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Construction on this the original bass started in September 2002 and was
completed in late November 2002. after a year of playing the bass was
tore down and reconstructed to eliminate sag in the top, make it
narrow enough to bow and bevel the back to facilitate playing in upper positions.
Credit for design inspiration and encouragement must go to
Dennis Havlena
for his original design and to
Bill Koch
for his further refinements
to the concept.
My goal was to build an instrument that would enable me to become
familiar with playing an upright bass, something that would be
acoustic and capable of projecting enough sound to be of practical use
in small acoustic groups. The idea was to try to emulate the body size
of a double bass. Originally I was pointed towards a #33 Dubl-Tub (33 gallon)
but was not able to get a look at one except in catalogs so I went
with two #3 round galvanized tubs and made a wooden waist section to
marry the two together.
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Original Bass
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Original construction followed Bill's design. In the reconstruction I
eliminated the soundpost and the bassbar and went the way of guitar X
bracing since I was working with a flattop instrument. This change
seems to be keeping up with the string pressure and has improved the tone.
I went with an offset soundhole to keep the top as strong as possible.
It also works well as a hand-hold when transporting. Next step is to tilt the neck back a
little more and put a taller bridge back in for a more defined bottom
E tone.
New and Improved Bass
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The expenses on this project went a little over original
expectations, but once I made the decision to buy real bass strings at
$100 (Thomastik Spiracore) it was easy to start spending more to protect that initial
investment.
The neck is handmade out of 5/4 luaun stock with a commercial rosewood
fingerboard, ebony nut, rosewood tailpiece and boxwood endpin assembly.
The top is nominal 1/4 inch birch veneer plywood and the back is 1/2
inch BC plywood. I got the crease in the back by routing a V groove
and wet-bending the plywood.
Expenses on the bass proper ran about $250, but most of the wood
was leftovers from other projects.
Again thanks to Dennis and Bill for inspiration.
Will post a
soundfile when I get one recorded. I am amazed at the tone and the
projection on this. It rattles the wall-hangings in my little practice room.
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Side and back views of latest version
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Timm Reasbeck , February 2004