Random Guitarist

Pretentious title perhaps? After finishing up the Pitbull fretless I have been pondering building something for fun. I like the idea of a headless bass. I also like the idea of using renewable stuff. I ended up drawing incredibly crude ideas in paint and went from this: To This: In my imagination it's a kind of 'what bass would Kraftwerk build if Kraftwerk built basses.' I'm going to build with cheap wood from the local timber merchant (red grandis or rose gum) because it's cheap ands I don't really know what I'm doing. Also using a richlite finger board for similar reasons. So far i've laminated, laid stuff out, admired the straitness of the grain through the lanimations, and rough shaped the neck.

Final Thoughts. As my original thread title implied this would be a review I think I should do a summing up of some sort. Obviously this is all my opinion, and based on a single sample kit. I very quickly found that the supplied pickups have weak output and are microphonic. Really quite unusable. I splashed out on some Kent Armstrong claymore soap bars. They are very slightly smaller than the original pickups but fit the routed holes well. These pickups sound excellent just wired as humbuckers. I did add three-way switches for parallel/split/series, and that really adds to the range of sounds. The neck scarf joint proved to be inadequately glued and opened quite suddenly, Luckily the fingerboard held everything in alignment, and I was able to re-glue it with Titebond and plenty of clamps. I was able to use the original pots and knobs and the neck ferrules/screws. Those parts are perfectly fine. The rest of the hardware is, in my opinion sub-standard except the bridge. So much so that I couldn’t put things like the pickups on e-bay and sell them on without a very bad conscience. As far as cost/value goes the result is a decent mid-priced feel bass, with very basic wood choices, for a cost of £450. (This excludes the optional bridge upgrade and a good set of strings) If I just wanted a guitar to play then I could buy a new Sire for similar money, and I’d be playing a good instrument out the box. The kit is worth it if you buy it with the right expectations. If a beginner bought one of these kits expecting to get a good bass cheaply, they’d be disappointed, the used market is full of better ready to play options. For my part, I am playing this bass a lot, and am building something else from scratch. There is a real possibility that the kit is a ‘gateway drug’ for bass building!

Hi, can post a pic tomorrow when I am home, in the mean time you can see a small pciof them here: https://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/guitars/pit-bull-guitars-ib-4-electric-4-string-bass-guitar-kit-copy/

That is very beautiful, and sounds great. Superb work. 🏆

Pair of soap bar pickups from a cheap Chinese origin kit. Low output and somewhat microphonic. Ideal for low budget sonic masochist. Yours for the price of postage or collection.

The thousand pounds thing is a commonly quoted number that is very safe. There will be a significant safety factor, lifting slings and suchlike are typically specified to break at something like five times their rated load. I'd be surprised if the breaking strain of a vertical timber is not similarly weighted. If I had to guess I'd go with a 3x factor. (Some extra googling indicates x3 seems pretty reasonable)

How much of your 2x4 cross section is left? A standard 2x4 can support support a 1000lbs without too much strain. That's a vertical straight 2x4. If you have removed half of the 2x4 area to make a playable neck then You could reasonably estimate 500lbs strength remains. Assume the new cable applies 50 of tension opposing the strings than you're up to around 150lbs total which should be fine. Another factor will be leverage, the more deeply recessed the cable is the closer it is to the effective centreline of the wood, and the more tension will be required. On the other hand, the more shallow the recess is the closer the tensioned cable is to your hand if anything should go wrong.

Thanks for the link it seems like it might be OK laminated. Density and herness are in the zone, shrinkage sounds a little worrying. I'm thinking maybe I cut it down and laminate it, then leave it to sort itself out for a few weeks while I try to figure out what I am actually building. (I'm thinking headless and thin, but have got no further)

Grandis !!! Red Grandis !!! (blessed spell checker)

Does any one have any thoughts on this timber and its suitability for a bass neck? I was in my local wood merchant this morning and it caught my eye. Straight even grain, not too heavy and it feels a sensible weight. The piece I got was £13 for a straight beautifully planed piece that at 2.4m should provide me with four good lamination pieces. When tapped the resonance is quite high and clear. Any thoughts cautions and advice will be very welcome.

May I ask where you source the brass inserts? <removed poor attempt at humour>

Title says it all really. I recently finished a Pitbull kit build and am now dreaming of my first original build, sketching body shapes like the deluded child I am I'm not 100% sure I want lines, but would love to know my best approach to adding lines if wanted. Any advice gratefully received. Many Thanks, Grant.

Thanks for the comments. I hear you on the ruggedness aspect. The intention is to use it for home practice and an acoustic group I'm in. In the acoustic group the designated bass player has one of those acoustic basses that has a pleasant but quiet tone, so need to just get enough level to match my heavy handed six-string shenanigans. There is only one downside, I find myself perusing speaker specs and considering more builds. A similar 2x6.5 or 2x8 could be fun . . .

At risk of looking or sounding like a bandwagoneer @Pea Turgh inspired me with his build of the design by @Phil Starrand this happened . . . Mine is built from MDF (bad choice) using a Fenton "200w" speaker from ebay. The seller claims the driver goes down to 35hz but doesn't supply a graph. I put a port in 'tuned' for around 38Hz and am quite happy with the bottom E provided by the arrangement. Overall the sound feels balanced and it's a very worthwhile project. I feel that the smaller speaker does provide more nuance on how I'm playing and is valuable even if it only provides evidence of my technical flaws. Luckily I had a handle and other bits lying about so it cost me the £30 for the driver.

Yes I pondered that for a moment. But it is (b+c)/2. I have Post Diameter 'D', String Thickness 'S', and the formula for circumference of a circle C =2 * pi * R My effective radius is half the diameter plus half the post thickness R = D / 2 + S/2 which equivalent to (D+S)/2 From this C= 2 * pi * (D+S) / 2 The expressions to mulitply and divide by 2 cancel leaving C = pi * (D + S)

Yes, that appears to be the case.

Being bored I attached a pointer made out of a post-it note to the top of my tuner and measured the rotation of the post required to go from pitch to slack. The E (.105) needed 1/8th of a full rotation, the G (.045) needed 3/16ths. The tuner post is 11.1mm diameter which stirred together I think gives: Note 1: This was with TI flats Note 2: I need to get out more

Sounds really useful, can you share any details on name/location?

Do you know for sure that the pickup works if it is used? From your description either the pickup is dead or you have shorted the signal wire to earth, or a wire has become disconnected/ broken. Can you share a picture or 2 of the cavity?

I'd be pretty concerned that the plastic bit around the blocks might separate under tension. Also, that plastic is quite pliable you might get an interesting/unwanted pitch change as you pluck. Sorry that sounds really negative, it might work!

This is a really interesting thread and I have been following as I have been wondering about a build with some similar aspects. I really like the idea of a smaller bass, shortening it by removing much of the headstock, putting a roller wheel at the bottom of the bass and taking the string around the back. But I've been struggling to think how the tuner might work. The thought that has just occurred to me is that I don't need to make the end of the string move. I just need to fix it and then somehow apply tension. Which leads me to this bad diagram This intuitively feels like it would be quite simple to make and not have too many moving parts. By slackening the tuning knob the string would be released from tension and the end slide off the pin or other fixing, allowing strings to be changed without tools. I think the biggest question in my mind is how much movement in the tensioner would be needed to bring the string to pitch so long as there is enough adjustment for that it could perhaps work. Another possibility might be to make the pulley move in and out, but that makes the instrument longer and would need a more robust pulley frame to keep things rigid under tension.

One other thing I'd mention which I don't think has been said. It's a pretty good idea (IMHO) to use a drill with a fairly wide bit to drill out a lot of the cavity space before routing. It's a lower risk way of cutting and easier to clear the debris out. If you just start routing without predrilling it's very easy for the cavity to get clogged up with fine router shavings. Pre-drilling also allows you to take lighter cuts, which are generally safer and easier to control.

Yes exactly right. You can use other bits/methods but the bearing bits are easy to use and the templates match the final shape exactly.

Not a guru but ... By the time the bearing drops below the thickness of the template the thing you are routing should be the right shape at the top where the bearing now runs, and will guide it. Also remember you can get bits with different lengths of cutting surface. And yes, so long as you are careful the bottom of the surface you are routing can be super clean. I bought the Erbauer palm router from screwfix earlier this year to supplement a big heavy plunge router, and am very happy with it. Being lightweight with a slow start it's easy to handle, and cheap I'd suggest the most essential accessory is a lump of perspex sheet to make a bigger base for it. The bigger base will make the router more stable so it is safer, less likely to tip in use, and able to rout wider holes with a clean flat cavity. Whatever router you use remember there is a horribly sharp whirling bit, and keep your fingers away. (the bigger base helps with this)

Thanks both! I have been playing a lot today and am pretty happy with the outcome. @SpondonBassed I took a better look at your build thread, and was amused to see you having the same extra tasks chosen, recessing the cover plate and the jack socket. I like your approach of temporarily plugging the jack socket hole with a dowel.