The former.
For the latter, EUBs can have a protrusion on the other side, i.e. the right side as seen from the audience. This one can be smaller, and differently shaped.
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Winter Build-Off 2022: Bamboo EUB
- Thread starter Max Bogosity
- Start date
For the latter, EUBs can have a protrusion on the other side, i.e. the right side as seen from the audience. This one can be smaller, and differently shaped.
Both I should think, as well as giving you some amount of control over the position of the neck while bowing.
Thanks. That's sort of what I meant by 'stability', but I was thinking purely of stopping the bass from moving around as opposed to positioning it in a specific way. As for the other, the odds of me ever playing that far up the neck without looking at my fingers are low enough that I'm comfortable not having a tactile landmark past the heel.
Plus, that weird appendage might make it difficult to spin the bass while rocking out.
That's about 90% of the reason I want it on a traditional endpin. NS Design and some other EUBs use a tripod stand, which seems superior in a lot of ways. But you can't spin a tripod! Maybe you can, but I'd have to be re-trained.
For the box beam construction of hollow bodies, I steal ideas from the hollow wood surfboard field
(not my picture)
Let me know if you want some more links,
(not my picture)
Let me know if you want some more links,
That’s very cool. I suspect it would be way overkill for this project, but I would definitely like to see more. It’s reminiscent of wooden airplanes and rigid airship construction.For the box beam construction of hollow bodies, I steal ideas from the hollow wood surfboard field
(not my picture)
Let me know if you want some more links,
This was kinda my original idea when building my EUB. I found that the 3/16" sides of my bass glued up very nicely without anything but the neck structure for support. You don't need anything near as strong as you might think you need. Think about how thin acoustic guitar sides are, and how little support they need.
The spine of my bass is roughly 1.5 - 1.75" thick between the bridge and the fingerboard. If/when I build another one, I will likely reduce that thickness to .5 - .75" and the other parts of the neck spine I'll reduce to .5" or less. That will have several side effects, first is weight reduction. Second is that I should get a more lively resonance from the strings.
The spine of my bass is roughly 1.5 - 1.75" thick between the bridge and the fingerboard. If/when I build another one, I will likely reduce that thickness to .5 - .75" and the other parts of the neck spine I'll reduce to .5" or less. That will have several side effects, first is weight reduction. Second is that I should get a more lively resonance from the strings.
Yeah, I think our brains get mis-calibrated by seeing solid-body instruments which are many times stiffer than they need to be from a structural point of view. I'm comparing to my double bass: ~5mm plywood and no internal bracing at all aside from the bass bar and sound post.
I think I can get away without even those, since the bridge feet will be very nearly on top of the sides.
I think I can get away without even those, since the bridge feet will be very nearly on top of the sides.
I'm going to make the back convex instead of concave like Van Zalinge. Partly because I like the way it looks, partly to ensure there's enough room to get my hand in there to fasten the neck bolts, partly so that the sides are taller and stiffer. There will be a sound port on the bass side which might help me hear it, and will double as an access port for the neck bolts.
While sketching out the body I realized I had not really given any thought to the end pin. You can buy one for not a lot of money, but they're designed to fit into a ~30mm diameter tapered hole in the tail block. A good-quality taper reamer of that size costs more than my first car. I could probably just drill it and then sand in the taper, but that's kind of tedious. There are some suspiciously cheap reamers on eBay, but I hate to spend money on lousy tools. But ... it doesn't look that hard to make a taper reamer.
But, to do that, I need a lathe. I inherited one from my father-in-law, but I've never set it up. Guess this is the time. As far as I know, he never used it himself, just picked it up at a flea market or an auction. I'm not sure how old it is, but it looks similar (not identical) to pictures I've found of pre-war Craftsman lathes.
The Cascade carton is there to help figure out how high the motor has to be mounted to let the belt clear the headstock casting and won't be a permanent feature. Probably. One of the pulleys has to be flipped around, or I have to flip the whole motor around and make it turn the other direction. That might be the better option.
I went looking for a video on old wood lathe restoration and found this. It appears to be the exact same unit. I'd like to salute this guy because he spoke only four words in his entire video, and all four of them had to be bleeped out.
And once I have a working lathe, well, I might as well turn the end pin too.
This is how we make extra work for ourselves.
While sketching out the body I realized I had not really given any thought to the end pin. You can buy one for not a lot of money, but they're designed to fit into a ~30mm diameter tapered hole in the tail block. A good-quality taper reamer of that size costs more than my first car. I could probably just drill it and then sand in the taper, but that's kind of tedious. There are some suspiciously cheap reamers on eBay, but I hate to spend money on lousy tools. But ... it doesn't look that hard to make a taper reamer.
But, to do that, I need a lathe. I inherited one from my father-in-law, but I've never set it up. Guess this is the time. As far as I know, he never used it himself, just picked it up at a flea market or an auction. I'm not sure how old it is, but it looks similar (not identical) to pictures I've found of pre-war Craftsman lathes.
The Cascade carton is there to help figure out how high the motor has to be mounted to let the belt clear the headstock casting and won't be a permanent feature. Probably. One of the pulleys has to be flipped around, or I have to flip the whole motor around and make it turn the other direction. That might be the better option.
I went looking for a video on old wood lathe restoration and found this. It appears to be the exact same unit. I'd like to salute this guy because he spoke only four words in his entire video, and all four of them had to be bleeped out.
And once I have a working lathe, well, I might as well turn the end pin too.
This is how we make extra work for ourselves.
Please make a cover for that belt! Looks like a good way to lose a finger....
Yep my older brother did exactly that as a child in his grandpa's workshop. Went throught life one digit short.
Some progress in the department of making the tools to make the tools to make the bass.
I re-wired the washing machine motor to turn the right direction (really just swapped two wires to different terminals) and mounted it on a hinge so its own weight provides belt tension. I thought that was very clever, then I saw where somebody else had done the same thing. The belt guard is just a box nailed together from used particle board that sits down over the whole headstock and motor. That's not elegant but seems to do the job.
Then I had to clean out another corner of the barn just to have somewhere to put the thing. That included hauling away an old fuel oil tank, the rusty old "Thou Shalt Not Use It And If You Do And It Causes A Fire Do Not Bother Filing An Insurance Claim" Coleman space heater, and a pile of about three miles of mismatched old wooden trim filled with mouse nests.
Now I'm turning scraps into random shapes, just to get the hang of it. This looks like it could be one of the legs from my grandmother's "hi-fi" with the built-in bar.
I re-wired the washing machine motor to turn the right direction (really just swapped two wires to different terminals) and mounted it on a hinge so its own weight provides belt tension. I thought that was very clever, then I saw where somebody else had done the same thing. The belt guard is just a box nailed together from used particle board that sits down over the whole headstock and motor. That's not elegant but seems to do the job.
Then I had to clean out another corner of the barn just to have somewhere to put the thing. That included hauling away an old fuel oil tank, the rusty old "Thou Shalt Not Use It And If You Do And It Causes A Fire Do Not Bother Filing An Insurance Claim" Coleman space heater, and a pile of about three miles of mismatched old wooden trim filled with mouse nests.
Now I'm turning scraps into random shapes, just to get the hang of it. This looks like it could be one of the legs from my grandmother's "hi-fi" with the built-in bar.
You're right: a thing can't be clever if two people thought of it.
I don't mind reinventing the wheel. I'm more bothered that I saw somebody else do it, forgot about it, then thought I'd had an original idea.
Here's a work-in-progress shot of the reamer. This is a piece of oak that I fished out of the firewood pile a few years ago. To establish the taper I marked several locations along the length and turned it down to progressively smaller diameters at each location. After this, I 'connected the dots'. This is a 17:1 taper, which seems to be common for bass end pins.
I didn't have an old saw blade or other suitable piece of steel to make the blade for the reamer. This is probably not something I'm going to use frequently, so it doesn't matter if it's slow. So instead of a blade, 60 grit sandpaper trapped in a slot sawn down the centreline.
As a test I drilled a hole through a piece of scrap and went to town with my new high tech abrasive reamer. It seems to work fairly well. The paper has to wrap around far enough to overlap with itself to create friction between the two layers of paper. Otherwise, the paper just rips at the corner of the slot. Rounding over the corner of the slot might help.
It does need some attention to keep it straight. Initially I let the handle (piece of old broom stick) stick way out one side for greater leverage and just cranked on the one end, but that allowed the reamer to orbit around in the hole, creating an hourglass-shaped surface instead of a conical one. Standing in line with the reamer and cranking on both ends at the same time keeps it straight and brought the hole back to conical again. Mostly.
I forgot to take a picture, but I test fitted my end pin fitting and it seems to make a nice friction fit. Time to make the real end block.
I didn't have an old saw blade or other suitable piece of steel to make the blade for the reamer. This is probably not something I'm going to use frequently, so it doesn't matter if it's slow. So instead of a blade, 60 grit sandpaper trapped in a slot sawn down the centreline.
As a test I drilled a hole through a piece of scrap and went to town with my new high tech abrasive reamer. It seems to work fairly well. The paper has to wrap around far enough to overlap with itself to create friction between the two layers of paper. Otherwise, the paper just rips at the corner of the slot. Rounding over the corner of the slot might help.
It does need some attention to keep it straight. Initially I let the handle (piece of old broom stick) stick way out one side for greater leverage and just cranked on the one end, but that allowed the reamer to orbit around in the hole, creating an hourglass-shaped surface instead of a conical one. Standing in line with the reamer and cranking on both ends at the same time keeps it straight and brought the hole back to conical again. Mostly.
I forgot to take a picture, but I test fitted my end pin fitting and it seems to make a nice friction fit. Time to make the real end block.
Still some progress going on over here. Here's my neck block, and a kind of disappointing fit with the neck. I'll have to shim that so it makes contact on both shoulders.
I started making the tail block from a chunk of oak I had sitting around, then realized it had a disturbing number of worm holes in it. Apparently you can kill off the larvae if you get the temperature over 55C/130F, so I improvised a solar kiln with this greenhouse case and the kitchen thermometer.
It did just about get to 55C, but the wood also cracked pretty thoroughly, so I threw it away and started again with a (worm-free) chunk of maple. Here is my very sophisticated 60-grit reamer tapering the endpin hole.
Somehow I managed to get it fairly crooked. It'll have to do.
Cut the sides from some plywood scrap. Here's one side mocked up with the neck block, neck, and bridge to check that the neck angle and bridge work together. Somewhere in there I realized that I forgot to deduct the thickness of the top and back from the outline of the sides and had to go back and cut them down again.
One of several attempts to figure out how to clamp up the sides and blocks for gluing. Nothing is square and it all wants to move in several directions at once. Also at this point I realized that the tail block was too wide. It looked OK when I drew it, but in reality it looked weird. The perspective of this photo makes it look even worse, but it was definitely kind of odd-looking, so I shrunk it to be only slightly wider than the neck block.
I glued some little strips to the sides for the blocks to butt up against and stop them from slipping. That helps a lot. Now the pressure of the clamps forces the blocks up against the stops. If I had planned better I would have matched the angle between the block and the sides. That would look better, but I don't think it will really hurt anything this way.
After several clamping experiments I finally decided the way to do this is to glue both blocks to one side, then glue the other side to just the neck block, then finally glue the second side to the tail block. That way at least the first two glue-ups happen while the sides are still flat. Here's the first glue-up.
I started making the tail block from a chunk of oak I had sitting around, then realized it had a disturbing number of worm holes in it. Apparently you can kill off the larvae if you get the temperature over 55C/130F, so I improvised a solar kiln with this greenhouse case and the kitchen thermometer.
It did just about get to 55C, but the wood also cracked pretty thoroughly, so I threw it away and started again with a (worm-free) chunk of maple. Here is my very sophisticated 60-grit reamer tapering the endpin hole.
Somehow I managed to get it fairly crooked. It'll have to do.
Cut the sides from some plywood scrap. Here's one side mocked up with the neck block, neck, and bridge to check that the neck angle and bridge work together. Somewhere in there I realized that I forgot to deduct the thickness of the top and back from the outline of the sides and had to go back and cut them down again.
One of several attempts to figure out how to clamp up the sides and blocks for gluing. Nothing is square and it all wants to move in several directions at once. Also at this point I realized that the tail block was too wide. It looked OK when I drew it, but in reality it looked weird. The perspective of this photo makes it look even worse, but it was definitely kind of odd-looking, so I shrunk it to be only slightly wider than the neck block.
I glued some little strips to the sides for the blocks to butt up against and stop them from slipping. That helps a lot. Now the pressure of the clamps forces the blocks up against the stops. If I had planned better I would have matched the angle between the block and the sides. That would look better, but I don't think it will really hurt anything this way.
After several clamping experiments I finally decided the way to do this is to glue both blocks to one side, then glue the other side to just the neck block, then finally glue the second side to the tail block. That way at least the first two glue-ups happen while the sides are still flat. Here's the first glue-up.
