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2 String Bass

Eric Shepherd

Eric Shepherd

Mar 1, 2023
30
127
#1
Bare with me a little on this.. I'm a workshop guy, I build guitars but a little while back I built my first bass, a 2 string for a guy that wanted one so I obliged, it came out well and he loved it and it did sound killer.. He was up and down the neck like a rat in a drain pipe, made all the effort well worth while..
Right now I'm building another, this time a fretless, why a fretless, well because I have some amazing woods in my stash and i found some beautifully figured wood for the fret board and from a woodworker's point of view it seemed a sacrilege to do anything that would interrupt this beautiful flowing grain..
I have a third planned not for anyone in particular but there's a design I've come up with that I want to refine further..
You guys are the obvious ones to ask this question, is there actually a bit of a market for a 2 string bass..
Before anyone says why not just make a standard 4 string the fact is I just can't compete.. There are a zillion manufacturers out there pumping them out like crazy, they're established names and get parts in bulk at real discounts I just can't get..
What they can do in 5 minutes on a cnc machine takes me 2 full days to achieve by hand..
So why 2 string, well if I can't compete against the big boys then I have to try and find or create a niche they don't fill..
After all that it brings me around to the question is there even a small market for a completely hand built 2 string bass..
 
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#2
This is a 4 string guitar I recently built and it's this design I want to develop further into the 2 string bass
444456211_936129838311552_4960267917859037171_n.jpg
 
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#4
Prodigus Filius said:
Looks like something Les Claypool would like a crack at. Very intriguing design



Shameless promotion https://www.talkbass.com/threads/3-strings-or-less-club.1646529/
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It was a flash of inspiration,I was in the workshop building a guitar and that BTO song You ain't seen nothing yet came up on my playlist.. I smiled to myself as I remembered me and a friend back in the 70's driving out to the beach with the surf boards on the roof and the design just came.. The top half is a wave rolling in and the bottom is the fin of a surfboard.. Very simple but still need refining..
 
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#7
Eric Shepherd said:
It was a flash of inspiration,I was in the workshop building a guitar and that BTO song You ain't seen nothing yet came up on my playlist.. I smiled to myself as I remembered me and a friend back in the 70's driving out to the beach with the surf boards on the roof and the design just came.. The top half is a wave rolling in and the bottom is the fin of a surfboard.. Very simple but still need refining..
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I was a mad surfie from the late 60's until early 2000's. Great times and now you mention surfing I see the connection in your design. Wonderful. The market is small for 2 strings, given the dominance of 4 strings and increasing use of 5's and ERBs, but there are always folks who like to swim against the tide for varied reasons.
 
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#10
Eric Shepherd said:
It was a flash of inspiration,I was in the workshop building a guitar and that BTO song You ain't seen nothing yet came up on my playlist.. I smiled to myself as I remembered me and a friend back in the 70's driving out to the beach with the surf boards on the roof and the design just came.. The top half is a wave rolling in and the bottom is the fin of a surfboard.. Very simple but still need refining..
Click to expand...
Love.
 
#12
Prodigus Filius said:
I was a mad surfie from the late 60's until early 2000's. Great times and now you mention surfing I see the connection in your design. Wonderful. The market is small for 2 strings, given the dominance of 4 strings and increasing use of 5's and ERBs, but there are always folks who like to swim against the tide for varied reasons.
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Being an Aussie you may recognize the body as being Tasmanian Blackwood and my head-stock design is a stylized kiwi silver fern, looks like I'm just across the ditch from you..
 
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#13
Green Knight said:
It’s a bass version of what used to be called a Punk Stick, a two-stringed guitar. That’s a marketing direction you might explore!
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The reason I go 2 string is because of the head-stock.. It's a particular design that's my own, I'm from NZ and proudly so and one of our national symbols is the leaf of the Silver Fern so I've incorporated it into my work.. Yeah I could make it bigger but to do so would ,my eyes, negatively affect the balance of design..
As for a grand a string I've never got anywhere near that for my work, I can't play, I'm retired and a crap businessman.. I do it for the love of music and have given them away for the opportunity to stand at the back of a crowd to watch someone playing their heart out and transferring that joy and passion to the audience and be able to think to myself, yeah I had a hand in making that moment happen..
 
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#14
that’s awesome! I wish I had skills like that instead of ten thumbs
Eric Shepherd said:
The reason I go 2 string is because of the head-stock.. It's a particular design that's my own, I'm from NZ and proudly so and one of our national symbols is the leaf of the Silver Fern so I've incorporated it into my work.. Yeah I could make it bigger but to do so would ,my eyes, negatively affect the balance of design..
As for a grand a string I've never got anywhere near that for my work, I can't play, I'm retired and a crap businessman.. I do it for the love of music and have given them away for the opportunity to stand at the back of a crowd to watch someone playing their heart out and transferring that joy and passion to the audience and be able to think to myself, yeah I had a hand in making that moment happen..
Click to expand...
 

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