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Double Bass New soundposts....

james condino

james condino

Spruce dork
Commercial User
Sep 30, 2007
5,443
13,478
asheville, nc
www.condino.com
#1
I make soundposts from about ten different materials- multiple different spruces, hardwoods, carbon fiber, titanium, composites of multiple materials, almost anything I get asked for. The deciding factor in other people's requests seem to have little to do with sound and mostly depend upon how much time they spend on the world wide waste of time.

Even though I have an incredible giant Oliver patternmaker's lathe built in late 1929 that weighs as much as my first car, I always prefer to slow down for a few minutes and cut them by hand for my personal instruments. A well aged section of spruce, a small workspace with a "stop", and a simple handplane with a fresh edge on the blade....

In our world surrounded by computer driven perfection and cnc'd everything, I usually leave the toolmarks in place to show that an actual human made it.

Condino soundpost carving.JPG
 
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#5
james condino said:
I make soundposts from about ten different materials- multiple different spruces, hardwoods, carbon fiber, titanium, composites of multiple materials, almost anything I get asked for. The deciding factor in other people's requests seem to have little to do with sound and mostly depend upon how much time they spend on the world wide waste of time.

Even though I have an incredible giant Oliver patternmaker's lathe built in late 1929 that weighs as much as my first car, I always prefer to slow down for a few minutes and cut them by hand for my personal instruments. A well aged section of spruce, a small workspace with a "stop", and a simple handplane with a fresh edge on the blade....

In our world surrounded by computer driven perfection and cnc'd everything, I usually leave the toolmarks in place to show that an actual human made it.
Click to expand...

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!)
 
#6
Nope. No need from where I sit. Trapdoors allow me infinite, very precise soundpost fitting. Having used them for about a dozen years, the exotic soundpost materials do offer multiple possibilities, but I generally find that a well fit post is much more important than a fancy material. FWIW, even with all of the exotic options here, I generally use a spruce on on my personal basses.

Nuthin' "relic'd" about that workbench; it is the real deal. It follows me very time I do a sunburst or other finish work. Anyone who has come by for a shop visit notices that half of the things in the shop have interesting colors; anything leftover in the spray gun gets blasted on the jigs and workbenches & tools and such....

DSCN0557.JPG
 
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#10
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.
 
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#11
james condino said:
Nope. No need from where I sit. Trapdoors allow me infinite, very precise soundpost fitting. Having used them for about a dozen years, the exotic soundpost materials do offer multiple possibilities, but I generally find that a well fit post is much more important than a fancy material. FWIW, even with all of the exotic options here, I generally use a spruce on on my personal basses.

Nuthin' "relic'd" about that workbench; it is the real deal. It follows me very time I do a sunburst or other finish work. Anyone who has come by for a shop visit notices that half of the things in the shop have interesting colors; anything leftover in the spray gun gets blasted on the jigs and workbenches & tools and such....

View attachment 4689967
Click to expand...
That's a beautiful sunburst.
 
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#12
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.
 
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#15
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.
 
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#17
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?
 

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