New soundposts....

Love your "relic'd" workbench!
That must have cost a pretty penny.
Thx., Mr. Dork!

 

This one is made from a $.25 yard sale find. A decommissioned, butane candle torch. Removed the flame throwing mechanism and bought a vacuum tube delete rubber cap from the auto supply store for $.69.

 

Lol! I reckon I should read a little closer!

 

James, with your specialties including access panels and aeronautic plastics, have you ever thought about making an adjustable-length CF sound post? (Not that a wooden adjustable-length sound post wouldn't also be cool!)

 

The Soul

 

But there some more.. not only Anima Nova, but for example the "Klangzauberstab" by Diastrad.. The Hamberger Soundpost was another variation, but I'm not sure, whether they are still being built...

 

Nice. I had just learned about the Anima yesterday reading a classified ad here that mentioned it.

 

The Anima Nova has the finest thread, so could be adjusted best, but it is very expensive. The Klangzauberstab is a lot cheaper, the Hamberger in between as far as I can remember.

There was a lot of issues between the developers a while ago regarding patents.
I found none of them was completely right, mostly because there have been patents for adjustable soundposts much earlier.

For me the Anima Nova is for a professional player with an expensive instrument. The other two for the middle, maybe a bit lower price range of an instrument. That way all of them can have their customers.

The Klangzauberstab could be from different material, carbon fiber, wood, etc.
There are feet, one fixed, one adjustable, that are put on the post.

The only thing I really disliked was the aggressive and wrong advertising of Diastrad. But they are closest to me (25 km) and I visited them once for some information about it.

 

That's a beautiful sunburst.

 

I’ve not tried the expensive, adjustable posts. Carved basses get a well fitted spruce post. Might use new wood or some that were made decades ago. That, and the tone I get from dropping them on the floor makes an audible difference, but fit and position are paramount.
Plywood basses usually get maple or oak. Lately, I prefer a 3/4” oak dowel.

 

I don’t think it is wise to keep dropping your basses on the floor, even if they ARE plywood…

 

That’s the best thing for many of them. The best they are ever going to sound.

 

It is very reasonable and very possible to make a simple adjustable sound post in your garage, but without an access port, the big benefit of on-the-fly setting experimentation is lost. Realistically I really doubt most owners of fine, expensive DBs are going to want to add an access port just so they can experiment with an adjustable sound post.

I'm lucky enough to have an access port on a DB that is both fun and ok to experiment with, so I made a custom, adjustable length sound post. I've learned that on my DB, the way it is setup now, it has noticeably more volume and better tone balance with a longer (tighter) sound post. Maybe that's because I'm using low tension strings, where the tighter sound post compensates for them. Whatever it is, I'm glad to have things tighter in there; the change was pretty dramatic.

 

You missed an opportunity to have a torch bass though

 

I’d love to take my basses to mr james and have him adjust the soundposts to the perfect position and fit, but by the time they arrived back home I’m confidant that they would no longer be in that position. Please imagine a period somewhere around the middle of that sentence. ^

So i must learn to do it. Are there some general rules about how a soundpost fits and postions best in a plywood vs a carved bass?

 

Properly fitted soundposts should not move with the bass under tension.