Here’s a couple of metal winners I recently got to trick out. These are so much fun to trim!
Pfreshner:
Alcoa:
Pfreshner:
Alcoa:
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Double Bass Aluminiminty
- Thread starter John Hay
- Start date
Any reason why the Ns in "Tin man" are reversed? Or is the bass left hand strung and you've flipped the photo?
As an Airstream owner I dig the "Airstream" bass. That'd be a great one to take round the bluegrass festivals in my Airstream.
As an Airstream owner I dig the "Airstream" bass. That'd be a great one to take round the bluegrass festivals in my Airstream.
Just adding some spice to the design on the N’s. That’s the way they’re actually engraved.
I love Airstreams. I have a cousin who gutted one to haul his Mnt bikes across the country. I should get him to sell it to me and I’ll rehab it. A home for my basses!
Here’s a close up of the bridges:
So how do these things sound? I've only seen a couple. My school had one in a storage room painted brown with no strings, and I played a few notes on one Gage had in his shop years ago. It had a rich tone but also a distracting weird echo. I'd love to hear some sound clips.
Have you seen TV at 3:00am?
After all the other sports are exhausted and tucked safely asleep for the night you might come across some of the ESPN oddities, like pick-up truck track racing. Or better yet, lawn mower tracker racing.
Thats what playing an aluminum bass is like. The driver has to compensate quite a bit on the hairpin turns.
But the bling factor makes it totally worth the extra effort.
After all the other sports are exhausted and tucked safely asleep for the night you might come across some of the ESPN oddities, like pick-up truck track racing. Or better yet, lawn mower tracker racing.
Thats what playing an aluminum bass is like. The driver has to compensate quite a bit on the hairpin turns.
But the bling factor makes it totally worth the extra effort.
Nice work John!
If you play boring, polite music to boring, polite crowds, nobody even notices the bass player or any semblance of tone.
I play every weekend of the year with an aggressive, rowdy, loud band that packs the house full of beautiful, sweaty, grinding, dancing, screaming hipsters who go absolutely %$#@!ng nuts over my 6 foot tall disco ball as I jump all over the stage and crowd surf and the rest of the band stands on it while the lasers and light show do their thing on it. 'Coolest instrument I've ever been on stage with and I've made more $$$$ gigging with it than all of my other instruments combined. Nobody ever mentions tone, but the two times I showed up without my ALCOA and brought a much better sounding traditional instrument, the band was pi$$ed and the crowd definitely asked *** was going on and where was my "real" bass...
Yet, even with all of that, I still get, "Look honey, he's playing a steel cello..." every show
If you play boring, polite music to boring, polite crowds, nobody even notices the bass player or any semblance of tone.
I play every weekend of the year with an aggressive, rowdy, loud band that packs the house full of beautiful, sweaty, grinding, dancing, screaming hipsters who go absolutely %$#@!ng nuts over my 6 foot tall disco ball as I jump all over the stage and crowd surf and the rest of the band stands on it while the lasers and light show do their thing on it. 'Coolest instrument I've ever been on stage with and I've made more $$$$ gigging with it than all of my other instruments combined. Nobody ever mentions tone, but the two times I showed up without my ALCOA and brought a much better sounding traditional instrument, the band was pi$$ed and the crowd definitely asked *** was going on and where was my "real" bass...
Yet, even with all of that, I still get, "Look honey, he's playing a steel cello..." every show
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Great pics John, and great Airstreaming!
lurk, I've heard 2 aluminum DBs in person, one a Pfretz that was a regular at Disneyland a couple of years ago, and mine... They are pretty rare so hearing them in the wild is sort of a treat.
The Pfretz at Disneyland was pretty stock and had what I would consider a pretty "normal" metallic sound for an aluminum double bass, but I don't remember what kind of strings the player had on this instrument, and strings make a huge difference regarding metallic sound in both wooden and aluminum double basses.
In my terminology, the "distracting weird echo" that you experienced is a part of that metallic sound, sort of like the echoiness of a washtub bass or a steel trash can. Also in my terminology, the other part of that metallic sound is literally the tone of metal.
I've heard my Alcoa played by other people a lot, including before I owned it. Most of the echoiness has been worked out of mine by a thick powder coat finish, acoustic paint applied over the inside back of the instrument and a custom 4-footed sound post that supports and collects bridge vibration over a wider area of the top.
As such, the echoiness factor on my Alcoa is pretty low. If I bump it while schlepping it, yes, it can sound like a garbage can getting hit by a car, but in regular playing the echo has pretty well been contained.
The other part, the tone of metal may be impossible to completely stop, but the synthetic strings that I use do help a lot -- as probably would gut strings.
Most of the people who play and/or listen to my DB say it sounds pretty wooden, with probably about as much metallic sound as a wooden double bass with steel strings.
lurk, I've heard 2 aluminum DBs in person, one a Pfretz that was a regular at Disneyland a couple of years ago, and mine... They are pretty rare so hearing them in the wild is sort of a treat.
The Pfretz at Disneyland was pretty stock and had what I would consider a pretty "normal" metallic sound for an aluminum double bass, but I don't remember what kind of strings the player had on this instrument, and strings make a huge difference regarding metallic sound in both wooden and aluminum double basses.
In my terminology, the "distracting weird echo" that you experienced is a part of that metallic sound, sort of like the echoiness of a washtub bass or a steel trash can. Also in my terminology, the other part of that metallic sound is literally the tone of metal.
I've heard my Alcoa played by other people a lot, including before I owned it. Most of the echoiness has been worked out of mine by a thick powder coat finish, acoustic paint applied over the inside back of the instrument and a custom 4-footed sound post that supports and collects bridge vibration over a wider area of the top.
As such, the echoiness factor on my Alcoa is pretty low. If I bump it while schlepping it, yes, it can sound like a garbage can getting hit by a car, but in regular playing the echo has pretty well been contained.
The other part, the tone of metal may be impossible to completely stop, but the synthetic strings that I use do help a lot -- as probably would gut strings.
Most of the people who play and/or listen to my DB say it sounds pretty wooden, with probably about as much metallic sound as a wooden double bass with steel strings.
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"Steel Cello" could be an acoustic metal act...
I'd love to post one of a studio recording we did earlier this year, have it all ready, but because it's a sound file I am unable to post it directly here, and also I can't post it to YT (which is really my only other option). @lurk, if you'd like it sent in email, PM me.
I have a friend who plays one acoustically in an oldtime band in NC. I always thought it sounded pretty cool when he played it but I couldn’t get a sound I liked out of it. The volume and the sustain definitely shaped the way he played. He did not sound as strong on a wood bass. It just didn’t do the same job for him as his aluminum bass.
An interesting question is if a "normal" Pfretz aluminum sounds different from a "normal" Alcoa. Both the aluminum DBs pictured in this thread are Pfretz's. There are some significant differences...
A stock or mostly stock Pfretz will have a wooden neck and scroll, and a wooden body skeleton around which aluminum sheeting is attached by screws. It has a wooden bass bar, a wooden sound post, and I'm guessing a wooden endpin / plug assembly too. I say mostly stock because I don't know if any Pfretz's came painted -- I've not seen any in pics or live that had original paint.
With a stock Alcoa, the only wooden parts are an internal support assembly inside the neck, the fingerboard iitself, the sound post and the endpin / plug assembly. The aluminum body is welded together and includes a welded aluminum bass bar and a welded aluminum soundpost-base. Otherwise the body is empty. The outer part of the neck including the neck heel and scroll are aluminum parts welded into place. And lastly, all of the original Alcoa DBs that I've seen, including mine which has been refinished in powder coat, were originally painstakingly painted to look like wood. My understanding is that some were also originally painted gold.
Note: My understanding is that both the Pfretz and Alcoa aluminum DBs also originally came with a maple bridge and an ebony fingerboard and tailpiece. None of these original parts have been with my Alcoa since before I owned it.
Our own @james condino of course is THE expert on aluminum DBs. He's seen, played and repaired more of them than probably anyone living today, plus he's actively gigging with them. He could probably provide a comparison of the acoustic sounds of these two Aluminum DBs better than anyone.
A stock or mostly stock Pfretz will have a wooden neck and scroll, and a wooden body skeleton around which aluminum sheeting is attached by screws. It has a wooden bass bar, a wooden sound post, and I'm guessing a wooden endpin / plug assembly too. I say mostly stock because I don't know if any Pfretz's came painted -- I've not seen any in pics or live that had original paint.
With a stock Alcoa, the only wooden parts are an internal support assembly inside the neck, the fingerboard iitself, the sound post and the endpin / plug assembly. The aluminum body is welded together and includes a welded aluminum bass bar and a welded aluminum soundpost-base. Otherwise the body is empty. The outer part of the neck including the neck heel and scroll are aluminum parts welded into place. And lastly, all of the original Alcoa DBs that I've seen, including mine which has been refinished in powder coat, were originally painstakingly painted to look like wood. My understanding is that some were also originally painted gold.
Note: My understanding is that both the Pfretz and Alcoa aluminum DBs also originally came with a maple bridge and an ebony fingerboard and tailpiece. None of these original parts have been with my Alcoa since before I owned it.
Our own @james condino of course is THE expert on aluminum DBs. He's seen, played and repaired more of them than probably anyone living today, plus he's actively gigging with them. He could probably provide a comparison of the acoustic sounds of these two Aluminum DBs better than anyone.
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'Wont set a Pfretschner on fire or jump into a fire pit with it,
'Wont jump off the stage with a Pfretschner,
'Wont let pretty girls jump on a Pfretschner...
But I do with an ALCOA every gig. If I have to explain it, then they are probably not the right bass for you.
Look what happened to my old wooden Juzek bass:
'Nuff sed.
'Wont jump off the stage with a Pfretschner,
'Wont let pretty girls jump on a Pfretschner...
But I do with an ALCOA every gig. If I have to explain it, then they are probably not the right bass for you.
Look what happened to my old wooden Juzek bass:
'Nuff sed.
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I meant to ask James what band does he play for in this fun weekly setting he describes?
Hi Jason.
I play with a number of folks in different genres, but my regular gig is with The Dirty French Broads (named after a local tributary of The French Broad River). 'Not the most technical band I've played with, not a very good studio session band, and they have plenty of growing pains like all of us, but on a good day they put on a hell of a live show and rock the crowd beyond their expectations. That is what it is all about for me. Plus they make pretty good $$$, unlike when I play a million notes a night crankin' out Django and jazz for a $24 paycheck...
Lemme know when you need a sub for your "regular gig"!
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