Double Bass 4x2 Bass

[Matthew Tucker]

OK for posterity, here's my first effort, made from a single hardwood 4x2. Was an office partition.

Only cheat was to add a bit of depth to the pegbox so i could fit the tuners.

Pickup is a homemade piezo under the bridge.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

Wow Matt, that thing looks really cool. How does it play/sound? It really comes off well as a minimalist piece of art too. Kudos!

Can you give us more detailed pics?

 

[Matthew Tucker]

OK I started with an ugly but very well seasoned plank of very hard Tas Oak.

As the integral FB was in line with the body i didn't have anough angle over the bridge so I routed some grooves below the bridge. The strings ends are recessed into the back of the plank. The bridge is just a bit of hardwood appropriately carved.

 

[Matthew Tucker]

Attachments out of order here.

The neck was quite fun, planing and shaping, using my DB neck as a template. Finished with Danish Oil.

Plays OK, action quite low, I need to add a bit more scoop in the FB. Feels like a DB to play. Great for night practicing without disturbing the family.

With the Piezo it sounds quite good amplified but I have problems with Hum.

No endpin; Its the right height to rest on a chair if standing, or on the ground if sitting on a chair.

The minimalist idea was all very well but in practice the thing needs to be anchored to the body, tends to spin in my hands as you can imagine.

Since these pics were taken i added wings to the area near the bridge - only in order to have room to fit a Fender pickup. Ruined the look but it works.

Lack of reference points on the neck has both good and bad points. You get used to it. I put a pencil mark at the octave.

 

[ToneRanger]

Nice work! I'm a big fan of minimalism. The recessed string ends are a nice design solution.

"With the Piezo it sounds quite good amplified but I have problems with Hum."
What sort of pickup did you use? I had the same until I totally shielded the pickup and all wiring. I've found with piezos the slightest gap in the shielding will cause hum. I bought some 3M copper foil tape with conductive adhesive that has made my pickups dead silent.

I'm interested to hear how the P-Bass pickup sounds, too. I bought one that I'd planned to put on my Paulin bass, but it already sounds so fat with my DIY piezo I don't think I'll bother.