Double Bass Scale Length on 4/4 Bass

[Barry Snow]

Thanks, did not know it had a thread, I will search for it.

 

[Eric Hochberg]

Barry, you need to make your reply directly under the quoted section when you hit the reply button.

 

[Barry Snow]

Barry, you need to make your reply directly under the quoted section when you hit the reply button.

Ok, Thanks, was not sure since it already had writing already in this block, maybe this is right.

 

[robobass]

Much better

 

[RCWilliams]

I have been looking around and trying to find any reasonable way to calculate percentage relationships to scale length, and fractional size instruments. I can find no consistent between body size and scale length. Instead it appears the best thing for me to do is see if there is some sort of listing of scale lengths that are mos often used, any help would be appreciated. thanks

 

[DoubleMIDI]

My rule of thumb:

115 cm: 5/4
110 cm: 4/4
107-108 cm: 7/8
105 cm: 3/4
100 cm: 1/2
95 cm: 1/4

but I’m not so sure towards the 1/4 and 1/2 size. They might be up to 5 cm shorter.
And as always: anything around 2.5 cm difference in length go to the same classification.

But it might not always be the case as the fractional size only defines the body of the bass, not including the neck (even though we and also string manufacturers often use it for the vibrating string length too).
So for D and Eb necks there might be a difference (up to 4 cm additionally for an Eb neck).

 

[Steven Ayres]

This is a page from the manual for music educators by the Music Educators National Conference, which still sets national curriculum standards as the National Association for Music Education.

Before anyone gets sideways, I'm not saying this is the be-all-end-all or more correct than what you think. But these numbers have carried authority for the music industry since the '30s, and any US maker interested in the student or school-fleet market attended to them.

 

[RCWilliams]

Thanks Double MIDI And Steven Ayres! I have been making finger board scoop gauges for quite a while now and I have been thinking about how to most appropriately revise and perhaps expand the sizes and since they will be most likely used by people setting up large numbers of student instruments this kind of information will be helpful in revising my sizes.