Today I finished my first cigar box bass: four string, fretless, short scale 30". The neck is a sandwich of hard maple and walnut, and the fretboard is walnut. I used a tiny knot on the fretboard as the octave marker. Neck is finished with spray lacquer; fretboard is finished with oil & beeswax.
The Mark Twain cigar box would have benefitted from a piezo pickup because it was pretty cool, but I sprayed it with several coats of lacquer and tried to keep Twain's face intact at least. The cigars weren't bad, by the way ...
It's a through neck, and the bridge--a regular bass bridge--is screwed directly into it through the top.
I had to remove the hinges to fit the lid directly down onto the neck. I also glued filler blocks to the neck inside the box to help balance the bass a little ... though it's still neck-heavy.
Sounds pretty good to me, but I don't play bass, much less fretless. I'm looking forward to hearing my friend play it when he takes possession.
Ask any questions ...
Comments
Jim;
beautiful instrument. Nice clean lines. Great job.
They are tape wound strings, supplied by the client. They look cool; I don't play, so I can't tell you much more than that.
Very nice. Love that neck!
What kind of strings did you use? TIA.