i just had a crazy idea...

ao'connor17 · #1 09-30-2007, 02:13 PM

a neck through upright bass! is that even possible!?

CPike · #2 09-30-2007, 02:53 PM

By "neck through" you mean like on solid body EBG's? Contrasting with the bolt-on Fender-style necks? If that's what you mean, then no, because DB's are hollow and have neither bolt-on nor neck-thru construction.

Chris

toman · #3 09-30-2007, 03:09 PM

Well, I suppose you could compare a double bass to a set neck guitar, so sure, I guess you could build a neck through bass. Would the neck simply connect the top and back all the way down the length of the body, like a 335 type guitar, or would it just go down the top or back? Or would it "float" inside the body? And what would be the point?

Somebody go spend a bunch of time and money to build all of them, because if it works for guitars it must work for double basses too, right?

Marcus Johnson · #4 09-30-2007, 03:22 PM

Hey! I just had a crazy idea.... a bass instrument with pickups, maybe shaped like a guitar but with a solid body, that you could play through an amplifier.

Nah, that'll never catch on.

meev992 · #5 09-30-2007, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus Johnson

Hey! I just had a crazy idea.... a bass instrument with pickups, maybe shaped like a guitar but with a solid body, that you could play through an amplifier.

Nah, that'll never catch on.

LOLS

that delivered

ao'connor17 · #6 09-30-2007, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus Johnson

Hey! I just had a crazy idea.... a bass instrument with pickups, maybe shaped like a guitar but with a solid body, that you could play through an amplifier.

Nah, that'll never catch on.

...smartass

i was just thinking how would it sound, would it have ridiculous sustain? i would think it would go through both the front and the back.

Marcus Johnson · #7 09-30-2007, 03:50 PM

Someone once did a kind of neckthru thing in an archtop guitar, where they tied the neck to the endblock with a metal rod. The rod just passed through the open space inside the guitar. I think I probably saw this on the MIMF Forum. That might be one feasible way of doing it.

AFAIK, the whole point in DB construction is to allow the top and back plates to vibrate as much as possible, so I think a neck through might be a hard sell. I'm sure some luthiers have thoughts on it. Interesting idea.

Phil Rowan · #8 09-30-2007, 06:29 PM

I think the bass (and others in the violin family) were built the way they are for hundreds of years for a reason.

Silversorcerer · #9 09-30-2007, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ao'connor17

i just had a crazy idea...a neck through upright bass! is that even possible!?

+1

Rattman · #10 09-30-2007, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus Johnson

Hey! I just had a crazy idea.... a bass instrument with pickups, maybe shaped like a guitar but with a solid body, that you could play through an amplifier.

Nah, that'll never catch on.

You should be slapped.. and slapped hard!

After that, you should be quickly doused with several buckets of icy water to 'bring you 'round' since you are obviously having a minor break-down of sorts!

Of course it will never catch on!!!

Marc Piane · #11 09-30-2007, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ao'connor17

.would it have ridiculous sustain?

I can't see how it would effect anything.

Eli_Upright12 · #12 10-01-2007, 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ao'connor17

.
i was just thinking how would it sound, would it have ridiculous sustain? i would think it would go through both the front and the back.

It would be ridiculously heavy thats for sure, could you imagine how much woold it would take to do that? I dont know if you could find a single piece large enough.

CPike · #13 10-01-2007, 09:31 AM

Ridiculous sustain, perhaps - but with a big block of wood straight through down to the endpin you would have very little acoustic volume, resonance or projection. Now that I think of it, EUBs fit the idea of a "neck-thru" design. From what I've experienced they seem to sustain a bit longer than a real DB, but hardly what one would deem "ridiculous"...

Chris

tucson_zac · #14 10-01-2007, 02:21 PM

Just think about the physics:

The string vibrates, and that energy goes somewhere, in a DB most of that energy vibrates the bridge, which in turn vibrates the top, the air volume, the sound post, the back, etc. If by stiffening the system, less energy was transfered to the body, the string would vibrate longer (i.e. longer sustain), but volume (and all those modal components of volume which create tone) would suffer. Not to mention the changes to body resonances...

The string only has so much energy, based on mass, frequency, and vibration amplitude. You could tie a bass string between tow concrete blocks and it would vibrate a long time, but you wouldn't hear much.

-z.