Winter 2017 Build-off - Wing bass

[Jisch]

It's alive. Of course I still have a bunch of set up to do, but I got the strings up to tension, no problems - no slipping, it seems to stay in tune pretty well. The intonation set up easily. I think I have a high spot on the fingerboard I'll need to work out. There's not a lot of room between the nut and the first fret, so the stiffness of the strings makes it hard to fret on the first fret - that may be some of my problem. I'll work it out. I don't like this pickup at all, I'll be ordering something else if I decide that I'll play it enough to matter, the pickup distorts just a bit, I remember this from that last time I tried to use a GF pickup, but forgot until after I plugged it in.

It's a weird little thing. I'll get some music recorded sometime soon.

The bridge and tuners work well, but I'd hate to have to string up more than one or two of these in a day. Those knobs don't give you much leverage, after getting four strings up to tension (after spinning the knob 40 times (exaggerating)) my fingers are a bit sore. I had to loosen and tighten the strings to set intonation, cut the nut slot deeper etc, so I spun a lot of knobs today. Once you have the string up to tension small movements on the knob make big differences in the tune of the string, so down the road this is not a problem. For my brain the tuners are threaded opposite of how I would have done it, but I'll get used to that I'm sure.

 

[scuzzy]

It's alive. Of course I still have a bunch of set up to do, but I got the strings up to tension, no problems - no slipping, it seems to stay in tune pretty well. The intonation set up easily. I think I have a high spot on the fingerboard I'll need to work out. There's not a lot of room between the nut and the first fret, so the stiffness of the strings makes it hard to fret on the first fret - that may be some of my problem. I'll work it out. I don't like this pickup at all, I'll be ordering something else if I decide that I'll play it enough to matter, the pickup distorts just a bit, I remember this from that last time I tried to use a GF pickup, but forgot until after I plugged it in.

It's a weird little thing. I'll get some music recorded sometime soon.

The bridge and tuners work well, but I'd hate to have to string up more than one or two of these in a day. Those knobs don't give you much leverage, after getting four strings up to tension (after spinning the knob 40 times (exaggerating)) my fingers are a bit sore. I had to loosen and tighten the strings to set intonation, cut the nut slot deeper etc, so I spun a lot of knobs today. Once you have the string up to tension small movements on the knob make big differences in the tune of the string, so down the road this is not a problem. For my brain the tuners are threaded opposite of how I would have done it, but I'll get used to that I'm sure.

i love it! that, with a tiny gig-bag, and my sub-octave pedal would do some work in a pinch! that body has mucho character, and I mean that in the best way. very unique. the dark with the light fretboard is great. this was a fun build to follow.

 

[Jisch]

I know I shouldn't post stuff like this full of mistakes and hardly interesting, but a quick "song" (term used loosely) with the wing. I can avoid distortion if I play extremely softly, there is something messed up with this pickup. I'll get a different type, after spending a few hours with this, it's worth a better pickup.
Embed didn't seem to work:

 

[Will_White]

Did you ever try running it on 18 volts?

 

[Jisch]

No, that's a good idea, I'll try it. For once I have a control cavity that is not stuffed full.

 

[mapleglo]

Looks great!

For some reason, the sound clips aren't working for me. It may be something on my side - my Java and Flash are out of date.

 

[Jisch]

I tried embedding it, then I tried just posting the link and it didn't work either. I'll try from my phone:
Listen to Stubby by jisch #np on #SoundCloud

 

[Fat Freddy]

Nuffink sound wise here .......

 

[Jisch]

Ok, let's try this as a movie

 

[Jon Clegg]

Trippy music behind the montage of the build! NICE! (Hint: I'd include this in your submission post )

 

[Jisch]

I'll take some glamour shots of the bass in the sunlight and do a different song (one that is a bit less repetitious) for the ultimate submission.

 

[Fat Freddy]

Ok, let's try this as a movie

Yep!....That worked ....

 

[Jisch]

Did you ever try running it on 18 volts?

I just jumped in another 9V battery and it sounds great - amazing really. I'll solder it in and do more tests, but this seems to have fixed my problem. Another great moment in LC!

 

[Jisch]

I've played with Stubby a few hours now, it's really fun to play.

There are two things that make it a bit different than a regular bass - the string spacing is super wide up by the nut and the string tension combined with the short scale leads to very stiff strings. I think I'll put some heavier gauge strings on next time around.

It's really comfortable to play sitting down. After installing the additional battery it sounds really great. There's not a ton of variation of the sound considering a single pickup and passive tone control, but it still sounds good. I used a octave effect in GarageBand and it sounds awesome. I'm going to take it down to GC and see how it sounds through an octave pedal.

I have the nut slotted about as low as I care to go, the action is great, but fretting the first fret is a bit tough, again the strings are stiff.

I have a feeling this one will be staying around a while!

 

[scuzzy]

I've played with Stubby a few hours now, it's really fun to play.

There are two things that make it a bit different than a regular bass - the string spacing is super wide up by the nut and the string tension combined with the short scale leads to very stiff strings. I think I'll put some heavier gauge strings on next time around.

It's really comfortable to play sitting down. After installing the additional battery it sounds really great. There's not a ton of variation of the sound considering a single pickup and passive tone control, but it still sounds good. I used a octave effect in GarageBand and it sounds awesome. I'm going to take it down to GC and see how it sounds through an octave pedal.

I have the nut slotted about as low as I care to go, the action is great, but fretting the first fret is a bit tough, again the strings are stiff.

I have a feeling this one will be staying around a while!

Great to hear!

If you put heavier strings on, won't they be that much stiffer? I would think light gauge would soften them up a bit.

 

[Jisch]

right you are, my brain working backwards again!

 

[Jisch]

I guess I'm supposed to list the new to me stuff in this build:
- first wing bass (that kind of says a lot, but...)
- first bass made out of a single piece of wood
- first headless completed
- first true single cut
- first bass with a control cavity that is too big
- first 18v bass (not planned)
- first bass with a flat fingerboard
- first time cutting fret slots

 

[Jisch]

This is my submission for the Winter 2017 Build off:

The things I did with this build I've never done before:
- first wing bass (that kind of says a lot, but...)
- first bass made out of a single piece of wood
- first headless completed
- first true single cut
- first bass with a control cavity that is too big
- first 18v bass (not planned)
- first bass with a flat fingerboard
- first time cutting fret slots

The build thread can be viewed here.

I put together this movie with pictures of the finished bass, all the music is played on the Stubby, I used an octave dropper in Garageband for the lower range bass part, I plan on buying an octave pedal to use this in the band. It sounds really nice. I plugged it into my big amp this afternoon, huge sound for a tiny instrument. It has a very expressive sound:


Specs for the build:
17" scale "Wing" bass (props to the [Invalid or Expired Link Removed])
One piece black walnut body with sap wood (white area)
Ebay headless tuner (no name)
Guitar Fetish active pickup with passive tone and volume controls (with 18V it really sounds good!)
D'dadrio XL (yep!) flatwound strings, I think I threw more of the string away than is mounted on the instrument
Tiger maple fingerboard with walnut stringers - 17 frets
Maple/walnut laminate nut
Formby's Tung oil finish

The idea behind the build:
I've seen those wing basses around and thought it was a cool instrument. Without trying one I'd be hesitant to spend that much on one - I'm sure they are well worth it, but not if I can build one! I spent about $90 to make this one. It plays so nicely it's one of those things I just can't put down, always a good sign. I fashioned it after the Wing, but I didn't really measure anything off it, just used it as a general guideline.

The wood is amazing, it is deeply 3 dimensional, I guess you can kind of see that in the pictures, but in person the thing changes as you move around. Especially this part of the front:

The fingerboard also has some real depth, no pictures show how cool it is:

I love the back - my first few instruments I was upset that the "cool wood" ended up on the back, but that's where the large expanses of uninterrupted wood are, it's especially true with this one being one piece of wood.

The control cover came out cool, the magnets seem to hold it ok, it fell off once when the batteries moved, I taped them in for now, I'll have to put in some kind of holder:

Maybe the one thing I'd change for the next one would be to make the lower bout a bit smaller, but overall I'm very happy with how this one came out:

In the words of @Scoops thanks for looking!

 

[Fat Freddy]

This is my submission for the Winter 2017 Build off:

The things I did with this build I've never done before:
- first wing bass (that kind of says a lot, but...)
- first bass made out of a single piece of wood
- first headless completed
- first true single cut
- first bass with a control cavity that is too big
- first 18v bass (not planned)
- first bass with a flat fingerboard
- first time cutting fret slots

The build thread can be viewed here.

I put together this movie with pictures of the finished bass, played on the Stubby, I used an octave dropper in Garageband for the bass part, I plan on buying an octave pedal to use this in the band. It sounds really nice, I plugged it into my big amp this afternoon, huge sound for a tiny instrument. It has a very expressive sound:


Specs for the build:
17" scale "Wing" bass (props to the [Invalid or Expired Link Removed])
One piece black walnut body with sap wood (white area)
Ebay headless tuner (no name)
Guitar Fetish active pickup with passive tone and volume controls (with 18V it really sounds good!)
D'dadrio XL (yep!) flatwound strings, I think I threw more of the string away than is mounted on the instrument
Tiger maple fingerboard with walnut stringers - 17 frets
Maple/walnut laminate nut
Formby's Tung oil finish

The idea behind the build:
I've seen those wing basses around and thought it was a cool instrument. Without trying one I'd be hesitant to spend that much on one - I'm sure they are well worth it, but not if I can build one! I spent about $90 to make this one. It plays so nicely it's one of those things I just can't put down, always a good sign. I fashioned it after the Wing, but I didn't really measure anything off it, just used it as a general guideline.

The wood is amazing, it is deeply 3 dimensional, I guess you can kind of see that in the pictures, but in person the thing changes as you move around. Especially this part of the front:

The fingerboard also has some real depth, no pictures show how cool it is:

I love the back - my first few instruments I was upset that the "cool wood" ended up on the back, but that's where the large expanses of uninterrupted wood are, it's especially true with this one being one piece of wood.

The control cover came out cool, the magnets seem to hold it ok, it fell off once when the batteries moved, I taped them in for now, I'll have to put in some kind of holder:

Maybe the one thing I'd change for the next one would be to make the lower bout a bit smaller, but overall I'm very happy with how this one came out:

In the words of @Scoops thanks for looking!

Great presentation of a great build......

Many congratulations man.....drool

 

[I-Am-The-Slime]

This wing can fly at the speed of sound! Sounds and looks great!