Recent content by xwtb

Perhaps you have a copy of Turetsky's famous Contemporary Contrabass, (a beautiful book whatever its relevance today may be), and over the decades the accompanying thin plastic disc recording (33 rpm) of examples has been lost or damaged. Well, I happen to have one such disc, in good condition...

By temperament, I'm an arranger not a composer, so having munged this logo off the 'net, just started reorganizing the parts-- getting more than a few insider Photoshop tips on the whole project from my wife, I should admit, who's a professional retoucher. --xwtb

Thanks, everybody, for the compliments, and for trusting me as far as you did before the picture began to decompose. I had hoped to get more mileage out of it, esp. in view of the hours invested, but it helps that people found it entertaining, in one way or another. The original photos were...

Beleaguered by scepticism, I made a further attempt to find some identifying sticker on the thing (see below.) I guess that also answers Jason's question about who has the time for such nonsense... xwtb

Yes, I bought the building and the contents, which appeared just to be old lumber and chairs. I was mainly after the weathered siding, which I took off first, revealing this beast behind a stack of old doors. Neighbor says the property has been unoccupied for at least ten years, was rented...

Found this bass when demolishing an old storage building recently. Seems to be well-made in spite of weird design, but has no maker's label in it. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks, xwtb

If zeytoun can induce a compound curve in a sheet of .25 plywood, (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=498611&highlight= ) with wet towels and clamps, surely it would be possible to do the same to a sandwich of veneer. Applying tons of pressure to a mold shouldn't be all that tough...

If kerfed lining like the Kay's (which appear to be something like 3/8" quarter-round) can be bent w/o heat I can see the time- and cost-saving (assuming you have a supply of machine-kerfed strips to work with, that is!) Curiously, Kay follows up this down-and-dirty inner lining with a flat and...

My Kay has kerfed linings, and according to the Kay Bass info site, they all do. I haven't seen just hundreds of basses, but I take it that the Kay's construction is pretty much the exception rather than the rule. On the other hand, such linings are completely standard on guitars, so it...

Bravo! Think of the Kays with damage not half that severe, that just went straight to the knackerman!

Shucks, if having a pattern on my fingerboard would lead to my playing in tune, I know four or five friends who'd probably volunteer to inlay the thing for me! :)

Thanks for compliments, y'all. But I should explain that it wasn't as tough a job as it might look. It's not really inlay work, but a veneer: made of a coated cellulose material, formed to the fingerboard contours with heat and pressure and bonded using a pressure-activated film adhesive. In...

Tree of life meets mariposa (Colorado wildflower), just in time for spring plucking.

A Prelude to Domestic Violones

You're bound to be referrred to the work of Andrew Brown on the topic, which can be found at http://www.awbmusic.com/acoustics/