It took most of two years of experimentation, but my UG project is finished. A few TBers have kindly asked to see and hear the result.
It's a Lone Star Mariachi guitarrón strung with mostly short-scale base guitar GHS Precision Flatwounds tuned in fourths: E1-A1-D2-G2-C3-F3. The strings are all "tuned up" tension-wise a fourth above what the manufacturer intended. For example, my A1 string is a short-scale that was manufactured to be an E1 string on a solid-body bass guitar. The other strings are all tuned-up the same way. I did this because at the time I was having trouble with buzzing, so I tensioned everything up to avoid it. But since then, I've raised the bridge height, and that eliminated all my buzzing problems. So, it's possible that I could get away with less string tension now. Haven't experimented yet.
It now has a new, full-octave, fretless fingerboard, a brass bridge, and a long endpin to allow it to be played sitting down, cello-style, with DB Simandl-type finger positions, but pizz only, except that the E1 and F3 strings can be bowed for a final ballad note. The tail of the instrument has been reinforced with about a quarter-inch of hardwood laminations so as to withstand the stress of the endpin, and, of course, there is a new nut. The endpin rest is a stainless steel cappuccino cup tethered to the rear horizontal bar of my chair. The very protective and handy instrument stand was a Rubbermaid Roughneck Model 2979 trash bin, which just happens to fit my guitarrón like a glove.
The serious modifications (fingerboard, nut, tail reinforcement) were done by luthier Alex Watson of watsonguitars.com. I did the easier stuff.
I recently amplified it with a K&K Pure Bass for 5-String Acoustic Bass pickup and a K&K Pure XLR preamp. Since I'm a Mac person, I use Audiolobe for a slow-downer and pitch-changer, with an Acoustic AB50 practice combo and Mogami audio cables for practice with play-along recordings.
Five photos and some very short sound clips follow:
It's a Lone Star Mariachi guitarrón strung with mostly short-scale base guitar GHS Precision Flatwounds tuned in fourths: E1-A1-D2-G2-C3-F3. The strings are all "tuned up" tension-wise a fourth above what the manufacturer intended. For example, my A1 string is a short-scale that was manufactured to be an E1 string on a solid-body bass guitar. The other strings are all tuned-up the same way. I did this because at the time I was having trouble with buzzing, so I tensioned everything up to avoid it. But since then, I've raised the bridge height, and that eliminated all my buzzing problems. So, it's possible that I could get away with less string tension now. Haven't experimented yet.
It now has a new, full-octave, fretless fingerboard, a brass bridge, and a long endpin to allow it to be played sitting down, cello-style, with DB Simandl-type finger positions, but pizz only, except that the E1 and F3 strings can be bowed for a final ballad note. The tail of the instrument has been reinforced with about a quarter-inch of hardwood laminations so as to withstand the stress of the endpin, and, of course, there is a new nut. The endpin rest is a stainless steel cappuccino cup tethered to the rear horizontal bar of my chair. The very protective and handy instrument stand was a Rubbermaid Roughneck Model 2979 trash bin, which just happens to fit my guitarrón like a glove.
The serious modifications (fingerboard, nut, tail reinforcement) were done by luthier Alex Watson of watsonguitars.com. I did the easier stuff.
I recently amplified it with a K&K Pure Bass for 5-String Acoustic Bass pickup and a K&K Pure XLR preamp. Since I'm a Mac person, I use Audiolobe for a slow-downer and pitch-changer, with an Acoustic AB50 practice combo and Mogami audio cables for practice with play-along recordings.
Five photos and some very short sound clips follow:
