My Acoustic Bass project, from electro to pure acoustic!

[TenorClef]

I've been wanting to do this for some time as a number of people have remarked that my bass sounds very nice when played acoustically but quite bad when amped. I put this down to cheap electronics. I intend to only use for around the garden playing with maybe a one guitar and possibly a flute.

Pulling out the electronics was the easy bit, then i had a great big hole on the side rib which just did'nt look right. I bought a small sheet of ply quite thin maybe 3mm or less and took a rubbing of the hole alla grave stone style with paper and pencil, i then cut that out and drew the pattern around the ply, all going as planned so far.

Now the tricky part was getting it to fit into the side rib as it is curved, i had'nt thought of that, so i steamed the new piece with the kitchen kettle until it was plyable and open to bending, some more filing until at last i got it to fit.

Now a few little extra little pieces for the inside and a bit of wood glue and its starting to really come together. Next thing i now need is a little wood glue and some mahoganny stain and the project will be finished.

[Gintaras]

I am considering doing something like that to my Kelly Club Fretless 4. I still wanted to keep it electric but what I was going to do was use the K&K pure bass pickup that goes directly to the jack and this would allow me to use different outboard preamps.

http://www.kksound.com/purebass.html

[TenorClef]

A good alternative if you want to go occasionally amplified is the Schertler Dyn-G which just attaches onto the side of the bass guitar with some sticky putty type stuff, i believe they actually have one specific for ABG's now however i don't know what they sell at, maybe just sticking a microphone in front of it would be a better choice and considerably cheaper.

I think the ABG has a very unique tone well suited to smaller guitar ensembles (no drums). I guess the main issue is volume but i find with medium to heavy strings, a decent high action and a 3-4mm coconut pick i can get what i want from it. You just need to be careful about which one you buy, i don't know about Kelly, but my ABG has a full scale length with 24 Frets, 50 inches in total length, 18 inches at the highest point in body width and almost 5 inches in depth so i guess i get a fair amount of acoustic volume, i had other ABG's such as the Thunderchief and some cheaper end ones which i did'nt think compared to this one i have at the moment.

Good luck with your project!

[TenorClef]

Well that about wraps it up, got the mahoganny stain on today and just needs to dry now, a lot better than just a gapping hole i think. Quite pleased with how this turned out, should be great for the summer out door sessions.

[crazyhorse]

is that a Galveston by any chance?