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Double Bass Homebuilt EUB build thread

#521
Videojunkie said:
I have no aspirations to be a master. I just want to "not be suck".
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Under your circumstances, and given your goals, this makes complete sense to me.

It reminds me of the beginning of the thread: you needed an instrument to fulfill your needs and that's what informed your choices. Along came EUB purists trying to talk you into 41" scale because that's what "real EUBs" have.

You know your goals and you know how to work towards them. A good teacher will understand that.
 
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#522
Replaced the piezo for the B string tonight. I believe the appropriate term is "thunderous". Deep resonant notes (that don't come through as much acoustically)...

I am noticing that there are a couple of harmonic overtones on the B and E strings. I'm not sure what to make of them... but it gives my snark tuner fits.
 
#524
Flamingo21 said:
Let's just hope it doesn't give your worship leader fits.
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That would be my (lack of) intonation...

The big takeaways were 1, I'm holding the bow all wrong. 2. There's not quite enough arc to the strings to really dig in with the bow.

I really hadn't appreciated that in the curvature of the fingerboard on a DB and how round they really are. I could probably take 3/16 off the 1/4" edges of the board, creating a new arc and it would be a lot closer. I have to think through that for a bit before I grab my planes and go to town on it...

Same on the neck profile. I have a much more C shape than an A shape. His basses were much more Gothic arch than rounded. Again, going to ponder on this before grabbing some tools and making wood shavings...

I was able to play with the string height on the bridge and get some additional separation to make bowing much easier in the short term.

Overall he had nothing but nice things to say about the instrument (other than the critiques above - which I was grateful for).
 
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#525
Here's a picture of the case in progress. I have black velvet to cover the ugly green foam.
20220527_082843.jpg
 
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#527
There are no afterlengths that can resonate on a BG bridge and the strings in the pegbox can o my resonate if the nut is very short.

The problem with the bow is the fifth string. It is much easier with four.
The curvature must be rather high, on bridge and fingerboard, but not too high otherwise there is not enough room until the bow touches the bout. I don’t think this is something that could be realized with a BG bridge.
 
#530
DoubleMIDI said:
There are no afterlengths that can resonate on a BG bridge and the strings in the pegbox can o my resonate if the nut is very short.

The problem with the bow is the fifth string. It is much easier with four.
The curvature must be rather high, on bridge and fingerboard, but not too high otherwise there is not enough room until the bow touches the bout. I don’t think this is something that could be realized with a BG bridge.
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The cutaways on the sides, and the scalloping of the top gives me much more play than it probably looks in pictures. I can get a bow almost 45° from the B and G strings. I also have close to 3/4" between the lowest vertical positions of the B and G strings and the highest possible A string elevation.

I agree that had I made this a 4 string, most of this would be moot. But that low D and B are totally worth it through an Amp.... even more so than my BG.

I have to think through the geometry of re radiusing the fingerboard, as I will likely have to drop the B and G string bridges a few mm as the B string in particular is bottomed out as low as it can go (I wouldn't lower it any further anyway because it would vibrate against the fingerboard). I would also probably have to do the same for the E and D bridges to keep the arch in range.
 
#531
I play a 5-string DB and know what I‘m talking about. I have maxed out the curvature myself (even a bit too much, but my luthier corrected it when he changed the bridge leg pickup).
45 degrees seems to be too less, but I need to measure the angle on my instrument to give you a number.

In the US 5-string DBs are unpopular because of the limited bowing angle and longer E strings with an extension are used instead.

In the old times (around 1600) even 6-string (and 7-string) instruments existed, but they had different kind of strings and were played with a very light bow touch.
 
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#533
So, I'm still fighting with electronics. Very happy with the Richter Piezo preamp. I'd like to have some eq and volume controls as originally planned.

I'm considering ordering one of these with volume and 4 tone controls. I'd probably have to modify the 2nd large knob to match the others.

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#539
It's not just the bass that's hard to hear. After listening through my good headphones, I'd say that mix doesn't do any of the musicians a favour.


That aside, I think congratulations are in order. OP, you started with an idea of being able to play long notes during worship, and although you could draw ideas from many different instruments you had no direct example to use as a starting point. Yet you've made it all the way from that idea to a unique giggable bass. Well done!


As a long time string player, I can see you struggle with bowing at times. PM me if you want to talk about it.
 
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#540
Flamingo21 said:
It's not just the bass that's hard to hear. After listening through my good headphones, I'd say that mix doesn't do any of the musicians a favour.
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Part of the issue is that it's a volunteer sound guy at a medium sized church. He does a great job mixing the front of house mix, but the recording mix is a stored preset that is tweaked sometimes during sound checks, but since it's on a different 'layer' on the console often gets overlooked during the service.

It doesn't help that compared to my Spector, the EUB is about 70% as loud.
 
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