Hi all!
So I recently got a free kick drum on Craigslist. Its about 24" wide. My bass player friend and I have had this concept percolating for a while, as we both play banjo as well and wanted to make a ridiculous monster of an instrument.
I was hoping I could get some advice on my concept, since I am planning to mostly use upright bass components on this Frankenstein monster.
This was parsed together from a bunch of different builds and sources online. Most were just random videos of the thing in action with no details.
My plan is to cut the drum shell down to a more appropriate depth. Probably slightly deeper than the foot of the neck is wide.
Internally, I plan to place 2 truss rods. On the bottom end of the shell, these will pass through just enough to attach a nut. There will be a metal plate each on the inside and outside of the shell to act like a washer and support, with a nut on the inside of each rod as well. In between the two would be the hole for the endpin.
These rods will meet another plate at the top of the shell. Here I suspect I will have to use double ended nuts and connect to a second set of shorter rods which will pass through the plate and the shell, and into the neck assembly.
Ideally I want to use an upright bass neck, and drill a hole in it for each rod. The concept I have now is one rod goes several inches into the body of the neck, and the second rod comes out of the foot where it is bolted down.
Inside the drum shell I plan to have a support for the bridge. My current concept for this is a flat piece of wood which is attached to the sides of the shell while also sitting across the front truss rod. Essentially picture an upside down cross inside the shell.
The bridge and tail piece would be double bass parts as well, with the tailpiece attached to the endpin as is standard.
I've seen some designs that have an extra support bar on the outside of the shell, running from rim to rim under the tailpiece to hold it up, and some that have a third similar support under the fretboard, but I am unclear as to how critical these are.
That is the rough working concept I have now.
So I recently got a free kick drum on Craigslist. Its about 24" wide. My bass player friend and I have had this concept percolating for a while, as we both play banjo as well and wanted to make a ridiculous monster of an instrument.
I was hoping I could get some advice on my concept, since I am planning to mostly use upright bass components on this Frankenstein monster.
This was parsed together from a bunch of different builds and sources online. Most were just random videos of the thing in action with no details.
My plan is to cut the drum shell down to a more appropriate depth. Probably slightly deeper than the foot of the neck is wide.
Internally, I plan to place 2 truss rods. On the bottom end of the shell, these will pass through just enough to attach a nut. There will be a metal plate each on the inside and outside of the shell to act like a washer and support, with a nut on the inside of each rod as well. In between the two would be the hole for the endpin.
These rods will meet another plate at the top of the shell. Here I suspect I will have to use double ended nuts and connect to a second set of shorter rods which will pass through the plate and the shell, and into the neck assembly.
Ideally I want to use an upright bass neck, and drill a hole in it for each rod. The concept I have now is one rod goes several inches into the body of the neck, and the second rod comes out of the foot where it is bolted down.
Inside the drum shell I plan to have a support for the bridge. My current concept for this is a flat piece of wood which is attached to the sides of the shell while also sitting across the front truss rod. Essentially picture an upside down cross inside the shell.
The bridge and tail piece would be double bass parts as well, with the tailpiece attached to the endpin as is standard.
I've seen some designs that have an extra support bar on the outside of the shell, running from rim to rim under the tailpiece to hold it up, and some that have a third similar support under the fretboard, but I am unclear as to how critical these are.
That is the rough working concept I have now.
