Acoustic Bass Guitar Q's

Steve Kinnaird · **Posted:** Sat May 15, 2010 9:46 pm

How many of you have experience building Acoustic Bass Guitars?
Martin uses a 34" scale on theirs, and are there others who have done the same? Perhaps different scale lengths?
How have you approached your bracing for such an instrument?
What do you feel is a "minimum" size box?

Thanks for any opinions,

Steve

Tom West · **Posted:** Sun May 16, 2010 9:33 am

Steve: The Big Red Book #1 has an eight page artical by Tim Olsen with some plans but not a lot of info on the plans re: brace height but certainly good for layout. Good luck.
Tom

Dave White · **Posted:** Sun May 16, 2010 10:45 am

Steve,

Check out Dave Highams acoustic bass guitar build here on the Luthier Community.. Plenty of food for thought.

Steve Kinnaird · **Posted:** Sun May 16, 2010 10:03 pm

Thanks guys for the helpful nods.
Tom, I've got every AL in print, and I remember Tim's article being in one of 'em. That will be an interesting hunt. (No Big Red Book... :cry:

)

Dave, I'll stroll over there now...thanks!

Steve

martinedwards · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 6:11 am

the problem, as we all know, is volume

as in the size of the thing.

I made one based on a dread. (the only dread in my stable)

34" scale neck/body join at the 15th fret and the bridge moved ack accordingly. I shrunk the soundhole a bit as I read somewhere that big soundholes made regular acoustics more trebley.......

I was pleasantly surprised with how much volume I got from it. it's loud enough for playing along with an acoustic guitar, but it really SHOULD be amplified.

Oh yeah, bridge pins.......

forget using regular pins as the ball ends on bass strings are huge.

I ended up just feeding the strings in through the bridge from the back and forgetting about the pins altogether.

Tom West · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 10:02 am

Steve:If you have them in order and know where you put them for safe keeping your in luck.AL#9 1987 will do the trick.Sorry I don't have the page #....!! [:Y:]

Bill Hodge · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 10:11 am

Steve I've currently got one in the works and I'm using a body size similar to the Martin MJ. Below are some pics of the bracing configuration I'm using and I expect to have this unit completed and playable in the next few weeks. I know of a former builder in WA that used a deeper 18" lower bout with a 22" body length with great success and this guy was a pro bassist. I don't like the super sized body so I'm trying some variations and my LB is only 16" with a depth of 4 7/8". I'll let you know how it turns out. This is a 5 String 34" scale based upon the Gibson's 34".

Oh yeah, ignore the TiteBond in the shot. I used Fish Glue!

Steve Kinnaird · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 11:53 am

Thanks guys.
Martin, did you try using end pins for the bridge pins? That seems to be the solution I've seen most often, as inelegant as they are.

Tom, thank you very much. They are indeed in order, right across the room.

Bill, thanks for the photo. I will await your results with great eagerness. It looks to me like you really tightened up your "X" brace. And if memory serves, that's what Tim Olsen did for his bass.
Was that to pull out some treble, or just a matter of needing to catch the ends of the bridge?

Thanks again,

Steve

Bill Hodge · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 12:00 pm

Steve Kinnaird wrote:

Bill, thanks for the photo. I will await your results with great eagerness. It looks to me like you really tightened up your "X" brace. And if memory serves, that's what Tim Olsen did for his bass.
Was that to pull out some treble, or just a matter of needing to catch the ends of the bridge?

Thanks again,

Steve

Pullin' out some treble was the idea on this one!

Steve Kinnaird · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 12:02 pm

Gotcha...so are you also going to use bronze strings?
And what gauges?

SK

Bill Hodge · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 12:12 pm

DR Handwound Phosphor Bronze.

5 strings

1st .045
2nd .065
3rd .085
4th .105
5th .125

Steve Kinnaird · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 1:53 pm

Thanks. Now, what's typical gauges for a 4-stringer?
(I'm such a 6-string guitar guy!)

Steve

Bill Hodge · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 2:06 pm

Steve it can vary some but I'd venture to say that an avg. set for a 4 str AB would be Gauges: .045; .065; .080; .100 but there are more experienced bass builders here than I who can attest as to how accurate that is.

Also a note about scale length:
Choosing strings for bass is a little trickier than for other guitars because you must select the correct length for the scale of the instrument you have.

Steve Kinnaird · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 9:43 pm

Again, Bill, thanks!

Any others? Opinions? No need to be shy....

Steve

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