The Aleph - A Call for Opinions

[reverendrally]

Ok, cool. Look, check this status out. It's their mega-light streamline bass. Look at the aesthetic. I'm not saying you're wrong or whatever, but look at the flow of the curves and the like.



I'd also shrink those soundholes if you want to keep them. In fact, you're upper bout will need some work if you want to keep it like that.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

I hope I did not come off as defensive... The 32" scale comment was mostly for clarification, and I do want opinions. What mods to the upper bout would you suggest if I kept the slimmer of the designs? Here's a modified Aleph 5 with a slightly wider body - thoughts?

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

OK....impatience got the best of me. I posted sooner than I should have...after a bit of tweaking I came up with the below. It looks really clean without the sound holes.

 

[Brett Zeppelin]

OK....impatience got the best of me. I posted sooner than I should have...after a bit of tweaking I came up with the below. It looks really clean without the sound holes.

Looks like no sound holes is the way to go. I like the concept of the sound holes with which you were messing around, but to my eyes they never jived with this body shape.

One thing I was going to suggest with the sounds holes before I landed on this last post of yours is maybe — if you were still set on playing around with sound hole options, that is — you could try diamond-shaped holes with very rounded corners. Basically you would be mimicking the upper horn shape.

I could see the body being a little wider, like back how it was in the beginning of the thread, but with this neck width.

Either way, I like it how it is right now and it's cool to see a design in progress and evolving.

 

[reverendrally]

Michael you're doing some great work here. I reckon it's all in degrees now. This last one is the best one. I still think the upper bout could do with a little more work... to my eye it is the relationship between the waistline curve on the treble and bass sides of the instrument that's the clincher.

BTW, a few small soundholes will be the trick I reckon. Less is more.

...and no, you weren't being defensive, I was just being careful.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Thanks guys! For me the point of this thread is to illicit as much feedback as I can get, and trying the suggestions out is a fairly quick exercise. The sound holes were cool and novel at first, but they have lost much of their appeal over time. Perhaps some designs with but a few....less is more indeed.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Changes in degrees....here's the latest. I still cannot come up with a head stock that I like.

 

[coughingskunk]

I vote for wider hips

but I guess that's just how I like my ladies...

 

[emjazz]

As a player I would never want a bass to be that narrow. It won't sit high enough on your lap while playing sitting down, and it won't have enough width on the other side for your arm to rest.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

As a player I would never want a bass to be that narrow. It won't sit high enough on your lap while playing sitting down, and it won't have enough width on the other side for your arm to rest.

I would have thought that myself before playing my first pine piano pin tuner prototype, and although the lines do not match exactly I expect that it will be a similar playing experience. Here's both of them superimposed on top of each other with the scale and size correct for comparison purposes.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Back view added - shown here with a walnut body and neck, and a hickory fingerboard.

 

[reverendrally]

Back view added - shown here with a walnut body and neck, and a hickory fingerboard.

Mmmmm, hickory... droooll.... oh that's right, it's not a BBQ.

Seriously though, it's looking really nice.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Mmmmm, hickory... droooll.... oh that's right, it's not a BBQ.

Seriously though, it's looking really nice.

Thanks! There are a few niggly bits that need some small tweaks, but I am pretty happy with it. Now I just need to build it...anyone have some extra walnut and hickory they would like to donate?

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

Here's a wireframe drawing destined to be used for a full sized "template" printout. I will be in the woodshed working on the Sin Cabeza Cinco build....I might have to glue up a neck blank for this at the same time - I think I have just enough oak to make a neck and fingerboard.

 

[reverendrally]

If I can make another suggestion.... don't use a Zero Fret. A metal fret there will introduce some very weird open string tones you don't want on a fretless bass. Have a zero 'nut'. Basically, you build a nut and file it all the way down to the same level as the fingerboard. That way you get 'mwah' at the nut as well as everywhere else.

 

[JustForSport]

I vote for wider hips

I like just a little wider hips- better for forearm location, and treble side to balance the shape.

It won't sit high enough on your lap while playing sitting down

Maybe my arms are relatively longer than others, but strap length never is close enough sitting vs standing. I like the narrower waist (did the same thing on the last shape I'm working on) to better keep the same distance from shoulder to strings whether standing or sitting. I also like the longer leg cutout vs the sharper/smaller one as in sitting position, it lets the bass be moved forward and back a bit for playing the low end, or the higher range- shorter armed players may like this more as well.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

If I can make another suggestion.... don't use a Zero Fret. A metal fret there will introduce some very weird open string tones you don't want on a fretless bass. Have a zero 'nut'. Basically, you build a nut and file it all the way down to the same level as the fingerboard. That way you get 'mwah' at the nut as well as everywhere else.

I made a wooden nut thing on the initial prototype, and a zero fret for the Lady 5Jane. I don't find the zero fret to negatively affect the sound at all actually. Each to his (or her) own.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

I needed an excuse to use up the last of the oak floor boards I have on hand, so I decided to go ahead and make a prototype neck-through Aleph 5. I only have enough oak to make a neck and fingerboard, but I have plenty of pine and Douglas Fir for the body wings. Here is the start of the neck blank fashioned from strips of oak.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

I am not able to fire up the power tools tonight, so instead I glued the next layer onto the body blank. This blank will be a sandwich of two 1/4" flatsawn oak boards on either side of the laminated quartersawn blank. A 1/2" steel tube will be used for neck reinforcement.

 

[JustForSport]

Too bad that table (it's maple?) isn't about 6" longer