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[g1]

It's been quite slow progress and I've still got a fair bit to do but I put together a small progress webpage of my Ashbory build:
http://people.cs.uct.ac.za/~dvsjef002/ashbory/

Mike, you don't mind me using that picture of yours do you?

[Mike Tavener]

Mike, you don't mind me using that picture of yours do you?

Not at all, spread the word. That's an interesting spin on the Ash, and I can't see any reason why it shouldn't sound a great as it looks. Mine tend to be a bit "safer" looking!
One question - you're going to radius the fret board, which I've not done and the factory Ash's are flat. What sort of radius are you goung for?  

Look forward to seeing it finished.

Mike

[g1]

I was planning quite a "tight" radius (4 inches), mainly for aesthetic reasons. But after having a go with a radius-ed sanding block on the ebony I think I may leave it flat (a lot of hard work  :lol:). I guess it would also be safer to keep it flat... I'll guess I see what I end up doing.

[Bassenstien]

wow  :-o looks great

[Brock]

It's been quite slow progress and I've still got a fair bit to do but I put together a small progress webpage of my Ashbory build:
http://people.cs.uct.ac.za/~dvsjef002/ashbory/

That's a VERY gutsy headstock design that turned out really cool.

It's fun to see where the parts end up!  Thanks for sharing.


-Brock

[honestjohnny]

That's awesome!!  How does it balance with the neck?  Keep updating the journal.

[pharaohamps]

The slotted / double bass style headstock is a great idea!  The extra break angle over the nut must help a lot with tuning stability, not to mention the strings probably don't pop out of the nut like on a regular Ash.  Did you make the bridge yourself?  It looks like the strings pass through holes instead of the slots I have on my stock bridge.

Matt Farrow

[loneguitarist]

 :mrgreen:That headstock is HOT! :evil:

Do you have any trouble with the strings rubbing against each other if you have too many winds around the posts? I was planning to do that for my homebuild but was worried about the same thing I just mentioned so then changed my design to a Wishbass-style square slotted headstock, but now I've seen that somebody else has trialled this headstock design I may go for the same thing.

 8-)

[g1]

Yeah I made the bridge myself, I'll try and get some decent pics of it. Well spotted the strings do pass through holes rather than slots. I almost made the hole for the g-string to big but a double knot works well. I also made my own pick-ups out of piezo buzzers. I've got two 20-ish mm diameter piezo's under the bridge and was going to put a bigger 1 in the body cavity. But decided against it to reduce the noise from playing it. I found at first that every little sound came through the amp (ie. if you knocked head/body if you slide your fingers along the back of the neck). However if you turn the highs right down then it filters out some of this noise.

I must just get the preamp working as then most of this noise will be filtered out and it will boost the bottom end a little (it will also give it the gain it needs). Some people say that you don't need a preamp with the piezo's but I'm finding that it will help quite a lot.

I found out that if I play it through my brother's guitar peddle I can give it some extra gain (whiles I'm still making the preamp work) and fiddling with the EQ gives it quite a good sound. I played it in front of it's first audience on saturday. I played a short (and out of tune) pink panther at my 21st party. It was quite out of tune (I'm still learning how to play fretless) but people have commented on it's tone and liked the sound.

The head came out really well in the end. It really does seem to help with the break-angle issue. It didn't hold tune that well for a day or 2 but seems to have settled now, which I hear is quite normal.
Despite my efforts it still is a pit difficult to use. The strings can be a pain to get into the tuners But once there in they're fine. I do have a bit of a problem with stings rubbing against each other. When I designed it I didn't realise it would take so many turns around the pegs to tune to pitch, but it doesn't seem to be to much of an issue. I've only hade one string break so far and that was because I should have taken the strings off before attacking the headstock with a file.

Still got a bit to do put hopefully it won't be long before I'm finished.
- I must get the preamp working.
- Try and get hold of some sub-miniture pots, the normal sized pots look like it's going to be a squash.
- Complete the cavity at the back.
- make a cover for the back.
- put a curve across the face of the body.
- I want to make to fake f-holes out of ebony and glue them on to the body
- Then it's just sanding and finishing. I want to go for a tradition varnish like you would use on an upright/violin/etc

Although I'm due back at varsity on monday, so progress will be slowed again.

[pharaohamps]

I actually make preamps for piezo-equipped instruments (I do pedals mainly but the preamps are a nice little side-line.)  I've got one that drops into a Palatino EUB (electric upright bass,) and I tried it on my Ashbory this weekend with good results.  The preamp design is a good deal simpler, with a volume and passive tone control (treble roll-off,) but it fits in a very small body cavity.  In fact, it's smaller than a 9V battery, and it can be installed with or without any controls.  This is a shameless commercial plug, but if anyone is interested, please PM or email me.

Thanks,
Matt Farrow

[g1]

One or two new pics on http://people.cs.uct.ac.za/~dvsjef002/ashbory/

[Xrix]

Nice pic... one broken G-string there, I presume? :-D

Xrix.

[Brock]

One or two new pics on http://people.cs.uct.ac.za/~dvsjef002/ashbory/

That's a neat page. I like the rundown on what you saw before, and then what you decided to do from there.

I always get a kick out of project basses. Thanks for posting that up.


-Brock