In earlier photos, you can see I built it as a neck-through, where the tail of the neckpost would mount inside the end of the box.
In a test fitting, I realised that the viol-type tailpiece called for a much taller bridge, and that to have reasonable (or even playable) action, I'd have to set the neck back at an angle, <i>a la</i> Gibson.
I scarfed the neck, where it came out of the box, and sandwiched a 1.25" bit of rosewood between these. I glued with thin-film of Gorilla glue, on moistened wood. This raised the neck and tipped it back, just right. A little Dremel on the rosewood heel worked a nice shape... This held for about 3 months, but I began to notice my action floating higher. :-) So - drilling precise diametre holes for the coarse brass screws saved the day. I didn't counter-sink 'em, cause I didn't think it wise to remove more wood!
The piezo at top is soldered in parallel to the piezo cable for the Fishman preamp. This is trapped at the bridge, under the box-lid, by a couple if chopsticks glued like leaf-springs.
Thanks! I probably wouldn't have gotten around to posting this - but you got me all fired up again, with your Bass Uke.
I have to make myself repeat "Play, don't build!" about a hundred times a day. When I'm happy with my playing, I'm jumping at a set of Pahoehoes and some timber.
Thanks. It was a fun thing to build, and is fun to play. The box is an odd dimension. 17'x9x2 - it's a gift-box or display box for 3 kinds of Cuesta Rey cigars. I lucked into finding it - you could use a paintbox or a backgammon set, just as easily.
You can see that half of the length is tailpiece and string. This is how I got full-scale strings to fit my short-scale, without doing something unnatural at the tuners. You could get away with much shorter boxes, with a different arrangement.
Comments
Bruce,
In earlier photos, you can see I built it as a neck-through, where the tail of the neckpost would mount inside the end of the box.
In a test fitting, I realised that the viol-type tailpiece called for a much taller bridge, and that to have reasonable (or even playable) action, I'd have to set the neck back at an angle, <i>a la</i> Gibson.
I scarfed the neck, where it came out of the box, and sandwiched a 1.25" bit of rosewood between these. I glued with thin-film of Gorilla glue, on moistened wood. This raised the neck and tipped it back, just right. A little Dremel on the rosewood heel worked a nice shape... This held for about 3 months, but I began to notice my action floating higher. :-) So - drilling precise diametre holes for the coarse brass screws saved the day. I didn't counter-sink 'em, cause I didn't think it wise to remove more wood!
The piezo at top is soldered in parallel to the piezo cable for the Fishman preamp. This is trapped at the bridge, under the box-lid, by a couple if chopsticks glued like leaf-springs.
@ Bruce -
Thanks! I probably wouldn't have gotten around to posting this - but you got me all fired up again, with your Bass Uke.
I have to make myself repeat "Play, don't build!" about a hundred times a day. When I'm happy with my playing, I'm jumping at a set of Pahoehoes and some timber.
@ James -
Thanks. It was a fun thing to build, and is fun to play. The box is an odd dimension. 17'x9x2 - it's a gift-box or display box for 3 kinds of Cuesta Rey cigars. I lucked into finding it - you could use a paintbox or a backgammon set, just as easily.
You can see that half of the length is tailpiece and string. This is how I got full-scale strings to fit my short-scale, without doing something unnatural at the tuners. You could get away with much shorter boxes, with a different arrangement.