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Double Bass Source for hardwood soundpost material?

lnichols

lnichols

Jul 22, 2007
131
8
Round Rock, Texas
#1
Anyone have a source for hardwood soundpost blanks, or dowels? I'd like to try either a maple or birch soundpost in my '51 American Standard. Everything I can find is spruce, which I understand is excellent for a carved bass. I'm guessing 19mm (3/4") would be right for this bass - as opposed to 5/8" or 1". I also assume they should be quartersawn. Or are all dowels quartersawn? Suggestions?

Thanks, Leni
 
#3
If you send me a pm I can probably get something custom made for you. I make exotic wood blanks for endpins ( bloodwood, orange Osage, wenge, rosewood, etc.) as well as custom spruce sound posts . They both are milled on the same machine. My sound posts are being very well received by some of today's top players.
 
#4
Home depot or your local hardware store usually sell hardwood dowels in a half dozen different materials. On the other hand, it only takes about five minutes to make a dowel with a simple handplane. If you've got enough skills and desire to install a new post, you can make you own. If not, John (360 guy) does a great job.

As long as you are experimenting, don't forget to add a carbon fiber post to your list. I've tried about a dozen different types of wood and my current favorite on my carved bass is a thin walled oversized carbon fiber soundpost. Every time I switch back to the spruce one, it only lasts a few minutes and the carbon goes back in!

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com
 
#5
Inichols, I got your PM but was unable to respond via email but you asked about a maple or birch 3/4" sound post and here is my response:


I could make those but I think it would be quicker and cheaper just to buy those particular woods at a decent lumber/ woodworking shop since they are common.

I would point you to McFeely's or Woodcraft off the top of my head.

I work mostly in the exotic woods that you can't find at these places.

Thanks for the pm. Sorry the email response didn't go back to you directly.
 
#6
Thanks, 360guy. I'll try that. I don't think I'm looking for something terribly exotic. This is just for an old American Standard bass. ...and maybe for an older Kay bass. Both laminate basses.

Leni



360guy said:
Inichols, I got your PM but was unable to respond via email but you asked about a maple or birch 3/4" sound post and here is my response:


I could make those but I think it would be quicker and cheaper just to buy those particular woods at a decent lumber/ woodworking shop since they are common.

I would point you to McFeely's or Woodcraft off the top of my head.

I work mostly in the exotic woods that you can't find at these places.

Thanks for the pm. Sorry the email response didn't go back to you directly.
Click to expand...
 
#10
For what its worth, *I* think any difference in sound due to sound post material is so slight as to be a waste of time chasing after ... unless you are a very OCD type person with heaps of time to spare and can hear the difference between a mosquito fart and a spit bubble popping at 100 paces.

There are other adjustments that have a far more significant effect.

But if you really want to play, grab a chair leg or any bit of hardwood from the side of the road, cut it into an 3/4" square stick, trim it to about a foot length and plane the corners off. then plane the smaller corners off until it is round in section. There's nothing magic about the shape of a soundpost. Its just a stick, happens to be round and smooth cos its easier to make, and usually happens to be pine or spruce because its easier to stick a setter blade into. IMHO! And guess why the grain in a soundpost runs perpendicular to the grain in the top???
 
#12
You probably don't believe it Santa Claus either
Matthew Tucker said:
For what its worth, *I* think any difference in sound due to sound post material is so slight as to be a waste of time chasing after ... unless you are a very OCD type person with heaps of time to spare and can hear the difference between a mosquito fart and a spit bubble popping at 100 paces.

There are other adjustments that have a far more significant effect.

But if you really want to play, grab a chair leg or any bit of hardwood from the side of the road, cut it into an 3/4" square stick, trim it to about a foot length and plane the corners off. the plane the smaller corners off until it is round in section. There's nothing magic about the shape of a soundpost. Its just a stick, happens to be round and smooth cos its easier to make, and usually happens to be pine or spruce because its easier to stick a setter blade into. IMHO! And guess why the grain in a soundpost runs perpendicular to the grain in the top???
Click to expand...
 
#14
When I restored my Kay from pieces in ca. 1982, the last thing to figure out was the sound post. A book entitled "Violin and Cello" was the only reference we could find in the public library system, and it provided pretty minimal information. We found a spruce (or something) board that was probably as old as the house, and cut it down to square stock. To figure out the angles, we measured with a protractor on the outside of the bass (plywood, constant thickness), and set up compound cuts on my dad's radial arm saw. On the second or third try, we had a post that fit without any need for persuasion, and looked like there were no gaps upon inspection with a mirror. We left it square with slightly rounded edges for aesthetics. Even the thickness was a mystery -- we simply scaled it up from my cello soundpost.

Don't try this at home. It was purely an amateur repair. Just an amusing anecdote.
 
#15
Simply, when you put a setter blade into a sound post, it goes in one way easily, that's with the grain. (Unless you really want to make life difficult, then you try to insert the setter blade into a hardwood post, or into spruce, across the grain) And when you insert it into position through the FF, unless you are holding it really really weird, the grain will just end up more or less perpendicular to the top grain. There may be serendipitous side effects of this arrangement, but they're not the reason its done this way.

I believe the same goes for "back face of the bridge must be perpendicular to the top". When you trim the feet on a bandsaw, you put the bridge-blank flat on the table and end up with a right-angle from one face, usually the back. And unless you want to spend three times as long fitting the feet, that's the way it ends up.

There are all sorts of ways to rationalise why things are done a certain way but usually the simplest reason is the best.
 

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