WBO 2023: The King In Yellow

[Mike Anderson]

Have you seen the yellow sign?

 

[Isaac_James]

Spoken like a fellow decapitation enthusiast.

"There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine."

-P.G. Wodehouse

 

[Max Bogosity]

Have you seen the yellow sign?

These guys have.

Obviously it drove them insane.

 

[micguy]

So long as this thing doesn't have the actual aluminum neck of a Duke on a hollow Dano body, I think you're probably OK. Those necks were heavy, and with a hollow body (Dano's had VERY light bodies), I think that recipe would be the one way you could make a headless bass with neck dive.

 

[micguy]

What a strange way to introduce a build.

But way more interesting than "I wanted a J neck on a P body...."

 

[Mike Anderson]

These guys have.

Obviously it drove them insane.

Argh!!!

 

[Max Bogosity]

Just fan them ever so slightly to parrot the splay of the string travel. It will look natural, complement the balance of the instrument, and shouldn't take up any significant real estate.

I did consider that but didn't like the way the non-parallel knobs looked when I sketched it out. I might come back to it, though.

I also spent a while playing with the idea of orienting the tuners like this:

In this arrangement the tuners could be mostly hidden beneath the top, with just slots for the strings to pass through and holes for the knobs to poke out, which would look pretty cool. Annoying to change strings, though, and if I ever hard to replace a tuner I'd have to mostly disassemble the instrument. I may revisit the idea at some point.

 

[Crawforde]

That internal tuner thing would be way nerdy.

 

[Jon Clegg]

There's always this arrangement:

 

[BishopHastur]

I'm definitely curious about this build. Sounds good.

 

[Savage_Dreams]

And here I was hoping it was a Raymond Chandler/Philip Marlowe reference…..

 

[SulzerType2]

What a strange way to introduce a build.

Can't fault the man for trying to inject a bit of culture into this pit.

 

[JimmyM]

Can't fault the man for trying to inject a bit of culture into this pit.

Yeah, true.

 

[Max Bogosity]

What a strange way to introduce a build.

Sorry, it's the madness.

 

[Hummergeist]

The King in Yellow is a collection of short stories by Robert W. Chambers published in 1895, lying somewhere between Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft in the weird tales continuum. The first several stories refer to a play, also titled The King in Yellow. The first act is described as banal. The second act causes violent madness in those foolish enough to read it.

The King in Yellow bass will be the unlikely and unlovely offspring of two other eldritch horrors from beyond: Danelectro guitars and the Kramer Duke. It inherits Danelectro’s masonite panel hollow body construction, and the Duke’s approximate shape and uniquely abominable approach to headless tuning hardware.

A king, of course, outranks a duke.

This will be a partial build, featuring the very cheapest bass neck from eBay. It appears to be mostly made from some variety of wood, with the exception of the fingerboard which could be laminated cardboard. It will be beheaded in service to the King in Yellow.

Just been reading that, coincidentally.

 

[tpaul]

And here I was hoping it was a Raymond Chandler/Philip Marlowe reference…..

Right, that's the one where the "king" is a jazz horn player...

 

[AbnormalForms]

I did consider that but didn't like the way the non-parallel knobs looked when I sketched it out. I might come back to it, though.

I also spent a while playing with the idea of orienting the tuners like this:
View attachment 4940206

In this arrangement the tuners could be mostly hidden beneath the top, with just slots for the strings to pass through and holes for the knobs to poke out, which would look pretty cool. Annoying to change strings, though, and if I ever hard to replace a tuner I'd have to mostly disassemble the instrument. I may revisit the idea at some point.

I've experimented with a similar design for a while. It's a bit more... scary looking, but completely stable from what I've tested with it so far.

Of course, this example is a work in progress, but it's the only one I had on hand at the moment. The "bunny eared" tuners' column is at a 15 degree angle with the edges chamfered, giving less resistance when tuning up. Feel free to copy/steal if you wish, looking forward to what you come up with!

 

[Reedt2000]

What if you literally move the "headstock" to behind the bridge? This isn't the most accurate way to demonstrate the idea but I think it gives you the gist:

 

[Max Bogosity]

What if you literally move the "headstock" to behind the bridge? This isn't the most accurate way to demonstrate the idea but I think it gives you the gist:

View attachment 4941194

That's just not right.

 

[Max Bogosity]

Bonus pile of wood photo because I mis-measured and couldn't actually get both of the internal ribs out of the scrap I had planned to use. Various bits of the body are laid out in the background.

Speaking of madness, between the dust protection, noise protection, and winter protection, I look even more like a lunatic than usual.