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Double Bass Free DoubleBass Moulds

#23
it has all come from work, honestly i mean that, the basement and my apprenticeship are something iam very grateful for, two of the jazz basses were a gift from a teacher, the amp came with my guitar which was nice, the thunderbass was from 3 years of saving up for something( wasnt sure what that something was untill I saw it) and i restore rics, which puts me in a position to buy busted ones quite cheap and restore and sell for double or triple, giving me the money needed to fund all of my little projects, its hard to understand if youve never been in my position, but life is just perfect in every way, things can only get better, and if they dont, it isnt the end of the world or if misfortune comes my way, ill bounce back
 
#25
Hey Kev give the guy a break will ya

Here Jimmy, this old bass (think it may even be a prescott) has been in my attic for many years and I don't know what to do with it. i've never played it and the finish is REALLY crazed but it's fully carved. As you can see, it's ready for eating ... er ... shipping. If you can pay shipping I'll donate it.

536891955_a8d9590d13.jpg
 
#29
Looks like it sounds very rich, chocolately, with muddy overtones.

Come on, no way its a Kay. You can easily see it's been converted from a three stringer and those FFs DEFINITELY have the hallmark of a great American maker. This photo was taken a while ago; since then it has been rather aggressively cut down, although the restorer has been careful to match the barely-edible seven-layer purfling.
 
#32
Kevin Hsieh said:
possibly consider him for the moulds. wouldn't hurt right?
Click to expand...

As RCWilliams pointed out, outside moulds are huge and very heavy, and probably could hurt you if they fell on you!

An inside mould is smaller, lighter, not that hard to make, and is the best place to start.

Jimmy said he already had front and back carved and the sides bent, but had trouble designing a mould. This is where it all sounded fishy. You start with the mould and work from that. If he's already got sides bent and top carved a free outside mould from Bob is going to do diddly-squat for Jimmy's bass!

Jimmy, don't waste your money on shipping a heavy mould you probably won't use; buy Peter Chandlers book, choose the model you like (there are about 8 to choose from), get the plans, build a mould from plywood, spend your money on nice tools, and follow the instructions ... :hyper:
 
#34
bob can't send him the mold any way, I already have all of them, 2 bass 2 cello. I'll sendhim some pics of an inside mold. and some suggestions on how to proceed, once he's gotten somewhere, he can post his results.

there is an amazing ammout of talent floating arround in this part of the ether pond, and any aspiring bass maker would do well not to agrivate the sources of wisdom. I'm a newbee in this biz, I've only beeen at it for 15 years, perhaps long enough to know how little I know.
 
#36
Matthew Tucker said:
Jimmy, don't waste your money on shipping a heavy mould you probably won't use; buy Peter Chandlers book, choose the model you like (there are about 8 to choose from), get the plans, build a mould from plywood, spend your money on nice tools, and follow the instructions ... :hyper:
Click to expand...
An excellent suggestion Matthew. While it is not a great book, the plans are excellent.

If Jimmy has in fact carved a top and back without having a plan to go by, he may be better off scrapping what he says he has done and starting over. The usual way to do it is to draw or copy full size plans and then (1) make the mould, (2) carve and attach the 6 blocks to the mould, (3) cut and bend the ribs to match your mould and glue the individual ribs to the blocks on the mould. (4) Once this is done, you have to glue the (usually 2) pieces of the top and back and back together with hide glue. Most of us use long bar clamps but it can be done without clamps if you have a perfect joint. Once the top is together, the outline of the top is penciled on the flat side of the top wood by placing the mould on top of the top wood and tracing the outline using a washer or some other spacer around the outside edge. This gives you the overhang. You cut the top outline cutting on the outside of the line you drew with the pencil and washer. (The back is cut and carved basically the same way, but you have to make sure you have more than enough wood for the button.) Now you think about carving and rough graduating the top. Once this is done, the bass bar has to be fitted and glued into the top with hide glue. The last thing you do to the top is trim the bass bar, cut the ff holes and final graduation. Once the top is completed, it can be glued to the ribs while they are still attached to the mould OR the corpus can be removed from the mould and then glued to the top. Finally, with the mould removed, the back can be glued to the corpus. Then... well you get the idea. There are variations used by different makers, but this is basically the way it is done. You have to have both full scale plans and a mental plan. There are things that have to be done in a certain order to have any chance for success. Read everything you can get you hands on. The Peter Chandler book and the Harry Wake book are specific to bass making, but there are a lot of good violin & cello making books available in most public libraries. This is a good place to start. Finding a good violin family (not guitar) maker willing to help you may not be easy since they are constantly getting requests from luthier wannabees. However, if you do your homework before hand and understand the language, the luthier will be more likely to talk to you.
 
#37
wow, thanks to everyone, especially kev for clearing everything up, I modled my top and back from a kay, and thought i could just bend my sides to the angles, easier said then done, i think ill keep them as they cost me a little bit of cash, maybe i can use them for repair, and ill get the book and start working, i have also recently discoverd a wonderful smell, hide glue haha, where do you guys get your wood from, theres a exotic wood shop mildly close to my house but i dont think its the proper wood for the job, i already have all my tools, a question about carving, when i started i realized how difficult it is to make it symetrical, any tricks to it?
 
#38
and im working with bob riccardi jr by the way, unfortunatley he doesnt have time to build basses but for basic assembly he helps out, and bob i re read my posts and could understnd why you dont believe me and appologize for some harsh words, you truely know what your talking about
 
#39
OK Jimmy, if you have a top and back already carved, trace the outlines onto a piece of 15mm plywood, measure about 10mm (to be safe) INSIDE the line and cut along that. Then make your mould from these two bits of plywood. You have to be ingenious and Chandlers book is light-on in this dept but you can see how its done, and/or look at my website. You have to get the top and back of the mould the right distance apart, fix your blocks to it ans away you go just like Bob said. Fit the ribs to the mould and the top and back should fit on nicely with a bit of overhang to trim. That way you can use your top and back. Its been a lot of work, don't waste it.

(that way you can have your cake AND eat it ...)

To get things symmetrical you need to see things in the right light ... see how I did it.


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