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Greetings purveyors of all knowledge.....

I have some walnut, a dread mould and no acoustic bass in the family........

Anyone built one and have a pic of the bracing?

the total tension will be less than a six so the bracing can be as light, right?

and for bridge pins......

have they gotta be bigger too? I've never seen them for sale EVER!!!

Thanks!!

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Why not go pinless on the bridge? Perhaps no pins and insert from the inside with the ball end remaining on the bridge plate.

If tension is lighter than a 6, wouldn't you want the bracing to be lighter?

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Martin, I've only built one ABG, I built it very light, and I made the bridge
pins out of the same honduran rosewood that I made the bridge out of.
Mine is bigger than a drednaught. 34" scale with a cut away. I wish I had
pics... but, right after I got it done, a friend (who is a great bass player)
abscoded it, He loves it and wants me to make one for him, so, I need to
get it back soon. I want to reverse engineer it so I can figure out what I
did. I'll try to get some pics to share with you.

long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

I believe that Martin sells bass bridge pins.

Al

End pin + Slot = Bass pin.



Louis

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- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

[QUOTE=Louis4052] End pin + Slot = Bass pin.



Louis[/QUOTE]

It kinda makes a difference how you add it up, Bridge pins are only about
3/4" long, and when you add up, The thickness of the bridge + Top +
Bridge plate,    There isn't much pin left to bear against the ball end of
the string.

Long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

EDIT "End pins are only about
3/4" long"

Long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

Thanks folks, all good info so far.

I'll prolly make her a bit deeper than a dread, but I'm fully aware that an acoustic bass is pretty much useless unless amplified, so I'll be putting in a piezo under the saddle.

I pretty much never play completely unplugged anyway, maybe just at the odd house group meeting which is just me and an acoustic guitar anyway.

scale length will be the full Fender slotted F/B from Stewmac and I'm sort of thinking that that'll put the neck/body join up around 16 or 18th fret anyway so I wasn't planning a cutaway.

as to the bridge, the idea of just having the holes and no pins hadn't occured to me. There's less chance of breaking bass strings (though I have done it on my electric bass!!) so it'll be an "all off" string change situation anyway.... Hmmmmm worth considering as (here I go, thinking out loud again) the more mass on the bridge, the LESS bass response right? thats what happened on my Jumbo which I fitted with Brass pins to calm the bottom end down......

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I recall a short article by William Cumpiano on an acoustic bass guitar. You may want to read his response and recommendations for this type of instrument at:

http://www.cumpiano.com/Home/Articles/Special%20interest/Acb ass/acbass.htm

Yup, everything he says is true, (but I'm still gonna build one )

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I used a 32" scale for my reso bass - less string tension that way and it's more comfortable to play than a regular scale but not as slack as a short-scale. On a 000 body that's put the body join at the 16th fret. Just chop the first fret off the Stew-Mac board and there you have it.

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Pete
http://www.petewoodmanguitars.com

Absolutely go for it, martin!

I have had aspirations to build an acoustic jumbo bass for a while. I did think about building a double bass, but we would probably need a bigger house!!!

Two years ago I saw Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon at a local music festival. Gordon played an acoustic bass throughout the set and I thought it sounded great. Of course both guitars were amplified as it was an outdoor stage.

Ever since then, I have also been considering building one. Go for it!

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http://driftwoodguitars.blogspot.com/

[QUOTE=LouisianaGrey] I used a 32" scale for my reso bass - less string tension that way and it's more comfortable to play than a regular scale but not as slack as a short-scale. On a 000 body that's put the body join at the 16th fret. Just chop the first fret off the Stew-Mac board and there you have it.[/QUOTE]

hmmmm that sounds doable........

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