Lets build an abbreviated (double) bass!

[Cathode_Follower]

Greetings Basschatters,

Like many on these forums, I have long been lusting after a David Gage Czech Ease bass. Sadly the £5000 or so price tag has always been beyond my reach, which has had me thinking for a while - how possible would it be to create a budget clone?

Recently I've been lucky enough to make the acquaintance of a skilled luthier. Julie currently works as a guitar builder but she's also previously built and repaired violins which are fundamentally the same as uprights (yes, sadly it turns out that double-basses really are just big violins). Together we hatched a plan to build our own 'abbreviated bass'! Also, why not try making it headless, as an extra space bonus?

Ultimately we'd like to create an instrument from scratch, but as a proof-of-concept it seemed sensible to purchase a cheap 3/4 on which to experiment. We went to view several potential victims in the £300 range, before settling on a marked-down Gear4Music for the princely sum of £360, plus £11.99 postage (RRP £450, surface damage to the finish).

She arrived today in the included hardcase in mercifully un-broken condition, and I took a few minutes resetting the bridge, which had been removed for transit, and tuned her up. She really doesn't sound too bad! Good strong voice across the whole range, no dead spots, plenty of sustain, modern sound but not overly nasal with the cheap steel strings.

I should at this point make it clear that this project is being undertaken with sincere apologies to Mr Gage! I hope he would find it amusing and not an insult to his years of work and experimentation that went into creating the magnificent Czech Ease! I'd like to state now that any proprietary information that comes to light in the process of reverse-engineering his work will not be shared. Deepest respect and love to all the David Gage team.

To that end, I'd like to reach out to any CE owners out there who would be interested in contributing to this project in the form of providing information on the build of their instrument. We'd love to be able to get some pictures of the inside of one, for example! Please PM me if you can help.

More to follow!

Rich

Edited April 27, 2019 by Cathode_Follower

[mybass]

Where and how is the internal soundpost situated. Usually it sits from the back to the belly/ front of the bass, situated around and underneath where the bridge sits. If it isn’t in place there is a strong possibility of the belly being put under huge stress and possible collapse? 

[Cathode_Follower]

@mybass Do you mean in a CE? I'd assume it's situated in the normal place but that's definitely something that would be helped by having internal photos. If you're referring to the donor-bass, I did check the soundpost before restringing and it was luckily still in the correct position!

Edited April 10, 2019 by Cathode_Follower

[TPJ]

Cool project.

I imagine the bass bar will need cutting and/or replacing as they tend to run most of the length of the top. I'm sure your luthier friend will know. 

Looking forward to seeing how this turnes out.

Edited April 11, 2019 by TPJ

[Cathode_Follower]

@TPJ Yes that's going to be interesting.. we're hoping to be able to do the conversion without removing the top, so any work on the bassbar will have to be done by practically crawling inside the instrument! I've also read anecdotal evidence on the CE website that suggests the bassbar design was a key factor in getting the CE to sound right, another reason for wanting to get those internal shots.

[Cathode_Follower]

So this afternoon I had the opportunity to spend some time measuring the bass up for the new sides (or ribs, depending on your lingo). Initially we thought we could shorten and re-bend the original sides and reuse them, but quickly realised that because of the upward curvature of the top, the new sides would need to flare out wider at the saddle area once the new bottom-bout shape had been cut, so the old sides would not be wide enough. On inspection of various photos, this seems to be the case for the CE too, so thankfully no reshaping of the top is required. Likewise it looks like the CE top is not tapered to a consistent thickness at the edges, such as on a regular bass, but remains thicker around the tailpiece area - Essentially they do seem to really be simply 'abbreviated basses' as DG calls them.

Attached are a few mockups, showing how the bass body should look once modified, and to illustrate just how much is being removed! There is also a CE for comparison (I think it looks acceptably similar!). It's also worth noting that the lower bout on a CE is actually a compound curve, not a straightforward arc, which is something we'll have to consider when marking-up. Also, note the shorter string distance from bridge to tailpiece - interesting!

That's all for the moment. The search for wood for new sides commences.

Rich

 

Edited April 23, 2019 by Cathode_Follower