bass oddity from Japanese hobbyist

[GerardSamija]

My wife's Japanese, and she found this via one of her daily news site journeys:

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20...-soci.view-000

As I'm not familiar with how Yahoo Japan maintains their images, might as well post a copy of the bassguitaruke or whatever it's called here. My wife says (sorry, I speak/read zero Japanese - seems I'm too dumb or something) that the maker is not a professional luthier, but rather a 'sarariman' which is to say 'salary man' - a businessman I guess. Seems he's followed more or less a Kay sort of pattern. She also says the maker wanted the players to be close together... though not sure if that's taken from the article. I've seen instruments with two or more necks going back hundreds of years from various traditions. The twin-necked electric was hardly an original idea. But this is the first I've seen of a bass viol with an added instrument, or two as is this case. I'm thinkin' the guitarist gets the short end of the stick here. I'd have reversed the order, putting the guitar straight up off the bass belly to allow better right hand work closer to the guitar bridge. But hey, I didn't make this somewhat spectacular effort!

[Nagrom]

Hey, that's really something. What kind of car do you think it would fit into? (should probably included the operators)...

[dchan]

That makes thumb position kind of difficult, doesn't it?

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by dchan

That makes thumb position kind of difficult, doesn't it?

Not necessary. You just shove the mandolin guy out of the way and play it on his neck.

I think the coup de grace would be for one guy to play the whole thing, a la Rashaan Roland Kirk.

[GerardSamija]

Originally Posted by Nagrom

What kind of car do you think it would fit into?...

I'm guessing that it would be transported by train if anything, or maybe one of those neat little microbus things often seen in Asian countries. Along similar lines of thought... the case would have to be custom, and a flight trunk would probably cost a fortune.

[Jsn]

The guitar portion, and probably the mandolin, has got to sound like poo. Neither string length can energize the full top, so their sound would likely be dull, if not muffled.

There may be internal chambers, isolating the three sounding boards. But at best, that still wouldn't sound as good as if you took three instruments and superglued them together.

[Chang]

I'm going to wait for the detachable guitar & ukulele model before I buy one. I'm still waiting for a double bass with a detachable neck and hinged detachable top so's I can put my clothes in there with the neck and do away with the flight case and luggage altogether.

How 'bout it Gerard?

[GerardSamija]

You may be waiting a while for that. Perhaps you could ask the maker here - sorry, can't remember his name - who has used velcro to attach a C-bout rib section into place. The idea being ease of access to the inside for soundpost adjustments, cleaning, inspecting and repairing any damage. I'm sure such an idea could be adapted to attaching any number of things to basses, any so why not continue and attach the belly or the back with a hook and loop fastener? I'd suggest the back. Of course unless you glued the post to the belly (or used velcro there as well) it'd have to be reset every time you put the bass back together. Rather inconvenient.

[Jake deVilliers]

Originally Posted by Chang

I'm going to wait for the detachable guitar & ukulele model before I buy one.

You know, I was thinking along the same lines - if the guitar and ukulele came off the bass it would be a nice piece of showmanship on stage. I mean, if you're into that kind of thing!

[riverbum]

my guess is they have a double decker rickshaw to transport that thing in. take turns pulling and riding.

[dchan]

Originally Posted by GerardSamija

You may be waiting a while for that. Perhaps you could ask the maker here - sorry, can't remember his name - who has used velcro to attach a C-bout rib section into place. The idea being ease of access to the inside for soundpost adjustments, cleaning, inspecting and repairing any damage. I'm sure such an idea could be adapted to attaching any number of things to basses, any so why not continue and attach the belly or the back with a hook and loop fastener? I'd suggest the back. Of course unless you glued the post to the belly (or used velcro there as well) it'd have to be reset every time you put the bass back together. Rather inconvenient.

There's a way around the inconvenience - just stuff your favorite (least favorite?) luthier into the bass and bring him with you. He'll be available to set everything up after he gets his blood circulating again.