the other will have a 20" baritone ukulele scale.
  • Yellowbelly Flatt April 17, 2010 at 10:56am
    Update.....................................

    I have just spent some time putting strimmer lines on the cigar box ukulele that I built a few weeks ago. Originally I fitted Newtone resonator strings. Through an amp, the 'bass' sounded awsome, but was almost impossable to tune to any accuracy. I experimented with several types of guitar strings but was unable to obtain that bass thud. So this afternoon I've fitted strimmer lines to it as I did to my stand up cigar box bass.

    I used 2mm lines for the E and A strings; a 1.6mm for the D string and a 1.25mm for the G string. The 1.25mm string is a little thin so I might use a 1.6mm string.

    Sound is good, It is definately more bass than 6 string and for a uku is very low.

    Here is a link to my 'bass' uke with Newtone strings fitted
    http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/fretless-bass-ukulele?context=user

    Hope this helps.
  • Brian Lemin April 17, 2010 at 9:03am
    Loved the link. Favourite tune of mine too. I saw a commercial one at 23 inches string length, the bridge seemed to be way down the end of the body, I presume to keep the Uke look by not having too large body. I am not totally opposed to amplifying, just thought I would see what you guys think.

    Thanks, you have offered a good start. I am sure others will add their 2 cents worth.

    Yellowbelly Flatt said:
    Well, the 'traditional' size foe a bass ukulele tends to be around 50cm (20 inches). This is probably because a baritone ukulele is this size and anything much bigger tends not to be a ukulele.

    The problem is string tension at this scale length. Bass strings that I have tried won't tune properly at this scale. Neither will the bottom strings from a 6 string guitar.

    So, either a longer scale or a different string. I have used strimmer line on a double bass sized cigar box instrument and once the stretch has been eliminated they do well. I have not yet had chance to try them on a short scale instrument. The other alternative are bass ukulele strings that are offered by Kala.

    Fingerboard width - 35mm at nut, 45mm at 12th fret.

    In my opinion, I doubt if an acoustic bass will be loud enough to play with other instruments. In the ukulele orchestra that I perform with I use a electro acoustic bass ( we do not use the G word) through a big amp in order to get the projection to support 14 ukuleles of all sizes.

    If I might be cheeky, but here is a link to the ukulele orchestra that I play in.

    https://www.youtube.com/v/nkYO8hkvgiU&hl=en_US&fs=1&;"
  • Yellowbelly Flatt April 17, 2010 at 7:44am
    Well, the 'traditional' size foe a bass ukulele tends to be around 50cm (20 inches). This is probably because a baritone ukulele is this size and anything much bigger tends not to be a ukulele.

    The problem is string tension at this scale length. Bass strings that I have tried won't tune properly at this scale. Neither will the bottom strings from a 6 string guitar.

    So, either a longer scale or a different string. I have used strimmer line on a double bass sized cigar box instrument and once the stretch has been eliminated they do well. I have not yet had chance to try them on a short scale instrument. The other alternative are bass ukulele strings that are offered by Kala.

    Fingerboard width - 35mm at nut, 45mm at 12th fret.

    In my opinion, I doubt if an acoustic bass will be loud enough to play with other instruments. In the ukulele orchestra that I perform with I use a electro acoustic bass ( we do not use the G word) through a big amp in order to get the projection to support 14 ukuleles of all sizes.

    If I might be cheeky, but here is a link to the ukulele orchestra that I play in.

    https://www.youtube.com/v/nkYO8hkvgiU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"
This reply was deleted.