Show your Ramps!

[Amateur King]

Here is mine
View attachment 2250552

This is my first post on TB, so Hi. I REALLY like this bass! Lots of stuff going on there. I especially like the bottle opener. I'm never without one.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

I made a few last month. I have ramps on almost all my basses. I will be making another one soon.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

This is my first post on TB, so Hi. I REALLY like this bass! Lots of stuff going on there. I especially like the bottle opener. I'm never without one.

Welcome to TB.

 

[Amateur King]

Thanks, glad to be here.

 

[Kubicki440]

My homemade ramp.

 

[barrybass33]

 

[Yames]

There! I’ve reactivated this very helpful old thread!

I came up with a simple ramp unlike any others shown here so far. I’m very happy with it and I thought others may find this idea useful.

It consists of a single flat piece of thin plexiglass sitting on top of two flat-top soapbar pickups, attached with the pickup mounting screws.

After watching Youtube videos of Matt Garrison and others, I decided that adding a ramp to my Conklin USA Sidewinder 7 string was worth a try.

My initial “proof of concept” consisted of two ramps, a radiused one between the fingerboard and the neck pickup and a second flat-top ramp between the neck and bridge pickup. I made these from lightweight plastic panel 1/2” thick (used for building boats) with a thin black plastic cover glued on top for cosmetics and to reduce wear. I shaped the radiused ramp by sanding it.

These worked really well and sold me on ramps; I am able to play faster and with more precision. My next step was going to be reproducing these ramps in solid clear plexiglass because I didn’t want to hide the top of the bass (a cool purpleheart/maple thru-neck laminate).

After pondering cutting, sanding and polishing solid blocks of plexiglass, I reconsidered radiused ramps. Originally, the idea for a ramp came from picking over the flat-top Bartolini pickups, and I wanted to expand that flat area with ramps.

On this thread, some maintain that ramps are useless unless they are radiused. For me, it’s the difference between theory and practice. Yes, radiused ramps should feel more consistent under the strings. This Conklin bass has a very flat fingerboard with a radius of 80 inches(?). If anything, I noticed the step between the flat Bart pup and the radiused ramp more than the radius itself.

In a YouTube video, Matt Garrison himself mentions that the ramp on his bass is flat. So yeah, I’ll start with flat and see how I like it.

A flat ramp opens up some possibilities. A single 5” x 6” sheet of thin (0.1”) plexiglass held on top of the flat-top Barts by their own mounting screws has these advantages:

- It’s reversible and doesn’t involve any new screw holes or adhesives

- It’s easily adjustable by tweaking pickup height

- It’s very light weight (this is a solid maple bass, very well balanced, but not light)

- It’s pretty hard to tell it’s there unless it catches reflected light.

I’m very happy with this unusual ramp so far. A theoretical downside is signal loss from lowering the pickups 0.1” to accommodate the ramp, but I haven’t noticed this. Also, since the ramp isn't solid and there's air underneath it, the "clacking" noise of fingers hitting it is slightly louder than with the earlier solid ramps. Not noticeable when playing through an amp.

There are plenty of basses out there with flat-top soapbars, so I’m sharing this in case someone finds the idea useful.
Next, I may try to make a similar ramp for the radiused pickups on my Kiesel bass by warping thin plexiglass with heat.

The Pics!

 

[Barticus]

There! I’ve reactivated this very helpful old thread!

I came up with a simple ramp unlike any others shown here so far. I’m very happy with it and I thought others may find this idea useful.

It consists of a single flat piece of thin plexiglass sitting on top of two flat-top soapbar pickups, attached with the pickup mounting screws.

After watching Youtube videos of Matt Garrison and others, I decided that adding a ramp to my Conklin USA Sidewinder 7 string was worth a try.

My initial “proof of concept” consisted of two ramps, a radiused one between the fingerboard and the neck pickup and a second flat-top ramp between the neck and bridge pickup. I made these from lightweight plastic panel 1/2” thick (used for building boats) with a thin black plastic cover glued on top for cosmetics and to reduce wear. I shaped the radiused ramp by sanding it.

These worked really well and sold me on ramps; I am able to play faster and with more precision. My next step was going to be reproducing these ramps in solid clear plexiglass because I didn’t want to hide the top of the bass (a cool purpleheart/maple thru-neck laminate).

After pondering cutting, sanding and polishing solid blocks of plexiglass, I reconsidered radiused ramps. Originally, the idea for a ramp came from picking over the flat-top Bartolini pickups, and I wanted to expand that flat area with ramps.

On this thread, some maintain that ramps are useless unless they are radiused. For me, it’s the difference between theory and practice. Yes, radiused ramps should feel more consistent under the strings. This Conklin bass has a very flat fingerboard with a radius of 80 inches(?). If anything, I noticed the step between the flat Bart pup and the radiused ramp more than the radius itself.

In a YouTube video, Matt Garrison himself mentions that the ramp on his bass is flat. So yeah, I’ll start with flat and see how I like it.

A flat ramp opens up some possibilities. A single 5” x 6” sheet of thin (0.1”) plexiglass held on top of the flat-top Barts by their own mounting screws has these advantages:

- It’s reversible and doesn’t involve any new screw holes or adhesives

- It’s easily adjustable by tweaking pickup height

- It’s very light weight (this is a solid maple bass, very well balanced, but not light)

- It’s pretty hard to tell it’s there unless it catches reflected light.

I’m very happy with this unusual ramp so far. A theoretical downside is signal loss from lowering the pickups 0.1” to accommodate the ramp, but I haven’t noticed this. Also, since the ramp isn't solid and there's air underneath it, the "clacking" noise of fingers hitting it is slightly louder than with the earlier solid ramps. Not noticeable when playing through an amp.

There are plenty of basses out there with flat-top soapbars, so I’m sharing this in case someone finds the idea useful.
Next, I may try to make a similar ramp for the radiused pickups on my Kiesel bass by warping thin plexiglass with heat.

The Pics!

I just came searching for a thread on ramps to see what people are doing, and like you, I found this old one.

Your approach is clever and may work to some degree, but the challenge from my perspective, is really following the fretboard radius and not staying flat like the pickups are, because your fingers touch the strings not the flat pickups.

I’ve done this with carved wood ramps that follow the radius many times and using magnets to adhere to the pickup screws so it is totally reversible (if that’s important). Even on the ones that I laser cut with flat material and then assemble in layers I still sand the top of the ramp to a radius to try to follow the string arc as well as I can.

Another idea I’ve had, but have not implemented it yet, is the ramp should really follow the string taper as well as the fretboard radius.



Laser Cut examples



I’m experimenting with 3D printing now with just scrap PLA for now, I have some carbon fiber and wood filament that I’ll eventually move up to. Experimentation with 3D printing looks very promising so far

Fortunately it’s the same design files whether I route in the CNC or 3D print them.

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Those are so cool