henry norton

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1379959031' post='2218784'] Anyone can shape a fingerboard ........................... wether it's the shape you need to make it playable is another matter [/quote] Yeah right on to that

Yeah it's probably because everyone's out to get you!!!!!!!!! Or.... it might be that the original shop (or original owner) was a bit embarrassed about it being a relatively cheap Chinese bass.

I reackon if you keep the body thick enough you won't have any problem with the gap between the bridge and the rest of the body. My question is, are you going to carve the details into the body or paint them onto flat surfaces? I'm hoping you'll carve so it really does look like the real thing.

+1 on all the above [b][u]But[/u][/b] I would suggest even a cheapo double bass with a decent setup and decent strings will give you a good inroad into uprights. It won't have the rich, warm sound of a nice carved top but it'll still sound like a DB. You can cut your teeth on it then sell it on without losing much if any money. If you're into Double Basses then buy a Double Bass. An EUB is as far from a DB as, say a classical guitar is from a Stratocaster going into a master volume Marshall. I'd visit a couple of DB specialists and have a go on a few for a start.

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1379780069' post='2216716'] Love that blonde on your website BTW [/quote] Not mine sad to say - it's a 1950's German laminate and a very nice one at that. A DB's value follows a slightly different pattern to vintage Fenders. Age has a certain influence on the price, but name and history will have a far greater effect, so with your budget you could probably pick up a very very nice German or French factory bass which'll have had the benefit of having been played for 150 years, possibly a top grading, back tuned and generally fussed over. An English or name Italian bass of the same age will cost you ten times that. It might sound better, might sound pretty similar but allot of the value is in the name and the history. Valuations are very tricky, as you're comparing a specific manufacturer's range of instruments (Fender) with effectively every double bass that's ever been made.... Valuations (even from so-called 'professionals') vary massively, and I still think the best path to a decent DB is to try as many privately listed instruments as possible and avoid shops altogether. If someone's taking the p#ss, you'll see it in the cracks, bad sound, soundpost in the wrong place etc. and you might come across just what you want. You can't really compare them to bike frames - steel frames are obsolete for serious road racing whereas it's effectively the opposite for DB's. If bike frames followed the same pattern as a DB, a steel frame would stiffen up, become more responsive, ride and look better the more it's used.

If you're coming into town to go to Thwaites, you may as well take the time to head out to the Contrabass Shoppe in Surrey. Both shops know how to charge but when you're spending thousands you have to try before you buy.... Bridgewood & Niezert in Stoke Newington always had a few DB's in when I lived there and they seem to cater for the more reasonably priced end of the scale. Gallery Strings are in Hastings, Sussex. Peter usually has frighteningly old and famous basses in stock (like tens of thousands of pounds) but apparently he's happy to do instruments for mere mortals too. If this turns into a DB road trip you may as well go see Martyn Bailey in Essex and finally taking in Thomas Martin in Banbury on your way back to Wales. I'm sure if you manage all of them you'll never want to look at another double bass again [size=4] [/size]

[quote name='mtroun' timestamp='1379750632' post='2216373'] I think the appeal of all things American is because it's a big country with lots of bass players who are all on talkbass and therefore one manufacturer gets well known to talkbass readers over in the UK. I'm sure Upton make nice instruments but there are no magic instruments, there's just a variety of options at different price points... [/quote] As I posted previously, the Upton ranges within your budget are built to a specific (relatively low) price - they're not 'master built' instruments and you won't get a better instrument than one that's come from a Chinese factory (like Jay Haide). The likes of Upton are unlikely to offer to 'dumb down' the price on the invoice either. Just stick to the UK or Europe.

[quote name='AndrewRichards' timestamp='1379702000' post='2215987'] I did have a look, well heres the thing... I could go and try a double bass, seem which one I want. My aunt could then buy it and when she comes over to the UK bring it with her. (surely as it's her bass and she would have documentation for buying it in the USA and would be returning there) surely she could bring it over with no VAT charges? The other thing I would be petrified is flying it over, even in a flight case surely it wouldnt' be 100% safe? [/quote] I used to import quite a bit of stuff from the US and the worst mistake to make is presuming customs haven't already thought of all the scams. You might get away with it but it's best to factor import duty and vat onto anything you by over there. That way you won't be scratching around for a couple of grand to release your new bass from the bonded warehouse [size=4] [/size]

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1379693644' post='2215842'] Above people are talking about Bryants as if they're still being produced, did I miss something? [/quote] So far as I know he stopped making instruments for specific customers but he's still making a few at his leisure, which all seem to go. I hope you're still taking care of that lovely maple fretless P Chris [size=4] [/size]

I get what you mean. 1. [size=4]You could go for the safe option, a Chinese factory made bass set up by Martyn Bailey. It'll be well set up and will play nicely and probably sound very nice, but the downside is it will always be a Chinese factory bass made to a certain price with constraints on time and materials, and will probably go down in value if selling it on is an option in the future.[/size] [size=4]2. You could effectively add a third again to your budget by buying a bass in the States. Upton are certainly well liked over there and presumably they'd set it up well as they have a reputation to keep. The downside is once it's back over here you won't have much recourse if anything goes wrong unless you're prepared to go through allot of hassle shipping it back and forth. The other issue is the Brescian within your budget will be a 'standard' model, not one of their 'special or professor' models, so like the Jay Haide, it'll be made to a certain set of criteria but is effectively a 'production' bass.[/size] [size=4]3. The wild card Bryant. The flawed genius amongst the choices. You'll undoubtedly get closer to a master built instrument than either of the other two, and I know they hold their value pretty well, that's asides from his imminent retirement which certainly won't harm the value. The down side is their reputation of needing a bit of work, but even a board shoot and new bridge won't add a huge amount to the budget (a couple of hundred quid?).[/size] [size=4]It's pretty rare for any player to be totally comfortable with a new instrument - it'll need a few months of really good hard playing to open it up, and unless it starts out unplayable, it's probably wise to play it a good while before you decide whether you want it darker, brighter, more balanced, less growly. It doesn't matter how well it's set up when you buy it, I'll pretty much guarantee you'll want it changed in some way after a few months.[/size] [size=4]I would go for a Bryant, no hesitation.[/size]

Well London's less than a hundred miles from Southampton and you have a choice of shops there. It'll be worth your while going somewhere like Thwaites in Watford to take a look and have a play of a few instruments. I don't think they sell mega-cheap laminates like you'll find on Fleabay but it'll give you a good idea what you could get for your money and also what you could trade up to when you've got a bit more experience/cash. I wouldn't necessarily buy one from a dealer as they all have a hefty mark up - it's also a good idea to set aside a couple of hundred from your budget to get the DB set up - that way you know you won't be fighting high strings, a flat board and badly positioned sound post. Getting strings to suit the style you want to play will help allot too. There are plenty of threads on here discussing the various virtues of different strings and setups. Size wise 3/4 is pretty standard. A 7/8 or full size bass is quite rare, usually a fair bit bulkier, heavier, more difficult to play (longer string length and a larger body to get around) and generally used more for orchestral stuff. They may be more difficult to move on if/when you decide to upgrade too.

No. The Busetto is just another evolutionary path from the viol to the violin, a path the double bass has never quite completed, which is why there are so many variations in shape, size and construction. Sound-wise nobody actually has a definitive answer as to the difference so it's really down to what you like the look of. By the way, Abraham Prescott made Busettos which were apparently huge and consequently only suitable for real men

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1379372990' post='2212014'] Have to say I'm falling in love with the Roth & Junius, given it's £1.5k over budget, someone please tell me it's crap [/quote] You could probably save yourself a few hundred quid finding a model by Roth & Junius without the little carvings around the corners and peg box. It's also a swell back, so that'll add a fair few hundred to the price - If you don't mind a flat back or plainer finish it might be worth trawling around for a different model - if you're in love with the swell back and carvings though you might have to find another 1.5k. Maybe you could sell your car [size=4] [/size]

+1 to all the above but one particular issue with the F[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=4]ernandes Gravity 5 Deluxe is that it's a relatively unique shaped thru neck bass, so when it comes to building up a bitsa bass using parts from the internet you might find you'll be waiting a long time to for a used thru necked bass in need of pickups, hardware etc. to come up, or you'll end up compromising with a bolt on neck or maybe having to do allot of work on the body to fill in big humbucker holes to put your Bart J's in. Do the maths first though - it's not a hugely expensive bass and you may well find you spend more on wood and parts than you would on a decent used one.[/size][/font][/color]

David Dyke [url="http://www.luthierssupplies.co.uk/"]http://www.luthierssupplies.co.uk/[/url] or Touchstone [url="http://www.touchstonetonewoods.co.uk/"]http://www.touchstonetonewoods.co.uk/[/url]. They're both based in the Shandy Drinking, Big Girls Blouse wearing South East but they're world renowned and post wood all over the world. I don't usually bother driving down to Redhill (Touchstone) or Horam (David's) if it's just plain wood for an electric even though I'm only an hour or two away. The postage is pretty reasonable. Give them a call and talk through what you need - they're totally cool and deal with first time builders all the time.

Now that's very tempting indeed....

[quote name='Groove Harder' timestamp='1378240319' post='2197652'] Thanks for the reply. Yes, swapping the pickups round solved the volume issue, cheers for that. I'm not sure how to wire this up properly so that there is an even sweep throughout the 2 volume and 1 tone controls. As it is there is a sudden surge of volume in the last 8th of a turn rather than it increasing smoothly throughout the whole turn of the knobs. Cheers I have it wired up as 'Jazz Bass' wiring which must be causing this problem. As you can see, I'm a begineer with this sort of stuff but I enjoy it though! [/quote] Yeah that could be to do with the hugely different output of the Mudbucker - is it the new pickup or both of them you're having trouble with? Most passive electric guitar/bass circuits use logarithmic pots which have all the 'change' in a relatively small portion of the entire sweep of the volume/tone knob, so that's kind of normal, but you might find altering the pot to one of a different value will even it out a bit. I looked at my EB today but couldn't see what value they actually are but it's likely they're 500k so maybe try changing to 250k for the pot in question. If you've wired it up VVT like a Jazz it should work pretty well otherwise.

Yup, PM'd right back. Yeah I did just that, although I ended up wiring the tone control on my Epi EB-0 as the volume for the bridge pickup as I got hold of a very cool passive rotary tone selector so didn't bother with a rotary tone in the end. Regarding the puny stock Epiphone pickup it's very different in output to most original and replacement Mudbuckers. In fact, I ended up putting my replacement mudbucker in the neck position and moving the low output, more trebly stock (neck) pickup to the bridge position as I found the replacement was way too bassy and wooly for the bridge.

Yeah I own a cheapo half size - it's much easier to chuck in the car and generally move around. I doesn't sound that bad either - I think allot of the bad rep cheapo basses have is due to bad (no) setup and cheap strings.

No worries. The thing about the Model 1 is it's a very different pickup to the original mudbucker - much lower impedence and clearer, like a normal humbucker, whereas the mudbucker is massively overwound so if you're going for a model 1 sound, you probably won't need a cap, the position at the neck will probably be enough.

None that I know of although Curtis Novak makes a replacement Mudbucker and he might be able to modify his bobbins and metalwork to stretch his version into a 5. You'll probably have to re-mortgage your house for it though [size=4] The other option would be to fit a soapbar or MM5 in the neck position - it'll give you a close enough sound to the Model 1 or if you prefer the big, woolly sound of the original Mudbucker, you could ask a company like Nordstrand to massively overwind one of their MM5's.[/size]

[quote name='Myke' timestamp='1373420419' post='2137462'] Hmm.. Maybe I will then, give up on the ply and order some solid wood. Now to choose.. I have no idea about what woods to choose. Price will probably play a factor here hence the reason for the build and not just buying a Kala (but also the pride of building my own) Any suggestions? Andy, I highly doubt it's going to be anywhere as good as your acoustic, that walnut is lush! And the three piece neck! And don't worry guys, any problems and this'll be my first port of call. [/quote] Maple or Mahogany will work very well and is much cheaper than the likes of rosewood, koa walnut etc. There's too much bullsh#t surrounding different woods especially with a set of thunky, wooly uke strings thrown into the equation. Maple and mahogany bend very nicely and maple in particular finishes beautifully without needing fillers, sealers and stuff. There are quite a few books covering bending sides and bracing fronts of guitars, most of which will apply equally to a uke type instrument - it's not too difficult.

HaHa! Now we're getting somewhere! You'll probably find it's easier to make a uke, guitar or any acoustic out of solid wood rather than ply. If you just want to practice on ply first the thickness won't really matter so any old sh#t will do. Once you feel a bit more confident you can get some cheapish guitar wood from [url="http://www.touchstonetonewoods.co.uk/products/guitar-mandolin-lute-wood-23/"]here[/url] Don't forget to keep asking questions on the forum too...

[quote name='Myke' timestamp='1373226329' post='2135086'] I was planning to use the strings that the Kala U-Bass uses, as that's what I'm basing my idea around [/quote] Well the U Bass has a compensated bridge so maybe you could copy that. Just look at a picture on the internet, measure it and scale it up to fit whatever you're building.... ....What are you building???? I'm super-intrigued

[quote name='Myke' timestamp='1373043039' post='2133184'] I'm building it for a bass with a 21inch scale length, if this changes anything? [/quote] You'll still need some kind of compensation as even a 21 inch scale will find the strings stretching a fair bit when they're fretted. Is this for a ukelele - 21" scale with metal strings would mean they'd have to be thick as tree trunks!!!