Electric Upright V2.0 - Episode 1 - Designing a better bass 

For sure!

Yeah. Me too.

And funny enough, I’ve seriously considered getting a Hofner clone body as a starting point for an upright as well. One of my started projects has a smaller acoustic body, so I can use a piezo to get a more natural upright sound (similar to a ukulele bass), and also have a magnetic pickup on it. 😊

That's exactly what I was looking for, a cheap cello with a screwed neck. There's a few photos around of people doing cool cello conversions, It'd be kinds neat to do a 5 string upright like that, my Dad actually had a viola de gamba when I was a kid, and a lute. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as they say.

@@fanbladeinstrumentshaha! I guess not! ❤ Depending on what kind of color you go with, black binding can look great. I have a 335 kit guitar in the queue that has black, I’m planning on an aqua to dark blue burst that should go quite well with the black. Pickups and hardware are black too. Are you going to ebinize the fingerboard on this one?

I'm going to wait until I've carved the neck to make a call on ebonizing, the fingerboard and neck are from that same giant board so there's a chance they'll look like they're one seamless piece, I like that idea but I'll need to see it first.

@@fanbladeinstruments right, I did catch that they were the same wood. That would look pretty trippy if you got it to look like one massive board!! Are you planning on doung a back carve on the fingerboard? That takes out a pretty substantial amount of weight too. I personally like the look of it over a flat bottomed end of the fingerboard.

I did think about that, I need to test some scraps with different stains to see what it looks like, I do have a little bit of cream binding left but not enough to do the whole body, it's too big😂

As for pickups It'll be a homemade magnetic one, essentially a refined version of the one from the first EUB. There's actually a recording of one in the video, the first song I put in was played on the double bass with the same pickup design, it's a sound I've grown quite fond of. I've seen people have bad luck with piezos, last year I attended a jazz evening where the double bassist was having major feedback problems and the sound guy had to pull all the low end out, a not very nice time was had by all. I'm not sure what preamps were involved (if any) but you can't escape the physics of that body becoming one enormous microphone at gigging volumes. I think I'll steer clear.

@@fanbladeinstruments Dunno. Piezos can work well... I used to do the PA occasionally at a jazz club in London, and generally managed to get a pretty natural double bass sound with people using piezos. Best sound was a guy who had a custom made setup of a lavalier type mic/piezo hybrid with a mixer box to balance the two. Sounded great! But then again, the volume levels (being a jazz club) were never that high. so feedback was rarely an issue.

Indeed at low volumes it's not an issue. My town is so small there's really only a couple of live venues, both of which are geared to cater for much louder bands, and very rarely an upright bass. The house rig on the night in question was an 1100w stack nearly as tall as the 1/2 size double bass plugged into it, and the poor player with her classical background had no idea how to control it, all she knew was that everything had gone very wrong. It shouldn't have been allowed to happen, if anyone had a clue what they were doing it wouldn't have.

There's actually still time to do somnething with the headstock (pegbox😆), when I was rasping out the hole there was a little chipout on the back so I was thinking of gluing a piece across the back. It wouldn't be hard to make that a wedge shape then round the front edge off at the top a little, and I think you're right, it'd give it a touch of class. Great suggestion, thanks

Can't do it, but I can stop with the torso shots

I'm allergic to mudbuckers, but a Fender wide range pickup has been on my list ever since Tony put one on the mustang, that thing rips. Could also try the scalloped fret thing... willl investigate, cheers

Just saw your other reply retarding pickups. I think the piezo blend could be interesting if it it mounted like an acoustic guitar. Without any sound holes, it shouldn't feedback at all, and if it does, you still have the magnetic.

I understand what you mean, though I am torn. Another part of me, finds this utilitarian approach rather refreshing. I recently cut down a few trees, cherry, walnut and olive, and I intend to plank them up and make some basses. After fanblade's first EUB build, I started thinking of making one for myself. I eagerly await to see how this turns out. Whether I would chisel out, route out or leave those internals rough, I suspect would depend on my mood at the time 🤷‍♂️

Yes, I've been looking at pictures on line, black seems to look better on lighter coloured bodies where it's actually visible, I'm looking into staining options to make the grain pop, but keep it light enough to work with the black binding... it's going to be a delicate balance but I think I can make it work.

Yeah, it's actually quite hard to remember what terminology to use, I know I remembered to say it at least once🤣

How about a headless bass for that body blank Geoff?

Well now... I've actually got some theories on that. The buzzing sitar sound comes from the string vibrating against a block in front of the bridge, very lightly and right at the end of the strings travel. My theory is that a fretless bass is getting it's growling 'mwah' sound in a similar way, but it's vibrating against the fingerboard just in front of where the string is pressed down. I'm basing this theory solely on the observation that you get more Mwah when the action is lower. This is a theory that could warrant a whole video of it's own to investigate...watch this space😉

Indeed, the Ampeg Baby Bass has a German carve and I think they look great, I'm a fan. I have a cheap 6 string bass that has a German carve but it was quite uncomfortable under the hand while playing, although that's not going to be an issue here. I think the deciding factor has to be the thickness of the top, I'm not sure I've got enough to do a really prominent carve and do the style justice, I would definitely love to do that at some stage but I'm not sure this bass can accommodate it. Thanks

I have a stutter and I edit the monologue extensively, it's easier if you can't see my face, i can make whole paragraphs look like they were done in one take.

Interesting, I'm learning a lot about the violin family. This one will be 1024mm (40.3 inches) so it's just on the short side of 3/4 scale. Way back, when I first measured my friend's double bass, that was the scale I pulled from it so that's what I've been using.

Yes, something like that, other people have suggested baritone guitars and Bass VI sorts of things, so it's looking like some sort of higher register instrument for sure

Yes, lots of people suggesting some kind of extended range instrument, personally I'm leaning towards a Bass VI style, with a Spector carve and a whammy bar if I can find one robust enough.

One of the most true statements ever said to me as a high school student was from my woodwork teacher, "You can never have enough clamps". Words to live by.

I was aldo thinking a Rickenbacker scale length would be cool for that electric bass body. Same pickup placement as a Rick 4003 as well to see if it could make that distinctive "clank" sound.

I've actually got something in the pipeline for the 5 string Rick pickups, they're triangular and I think I've figured out why. Watch this space😉

Interesting idea...I don't think it'll go down too well with the band, one of the guitarists retrofitted his Firebird with a Stetson whammy and we're constantly giving him stick for it going out of tune, I think I know what side of that arguement I'd like to stay on. And you can do better divebombs on a fretless anyway😉

@@fanbladeinstruments the kahler is a self-contained system, the trouble is they are expensive and hard to find in Australia, (dare I say nearly impossible in New Zealand). Hipshot also has a fulcrum style, still expensive, but more easily attainable.

@@fanbladeinstruments you asked for a suggestion, I gave you one out of left field.

Left field is good...How about left handed? There's nothing stopping me flipping the body and making a lefthanded bass. I've been wondering for a while how hard it would be to learn, I suppose it'd be like starting from scratch but with all the knowledge of how badly I'm sucking🤣

That is a thick body blank. What about trying a Spector style curved body?

There's no hard and fast rules for that generally, but the bridge and neck have to measure out to the right distance or your intonation will be all wrong. In the case of fenderesque body shapes I like to align the top horn with the 12th fret so it balances nicely, then I work out the neck pocket + bridge placement from there. In the case of changing from one scale to another on the same body, the imortant thing as I say, bridge placement relative to the scale length. You'll most likely have to move the bridge, if you're going from a 21 to a 24 fret neck then you can either modify the neck pocket or shift the bridge or both, it's kinda up to you at that point.

@@fanbladeinstruments hey thanks for that, I’m doing a Frankenstein kind of thing with a fender style neck and am going to make a SG style body

Cool suggestion, I'll add it to the list, baritone guitars are ganing in popularity. Could also go for something like a bass VI I suppose, thanks

Yeah, I've been toying with the idea of a 7 string baritone. It's probably because I like low notes and have a groove based play style, lol.

And this is why I love the comment section! Never heard of a ceruse finish before, just googled it quickly and I believe I have a new rabbit hole to go down😁 Don't yet know if I'll do it to this bass but it looks promising and the grain is perfect for it, awesome, thank you

​@@fanbladeinstruments No problem. And thank you for such great content. I'm not sure if you saw it in or not, but I said in a comment on your last video that I've designed a filter preamp like the ones in Wals and Alembics and would be happy to send you a few spare ones for you to play around with. If you're interested just let me know if you are

Ahh, yes I did read that but ran out of time to get back to you, email me at fanbladeinstrumentsATgmail.com (I've spelled out the @ with AT so that email harvesting bots don't get me) Cheers