Trimming a soundboard for my upright bass

Posted by Wade on August 14, 2011 at 5:25pm

 

Hey all,

 

building an upright bass out of a large drawer. Making the soundboard out of the thin plywood skin of an old hollow core door. I don't really want to use a router to make the top flush with the box. What do you suggest to get a nice edge on the soundboard and sides? Remember. it's a plywood top!

 

Thanks,

 

Wade

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Replies

  • jen harrison November 20, 2013 at 4:57pm

    Here's a picture of that bridge.

    http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/moonbass-bridge?xg_source=activity

  • jen harrison November 20, 2013 at 4:54pm

    You're making a top for your box? If you're not going to use a router, I would just cut it to fit, then sand down the edges. Use blocks on the inside to brace it. A real upright would have a bass bar on the left (facing the bass) and a soundpost on the right to let the bridge transmit vibration to the back. The bridge would float, instead of being attached to the soundboard. I've got a little bridge I made by hand to use on my wine box bass, but the action ended up being too high.

  • Mark Bliss October 2, 2011 at 11:54am

    I missed this one, sorry

    I assume you are meaning you want to hide the edge of the plywood, but without routing to fit it flush in a step?

    This could be done with binding but you indicate you dont want to route it, or maybe dont have access to equipment to route it, or maybe you are just looking for a low-tech way to clean up the build.

    One way might be to recess the top by glueing in strips inside the sides and carefully fitting and setting the top slightly below flush, then sand/scrape the sides down flush to the top, but it would be a fairly difficult solution to pull off with limited woodworking tools and have a nice gap-free result.

    Bears idea for using some small corner trim is interesting, and would work on straight sides with basic mitered corners.

    How about a band of some kind of decorative paper tape, similar to paper covered cigar boxes? That could have an interesting result. Make it look like a giant cigar box!

     

    Keep us posted on the results, I am interested in upright bass solutions!

    Mark

     

    • jamie bark > Mark Bliss January 1, 2013 at 10:30pm

      I have been considering using a door for guitar top/ back pieces... happy to find this post and the ideas to handle the edges.

  • Wade August 15, 2011 at 11:28pm

    It does have straight sides- that could work. Thanks.

     

    Wade

This reply was deleted.