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Grandpa builds a Bass

Finally finished my 3 string CBB. What a learning curve! Started with a 20" long bulk cigar box, built a steel rod reinforced red oak and mahogany neck, through the box, corian nut, jumbo frets, and laid it out for a 30 1/2" scale. So far, so good. Oops, even long scale bass strings won't run from the tail ferrules to the tuners. Drat! Muddled my mind through various redesigns - from a hard tail bridge (top just too thin), to a shorter scale (nope), to starting over with a different box (not a quitter!). Ended up buying some "take off" stand up bass strings, .105/.085/.065. Plenty long! Had to open up the slot in the 105's bass tuner peg, but it went in. O.K., we're back in the game! Built a bridge from a 1/8" scrap of birch plywood, mounted a skeleton key, filed in three string slots, and tuned 'er up. Oh oh. Not loud enough! Pulled 'er apart, installed a three piezo harness and jack, screwed 'er together again and Bang! It's good! adjusted the bridge to intonate, and I can play on. Success! Nice easy playing flat wound strings, easy on the old fingers. An awesome experience, with some interesting challenges to keep Grandpa's mind sharper..or at lest less dull. Uncle Tommy is coming over tomorrow, and we'll start on his. I believe the first build's hiccups will make numbers 2 and 3 go much smoother, but we'll see. Uncle Tommy is older than me! We'll probably find some ways to go to head scratchin' on them, too.

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Permalink Reply by Kigar on November 6, 2017 at 2:07pm

Very cool! Nice save with the stand up bass strings.

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Permalink Reply by Grandpa on November 6, 2017 at 3:16pm

Thanks Kigar. The next ones, I'll lay out the strings, scale, tuners, and tailpiece before we start cutting wood!

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Permalink Reply by Martin Ford on November 6, 2017 at 3:16pm

Very nice. Love the Skull motif and the paint. I'd love to hear it played with a CBG. I'll stay tuned for the video. Very nice job!

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Permalink Reply by Richard Dean on November 6, 2017 at 4:20pm

Sweet looking base, maybe one day I'll tackle making one, on a side note, using plywood for the bridge in lieu of hardwood might be the reason for some of the volume lost acoustically, wood that sandwiched together like that probably absorbs a heck of a lot of the vibration from the strings

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Permalink Reply by Grandpa on November 6, 2017 at 4:56pm

Thanks Richard. Good tip on the bridge. If I need wood on the next ones I'll use some red oak. Lord knows, I have a pounds of scraps around the garage.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Dean on November 6, 2017 at 5:14pm

plus oak and cherry are easily found in pallets, along with a few other hardwoods

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Permalink Reply by JL on November 7, 2017 at 1:55am

Beautiful.

You might consider a trapeze tail piece so you don't use up 1/4 of the string between the bridge and the anchor point, like a orchestral bass uses.

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Permalink Reply by Grandpa on November 7, 2017 at 8:58am

Oh, I went there, JL. I bought a fine Chinese bass guitar trapeze tailpiece. But....it was just a hair too long. It was just about butted up to the bridge, as I laid out the scale length to the bridge. Upon setting the bridge to intonate the strings, the bridge moved forward enough to allow the trapeze to be used, but by then the die was cast. I'll use the trapeze on the next build. Thanks for the tip!

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Permalink Reply by JL on November 8, 2017 at 2:56am

I was thinking about the metal ones Gitty sells, I'm thinking its easy enough to string one as a flying trapeze instead of bending it for a solid mount tail...