i have a dream....

[spambot772]

i dont know if this will work, but id love you luthier's thoughts on this.

im thinking oh building a headless electric upright, with a bigger body than a normal EUB.

im thinkin, a 34-35in scale, fretless (id like a fingerboard similar to an upright) with a traditional violin styled body but with upper fret access (pics included) hollowed out.

id like the body to be smaller than a normal electic bass's, but i think i will make it thicker. im planning on building it out of a solid peice of ash, and routing it out to be a hollow body.

heres a pic of what im thinking (drawn as a five string for now, but im probably gonna go with 4)



this will be a first build, and im hoping to actually get a nice instrument.

a few things id like to check on:

i dont know whether to go with a peizo or a standard pickup. id like a nice upright tone.

i dont know whether routing the body from a single peice of wood would be easier than bending sides? (or sound better)

im thinking ash body with a nice flame maple top, and maybe purpleheart for the fingerboard.

any thoughts/ideas/advice (especially advice) on this would be greatly appreciated!!!

thanks!!!

[DerHoggz]

1. I'm pretty sure using bent sides will give you a better unamplified sound, though this will be harder to do.

2. A piezo will pick up the natural sound better, plus it looks better than a big ole black rectangle!

3. About being headless, it will probably be a pain to reach down and tune it.

4. Scale length refers to the distance from the nut to roughly the saddles on the bridge, not the length of the fretboard.

[Rickett Customs]

I agree, the scale length is miscalculated.

Being a headless wouldn't be too much of a hassle to tune, Kydd made a model (maybe more than one model), especially with a non AUB scale length ( if that was the case, it would be a big hassle). After saying that, the tail piece of a headless (without the bridge), you may want to consider making the bridge (would be somewhat taller than the average electric bridge).Additionally, don't expect any headless hardware to be cheap, by no means. (expect to pay $250+ just for the hardware)

I'd go the piezo route if you're looking for the UB sound.

When you mention bending sides, that is going to be challenging to build, if this is your first. You may want to try semi-hollow.

Just take your time don't do too much at any one given time.

You may want to consider practicing on something like pine, etc, before doing anything drastic to a good piece of wood.

just my .02

[spambot772]

thanks for the advice!!