Quote:
Originally Posted by piiman  I play with bluegrass and Fiddle tune players.
My bass is all stock aside from an adj. bridge.
I'm not saying it sounds or plays bad, I'm just wondering if it can be optimized. I have read that cabon fiber endpins increase volume.
Strings with less tension increase playability as does changing the tailgut wire.
I also heard a new nut with smaller string spacing could be in order.
So if you were an intermediate level player and had my bass and wanted to play bluegrass would you change it somehow? |
First off .... Welcome to TalkBass, Peter piiman !
I also play mainly bluegrass and fiddler groups along with celtic and a bit of folk and whatever comes along, but almost always large groups, unamplified, often outdoors and keeping it pretty simple and low on the neck. So yeah, I can totally understand why a person would want to put money into a plywood bass and get the most they can from it. Not all on TB will get while you're coming from, but there are also many that will. You just need to consider the perspective of the person giving the advice when deciding if the advice works for you.
Heck, If I wanted a solid top bass I would have one... I like my german plywood... it's loud, durable, and I especially like it when the sun goes down and the temperature drops 20 degrees in half an hour
I bought a bass with minimal setup about a year ago and while learning to play have been asking myself many of the same questions you're asking...
What strings do you have now? What sound and feel are you going for? I play with the bow a bit, so Velvet Anima, for example, probably isn't the best for me but could be for you.
Carbon fibre endpin? absolutely...that's my next upgrade. The first was getting rid of the solid tailpiece hanger and putting on amsteel (kevlar) due to the solid wire cracking. EZ installation, but next time I'd go steel cable for the adjustability and although the amsteel isn't supposed to stretch it seems to take awhile for the knot and weave of the cord to get to maximum tightness and stabilize.
Even with your guitar building experience, some things such as planing the fingerboard are best left to a luthier experienced with basses and I'd also put fitting a soundpost into the more hassle than it's worth category unless you are prepared to spend more time working on your bass than playing it
I've seen a lot of discussion about thickness of Kay necks, but don't recall anything about nut or neck width. Why do you think the nut's too wide? For nut height, I've found the usual advice of a business card under the strings at the nut is about right.
BC's a big place, so don't know if you're in driving distance of greater Vancouver, but I think you'd benefit from a chat with Jake at Crescent Beach Guitar. I don't know him personally, but he's a bluegrasser, here on TB, and I've heard nothing but good things from people he's done work for.
Optimizing Plywood... 
