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Double Bass Homebuilt EUB build thread

Tuners arrived! They look great. I have almost everything except the under saddle pickups, and they should arrive this week.

It's supposed to be -14F this weekend, and below freezing the rest of the week so no progress on carving the bass.

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So I am pondering what to do for inlays or fret markings.

I am thinking that brass might look fantastic next to the purpleheart. But I am also considering black or white plastic dots. I am also debating abalone dot inlays on the front but I am concerned about how thin the inlays are and the tight radius of the fingerboard.

Thoughts?
 
DB fingerboard are typically two octaves and a fourth/fifth, solo instruments can go up to two octaves and a minor seventh.
Just to keep in mind for the next one.

At just under 27" long, the fingerboard will go to the 27th fret for the 34" scale. so I get a few notes above the 2nd octave. ;) at this scale length, the frets get almost impossibly small (26th ->| |<- 27th =<.5")

The big thing was keeping about 8" between the fingerboard and the bridge for me to bow on.
 
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Since the current instrument is more of Cello size, a bit less than eight inches would have done for bowing (about five to six I would say).
For a DB size scale eight inches would be OK, but even six to seven should be possible.
For the EUB I sometimes use a lighter violone bow with less hair than a DB bow. Depends a bit on the stiffness of the strings. Might also be a good idea for your current instrument. You sometimes find them relatively cheap on eBay (coming from China). Usually not great bows, but god enough for you I think. Good bows cost an arm and a leg (or two).
The best bang for the buck I found is the Finale bow from String Emporium. But that might be too much money to experiment.
 
Since the current instrument is more of Cello size, a bit less than eight inches would have done for bowing (about five to six I would say).
For a DB size scale eight inches would be OK, but even six to seven should be possible.
For the EUB I sometimes use a lighter violone bow with less hair than a DB bow. Depends a bit on the stiffness of the strings. Might also be a good idea for your current instrument. You sometimes find them relatively cheap on eBay (coming from China). Usually not great bows, but god enough for you I think. Good bows cost an arm and a leg (or two).
The best bang for the buck I found is the Finale bow from String Emporium. But that might be too much money to experiment.

I was looking at this bow: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010MQMAVI/?ref=idea_lv_dp_ov_d
and this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BRACFS2/?ref=idea_lv_dp_ov_d

but I can check out string emporium, thanks for the recommend!
 
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The Finale bow that I recommended is a bass bow, not a cello bow, just for clarification. I have a German grip (only available for DB and violone), but in the USA and Latin American the French grip (like a Cello and the ones you referred to) is much more common.

But in the end it’s the player who decides what works better for him. So starting with cheaper bows might be a good idea.

Carbon fiber bows are a bit sterile in sound compared to a wooden bow, but several bows from a certain model share the same characteristics, so it makes sense to check the user comments to a certain CF bow. Wooden bows are more sensitive to breakage (falling down on the tip), can differ a lot in characteristics and even the cheap ones often sound warmer.

OTOH, cheap bows are made in China, are often tip heavy or heavier in total than an average good bow and in general have less good hair than what a bow maker would accept for a rehair (once a year if you play or not or you notice high hair breaking and less good grip). So the grip most often gets better after a rehair, but the cost for it is often close to the cost of a cheap bow.

Just for some background info.

The Finale bow and my Chinese Yitamusic Snakewood bow (a bit heavier due to the Snakewood) works well for me, but my bowing skills are rather limited.

I have an ironwood/IPE bow from Vingo, but It not happy with the characteristics of it. Too soft for my taste. Wouldn’t use it for marches or tango.
 
My initial thought was to take the finished instrument down to a music store that sells band instruments and see if they would let me try several to get an idea of what fits the instrument and my hands, which are surprisingly small but have big sausage fingers.

I play guitar a lot (although I play more bass now) and people would tell me they could never play like me because of their hands, and invariably they could wrap the tips of their fingers around the ends of my fingers... I'd wink and tell them that hand size wasn't their problem... :D
 
Trying bows is a good idea, but don’t forget to get some (bass) rosin with you. A medium one like Kolstein All-Weather, Nymans/Carlssons for the summer, a soft one like Kolstein a soft or Pops for the winter. Cello rosin is (in general) harder than bass rosin!

A bow without rosin only glided over the strings without any noticeable sound.
And the surface of new rosin is often like polished. In that case heat the surface with a lighter a bit until the bow hair grips the rosin with the bow strokes. Once the surface is rough, you don’t need the lighter for that cake of rosin any more.
 
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I'm always amazed at how quickly wood can dissappear with a chisel and a hammer. Not done yet by any means, but I feel like this was one of the places where I risked catastrophic failure.

Tomorrow I can use the spindle sander to clean up most of the edges, and get it pretty close. It's also time to drill the holes for the tuners and then we can cut the headstock down to shape.

Then comes the most daunting task of carving the scroll...

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100th post. Wow. I hope you all are enjoying the ride. I am really happy with the progress on this build so far. I know it's been sporadic, but I am optimistic that I can complete this by summer.

I feel like I have overcome the first big obstacle of the build (and the one I was most concerned about, honestly.)

Next up, fingerboard, neck, and then I get to dig into this hollow body/ neck through monstrosity and figure that all out.

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