In the past three + decades, I've attended a LOT of luthier related "nerdfests".... as a participant in the crowd, as a student, and as someone on the payroll giving workshops throughout the week. Given how obscure our profession is, having 20+ bass builders in the same room is equivalent to having about 4000 guitar builders present. There were some fantastic people from many different countries and continents present and the exchange of information was wonderful; by the second day I felt as though I had already made it worth my time and money. Over the next few weeks, I'll be giving a few reports on some of the "happeninz" that you probably won't hear about.... As a TB disclaimer, I've got NO financial interest in this and am offering it solely in terms of increasing global bass nerdiness for anyone interested.
During the middle of one the workshops, I happened to be goofing off in the back of the classroom with James Hamm and his buddy JB. JB happened to be JB Allred, of Allred carbon fiber / Dragon plate/ and such. Jim and JB are pretty tight, so I was the outsider kind of eavesdropping checking out the latest high tech carbon goods JB had brought along. I was familiar with Jim, having attended a couple of his workshops last year at the Guild of American Luthiers conventions and knew they were into some interesting stuff. Having wasted a lot of years in engineering school,I instantly invited myself into the conversation, as JB was showing off his new carbon neck "stiffening systems" and pulled out a handful of carbon tubes suggesting they might make interesting soundposts.
That was all I needed. I've been wanting to try carbon fiber soundposts for several years. Without asking, I grabbed one from JB, walked over to my workbench and proceeded to chop it up and install it in my bass. As a side note, although I was primarily looking out for myself, it also made good sense. My bass was the only one present with a trapdoor that made soundpost adjustments a very easy and efficient task. In about 10 minutes, I had sized up his tube, added spruce end caps, and installed it. Don't get too nerdy worked up about the position or placement- I've been moving it around almost daily and the current position is the one that worked the best for the room I was in for rehearsal this afternoon. You can see the trapdoor on the left of the photos that allows quick and easy adjustments. You can also see the "fuzzy" bass bar, results from allowing a luthier to have instant access to the insides of their own bass and be constantly whittling away and mucking about with the insides...
Seth Kimmel and I then spent about 45 minutes adjusting and trying different locations until we found the one that seemed to work the best. JB came up and asked us what our initial impression was. Seth and I both agreed- "Well, there seems to be nothing lost overall and an audible amount gained in the high end and the low end seemed to be smoothed out a bit..." With that we made him a promise- we'll stay up until dawn giving it the best effort we can with the help of the rest of the late night crowd and give it and honest workout.
True to our promise, we enlisted the help of several others and proceeded to stay up until just before 5am that night/ moring and put it through the test!
I've had it in for about a week and a half now, played several gigs with it, and my general impression is similar- nothing lost, but a little bit gained throughout the spectrum. The general character of the bass was the same, but certain areas of tone seemed to "pop" a bit more and cut through in the mix. On this bass, depending upon the location of the soundpost, the C/D notes on the G string get a HUGE increase in volume, along with more moderate success throughout the range. I have not noticed any new wolftones and the results seem similar for both arco and pitz. So far I have not weighed it on a scale to see how the density compares to spruce, but on that particular bass, I've tried about five different types of spruce and cedar soundposts. I don't have any plans to remove it and would encourage anyone curious or interested in the idea to give it a try. I don't have the specs for the wall thickness- as soon as I cut it down and glued the caps on, everything was sealed up. Give JB a call and they'll be able to give you the details.
As a whole, this type of thing was happening all day long for the entire week in several different rooms at the Oberlin workshops. If I had a little more time, I would have liked to have done a modal analysis of this one compared to the spruce soundpost. The reality was that I didn't need to- my ears told me to keep this one in for a while.....
Your results and mileage may vary from these.....
Thanks again to everyone who helped put the Oberlin workshops together! Stay tuned for the next reports on the "Magic Probe" digital thickness guage....
j.
During the middle of one the workshops, I happened to be goofing off in the back of the classroom with James Hamm and his buddy JB. JB happened to be JB Allred, of Allred carbon fiber / Dragon plate/ and such. Jim and JB are pretty tight, so I was the outsider kind of eavesdropping checking out the latest high tech carbon goods JB had brought along. I was familiar with Jim, having attended a couple of his workshops last year at the Guild of American Luthiers conventions and knew they were into some interesting stuff. Having wasted a lot of years in engineering school,I instantly invited myself into the conversation, as JB was showing off his new carbon neck "stiffening systems" and pulled out a handful of carbon tubes suggesting they might make interesting soundposts.
That was all I needed. I've been wanting to try carbon fiber soundposts for several years. Without asking, I grabbed one from JB, walked over to my workbench and proceeded to chop it up and install it in my bass. As a side note, although I was primarily looking out for myself, it also made good sense. My bass was the only one present with a trapdoor that made soundpost adjustments a very easy and efficient task. In about 10 minutes, I had sized up his tube, added spruce end caps, and installed it. Don't get too nerdy worked up about the position or placement- I've been moving it around almost daily and the current position is the one that worked the best for the room I was in for rehearsal this afternoon. You can see the trapdoor on the left of the photos that allows quick and easy adjustments. You can also see the "fuzzy" bass bar, results from allowing a luthier to have instant access to the insides of their own bass and be constantly whittling away and mucking about with the insides...
Seth Kimmel and I then spent about 45 minutes adjusting and trying different locations until we found the one that seemed to work the best. JB came up and asked us what our initial impression was. Seth and I both agreed- "Well, there seems to be nothing lost overall and an audible amount gained in the high end and the low end seemed to be smoothed out a bit..." With that we made him a promise- we'll stay up until dawn giving it the best effort we can with the help of the rest of the late night crowd and give it and honest workout.
True to our promise, we enlisted the help of several others and proceeded to stay up until just before 5am that night/ moring and put it through the test!
I've had it in for about a week and a half now, played several gigs with it, and my general impression is similar- nothing lost, but a little bit gained throughout the spectrum. The general character of the bass was the same, but certain areas of tone seemed to "pop" a bit more and cut through in the mix. On this bass, depending upon the location of the soundpost, the C/D notes on the G string get a HUGE increase in volume, along with more moderate success throughout the range. I have not noticed any new wolftones and the results seem similar for both arco and pitz. So far I have not weighed it on a scale to see how the density compares to spruce, but on that particular bass, I've tried about five different types of spruce and cedar soundposts. I don't have any plans to remove it and would encourage anyone curious or interested in the idea to give it a try. I don't have the specs for the wall thickness- as soon as I cut it down and glued the caps on, everything was sealed up. Give JB a call and they'll be able to give you the details.
As a whole, this type of thing was happening all day long for the entire week in several different rooms at the Oberlin workshops. If I had a little more time, I would have liked to have done a modal analysis of this one compared to the spruce soundpost. The reality was that I didn't need to- my ears told me to keep this one in for a while.....
Your results and mileage may vary from these.....Thanks again to everyone who helped put the Oberlin workshops together! Stay tuned for the next reports on the "Magic Probe" digital thickness guage....
j.
