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Double Bass Bass bumpers

#21
Ok, so if I go with the fan belt idea, it should be the outside (wide side) of the belt that gets glued to the side of the bass? And since my bass is Polish in origin shoud there be any variation especially for this country? :hiding: Ayone out there has a spare Polish fan belt? Whoo Hooo, come on and let her fly, that should be the perfect opening.

az
 
#22
Actually, I never polish my fan belts, I leave them in their natural state. :)

Do you send away for those special cloths that are imported from Poland when you want to shine up that bass? I think they are called Polish cloths.

(Oh no, I just realized that you live 30 miles south of me. They don't import those cloths to S.V. do they?)
 
#23
BenderR said:
This raises some disturbing questions, more burning issues for TalkBass to address. What do you use on a Chinese bass? If you have an Italian bass and can't afford a Ferrari fan belt will the bass become unreliable if you use a Fiat belt? If I'm not mistaken Kay basses were made in Chicago, does that mean a fan belt from a Chicago-built Tucker? (of which only 48 were ever produced)
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My Bohmann was made in Chicago too, so I get the Tucker I guess.
Hey DRUB, why did Tucker HAVE to make 50 models?
 
#27
BenderR said:
Actually, I never polish my fan belts, I leave them in their natural state. :)

Do you send away for those special cloths that are imported from Poland when you want to shine up that bass? I think they are called Polish cloths.

(Oh no, I just realized that you live 30 miles south of me. They don't import those cloths to S.V. do they?)
Click to expand...


Mark, since you and Az are so close, geographically, you should get together and spend some time together... your really awful senses of humor are so similar! :crying:
 
#34
On a boringly serious note; I've been putting on leather bumpers for about 7 or 8 years, saturating them in a few coats of thin shellac. I glue them on with a water-based contact cement, something which doesn't seem to hurt varnishes, at least not much. They stay put pretty well, never had one come off to my knowledge. The leather is something I got in a big batch of discards from a belt and purse manufacturer, so it's about 1/8th inch thick and either black or a dark red-brown. One or the other seems to suit most every bass.

The shellac hardens the leather enough that it doesn't stick to floors at all. That's important for when some idiot walks into an endpin or a scroll, so that the bass will spin rather than tip over as they tend to with rubber sometimes. I did mount a fanbelt set once, at the client's insistence, but it seemed a bit too sticky when I did some test bumping of the instrument on a hardwood floor.

I make the leather bevelled quite strongly, so they'll slip in and out of top-mounted soft cases more easily. Wouldn't want the bumpers snagging on the bag and ripping off or just making them annoying.

Wooden bumpers have been into my shop a lot for re-mounting, as the hide glue tends to come loose a lot. Ebony is certainly slippery, but it seems to me that all the force of an awkward setting-down gets focused in a way that the rib seam can get knocked open. Often I'll find a loose couple of inches of seam at the same time. So I re-glue them, if the client insists on keeping the wood, with a bit of contact cement instead of hide glue. No worries in these cases about varnish damage, as inevitably the hide glue originally used in mounting them has pulled the varnish off right down to the wood of the rib as the bumper came off. Hide glue is very good at removing varnish, as one can usually tell by putting a drop of hot glue on a varnished piece and just letting it dry. Most varnishes will pull off in a neat little circle within a day, though the factory-type sprayed plastic 'varnishes' seem to be immune. Contact cement on the other hand can usually be rubbed off, with a little patience and care.
 
#36
Paul Warburton said:
I wonder if we've exhausted this topic? :rolleyes:
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Not yet mister...I was about to make me some bumpers from UHMW nylon - the same material white plastic cutting boards are made from, only I have some UHMW in black. If I get them done before this thread gets deleted, I'll post a report. UHMW has a resilience between wood and rubber.
 
#38
blue flame said:
Not yet mister...I was about to make me some bumpers from UHMW nylon - the same material white plastic cutting boards are made from, only I have some UHMW in black. If I get them done before this thread gets deleted, I'll post a report. UHMW has a resilience between wood and rubber.
Click to expand...

Don't call me mister!
 
#40
I thought it was 'ultra-high molecular weight' polyurethane, not polyethelene. Harumph, shows what I know. An isn't gluing difficulty what I just said?!! Someone's trying to steal my thunder. grumble grumble.

Perhaps by affixing some substrate to the inner curve of the bumper by mechanical means, with a keyway slot or something, it might be possible to glue such a material to the ribs. That'd be a lot of fussy machining of course. And is it worth it, considering that the density is probably around the same as is ebony or other tropical hardwoods? Seems likely that the impact energy transfer might be excessive should the bass be set down too hard.
 

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