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Double Bass Just finished building a double bass

#28
gbaker said:
George, nice work. With the finish you used it is hard to see the 1.5" vertical top joints.
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That's true, although it wasn't my intention to hide those - it just worked out that way. When I put the glaze coat on, I kinda thought it was ugly, but went ahead with it anyway - turned out OK. It still looks better then some of the finishes on these folk bases that I see.

Finishing is not my favorite part, but I like Formby's now. I always see it in Lowes, but never used it until now.

George
 
#34
Here is a shot of the top, with the bass bar and a pre-emptive soundpost patch:

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Does that bass bar look kinda small? I've seen some big bars, but I just kind of played it by ear, taking into consideration lower string tension from the guts, etc.

By the way, I saw a question raised here some time ago about weighing the plates. The completed plate weighs 4.4 lbs, if that means anything.

George
 
#36
Matthew Tucker said:
As far as I can see, that's a heavy plate and a fairly light bass bar.

4.4 lbs is about as much as a bog standard plywood top weighs; the spruce and cedar tops are usually more like 3-3.5 lbs.

What graduations did you use? The edge on that plate looks pretty hefty.
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Come to think of it, it actually might be lighter - I did some final scraping after the patch was glued in, and I know for a fact that I weighed the plate BEFORE the patch.

I ended up taking more wood off from around the edges before gluing the top, and then I scraped the outside even more after I strung it up unfinished. It opened up a bit.

I started of from 6-12mm (recurve to center). I think the edges ended up being more like 5mm. At a certain point, I went by feel - flexing. tapping etc. But since this was my first, I really had nothing specific to go by, so it's entirely possible (probable) that the graduations are not optimal. When I became too concerned about fragility, I stopped:)

The bass is pretty loud compared to other basses I've messed around with (these were mostly transylvanian folk bases with gut strings) - mostly plywood, and 2 carved. This one is louder than most of the others, and that's all I care about:)

I am not a bass player, by the way. Viola is my main instrument. But there is just something about a bass that I like, so I started playing.

For what it's worth, the A string absolutely thunders when I bow - it is somewhat louder than the other 2 strings.

But now you got me thinking if the whole thing could be even louder...

George
 
#38
Paul Warburton said:
Got three old quarter-plate hat pegs today from my guy ... I'll send them out.
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Happiness is three old hatpegs :D

George its normal that perhaps your first top is a bit heavy, but i'm guessing your hunch is probably about right, if it's loud and doesn't collapse, you're a winner!
 
#39
Matthew Tucker said:
Happiness is three old hatpegs :D

George its normal that perhaps your first top is a bit heavy, but i'm guessing your hunch is probably about right, if it's loud and doesn't collapse, you're a winner!
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Well the top can always come off and be thinned down more, but I'm not about to do that yet - not till I do a comparison to another bass and get ticked off if mine is quieter:)

George
 

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