Recent content by ron berry

double bass banjo's and fretless 8 string, ashbory clone

I made a frankenbass, I put a fender neck on an Ibanez body and had it for sale, very even tone all over, no dead spots, or so I thought... The first seriously interested customer found a really bad woolf tone but only if you played ONE particular double-stop and it sounded horrible and it was a...

After seeing "in the shadows of motown" I would say see that movie and go catch up with the gang and maybe "go get them royalties" and come back for a jam.

I am all for the cheap end of the market becoming 3d printed plastic, I am tired of seeing nice timber used to make crappy instruments.

A trombonist friend wrote a great song and taught the funk band he was in the parts so they could fill out the set, the two singers took the songwriting credits on the album and the money, it was an instrumental track. I objected when I found out, he upon reflection was a bit perturbed but later...

Birtha was the first and hardest birth of the double bass banjo family as she was all maple and hand sanded and 100% experiment, pictured here with a banjo bass viol de gamba, in fourths too but electric bass scale length and bowable. Fatima came next as a commission, she was 40 inches across...

I find a lot of the 5 string basses just don't have a solid enough tone to have any kind of pitched integrity to the bottom three fretted notes on the B string very often, when I make or find one that does I love it but I think most 5 string necks are too flat c profile flimsy or the basses not...

I still have my first bass, I made it myself, it can be played upright sitting in a chair, at the time it was to have an eagles head, a pigs foot and a gargoyles tail, that was the sound I was after. Only one person ever offered me money, 2k. I still have it but don't play it much these days...

Link Removed is my wordpress site for my luthiery school has details of the four I built and some history and theory on the acoustics of getting them to sound good on the double bass banjo page here Link Removed enjoy. I have advised many builders who have asked for advice on copying the design...

Hi my name is Ron. Unheardofinstruments is my company I operate as a sole trader. I designed made the ones they copied pictured above but lost the original domain and site form the host closing down, hence the missing links up top. Luckily for you and I, I was able to find the site on the...

try fretless bass or upright, also try all the instruments you can beg borrow or loan or buy whatever you learn from guitar will expand especially your 6 string bass playing guitar helped me think of the bass more chordally and helped my soloing

Get a really accurate tuner for the intonation and hold the bass in playing position when you do it, accuracy there makes a world of difference.

I have made quite a lot of basses and the lighter bodied ones tend to have an airier sound for want of a better descriptor and with some pickups like bartolinis the midrange honk is nicer and they tend to change more quickly in tone as the note decays (motion), the heavy basses are good when you...

Magnesium oil rubbed into your hand and forarm, amazing stuff, potassium deficiency does it too, being dehydrated. Yes, as a double bass player I totally get what you mean and even after years of playing both guitar and bass I still cramp up, shaking my hand out in small gaps in the music...

The bracing is the essential thing for a good tone and why the original ones didn't make it further into the century