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[Woodman13]

 

RubberBass

Posted up some pictures here of my baby.

Couldn't have done it without the help of all of the contributors to this forum and website.

Thanks to everyone. Especially those who posted up their wish list for improvements they'd like to see in a new version of the Ashbory.

Nuff with the talking and I will let the pictures speak for themselves.  Will list the features of this new bass in a future post. Your comments are always appreciated..........................









http://picasaweb.google.com/Gary.Mahony/RubberBass?feat=directlink

[Woodman13]

Gary's Rubber Bass

Specs..................

The materials......

Solid Maple Body
PurpleHeart Fretboard and BridgePlate
Nitrile, EPDM and Silicone strings all work well.
use 4, 5, 6 and 7mm strings

The dimensions.........

22 in scale (Dist from Nut to Bridge)
36in Total height
13in Width
1 1/8 in body thickness


Cool Styling Features....

Headstock looks like a cartoon hand
Tuning mechanism at Bridge
No Knots to tie anywhere. Strings lace up thru holes
All holes shaped to reduce string breakage at stress points
All Strings can be disengaged between playing sessions.
Strings stay in tune when re-engaged ( well pretty close)
Captured strings at the nut
Integral thumb rest on the fretboard
Comfortable balanced shape (seated or with neck strap)

Technicals.........

4 piezos under bridge
Phantom Powered Op-Amp circuitry. No Battery required but you do need phantom power.
Locking XLR cable
Bass Treble and Volume Controls
OP-Amp circuitry designed to mimic the sound of an acoustic bass. (Had an audio engineer friend help out with this important feature)


Tuning........

BEAD

The low B is Awesome. I already have 2 bass guitars tuned EADG and find the addition of a low B monster a real plus. Tuning the fourth string to G was a big problem for me. Now that the guitar is finished I may revisit EDAG tuning but for now I will stay with the low B.


Pictures...........

Added a picture of my new Rubber Bass next to 2 other basses I'd built last year. A P-Bass and Fretless Jazz. The P-Bass has a Padouk Body, Maple Neck and Cocobolo fretboard with Seymour Duncan pickups. The Fretless ( my favourite) has an African Blackwood fretboard that stands up nicely with flatwound strings.




More pics and thoughts about rubber strings piezo's and more to come.........

[redstriper]

That is well funky and I want one - wouldn't mind the p and j basses either !

[topher]

I'd love to know more about your pickup and preamp circuitry.

I built an Ash (see Baby Tiger in another forum thread here) and one of the problems I want to work on for my next model (probably a couple years away) is to come up with a spread-out, arched pickup that will let me spread the strings out more like an upright bass. Since you're getting a more upright bass sound in your preamp, I like that a whole lot.

Really great project! Love the cartoon hand idea.

[Woodman13]

Will have to start a new thread all about my struggles with piezo's.  It is a huge topic.

I must have tried 30 different piezo bridge combinations and am still convinced it can be improved.

Mostly I had the same problems everyone must have with piezos. They pickup too much of the body and neck noise. They can sound brittle and even feedback.

To answer your question.  I used 4 5/8 inch dia piezos. One under each string. So you could do the same.

I started out with 41mm diam bi-morph piezo's. One of these babys will pickup the sound of your strings no matter how far they are spread out.

The circuitry question I will leave to a new thread.

gary

[jkevinwolfe]

Gary,

Did you try strip piezos: one long strip that runs under the bridge? Initially I figured that a piezo for each string has to be the way to go. But after investigating many piezo pickups it seems that a single strip under the bridge with with a separate bridge piece for each string gives a pretty good sound.

BTW: Nice work.

Kevin

[Woodman13]

No , didn't try piezo strips or coax cable.

What I did try was 41mm bi-morph piezos.  Plenty of power from these. One is enough for sure. They pick up the sound of everything and to tell you the truth this is not a good thing.

What I have in there now is 4 20mm diameter pickups. The output is a little weaker but they sound better.

Did an interesting experiment with piezo film pickups where I added a little weight to the end of one.  These are the same pickups used in car alarms.  They sounded incredible. The absolute best by far. And no neck or body noise or even a trace of feedback. A big advantage was you could play with the sound by adjusting the weight at the end of the film strip.  Had a tough time balancing the sound from 4 strings. They are worth revisiting.

Some of this screams for photos and more info.  Bear with me and I will start a new post on this interesting topic.


gary

[Brock]

That is a really cool build. Very original yet looks quite practical. The straighter pull tuning is something I really wish the Ashbory Basses had.

I like the headstock. Very gutsy.

I'll leave my comments and questions about the piezo hunt for another thread.

Nice job!


-Brock

[Woodman13]

Thanks Brock.  Your kind comments are especially appreciated.  Thanks for hosting the website.

Has anyone noticed the strings can be easily disengaged between gigs?


gary

[topher]

I did notice and I thought that was a pretty cool feature! I leave my home-built Ash up to tension and just replace/retie strings as they break.

I play the instrument quite a lot (most weeks, a rehearsal and one or two gigs) and I've broken maybe three strings in two years, so it is not all that much of an issue. And yanking them a few times before installation makes them stable pretty fast. (I am using the fender strings right now, but intend to try the orange ones some time when I run low on spares - I bought a bunch of them)

[Woodman13]

Thanks Topher,

You are right.  Removing the string tension between gigs is probably not required.

I've had this guitar strung up under tension with the same strings for months and they haven't broke yet. 

gary

[Woodman13]

 
Have had a chance to play this bass for several months now.

Some observations on the design.

If I did it over (and I probably will) I'd make a change to the way the strings are tensioned.  There is a problem with the strings sticking at the bridge which makes it difficult to tune. The string tension is pretty much assured to be different on the fretboard side as compared to the tensioning side.

I think this must be a similar issue with the stock Ashbory's where the string may stick in the nut.

A friend of mine suggested a roller type bridge or nut. Sounds like a solution but tough to implement.



The problem is pretty easily solved by lifting the string either at the nut or bridge in my case to help keep the bass in tune.

gary

[topher]

On my baby tiger bass, I have certainly noticed that the string sticks in the nut. I lift it up to equalize tension after changing the tuner.

But this is also not always bad. Sometimes I can make a very quick (like between two notes of a song) tuning adjustment by tugging the string over the nut one way or the other.

I have a trick I like to do at the very end of some songs in D, where for the last note of the song I'll reach over the nut and pull the E string towards the fingerboard. I can stretch it a whole tone down to D! it's a big long slow bend, and then before the next tune, I have to readjust it. Sounds very cool if the timing is right.

Finally, I play exactly one song with a drop-D tuning on the E string. I've found that tugging the string up and over the tuner, and unlooping the string one time, I get pretty close to D. Then I adjust for that tune. When done, I reloop it over the top of the tuner and retune and off I go.

[Woodman13]

Topher,

You are right having the string stick in the nut is no problem at all.  When I was working out my initial designs I thought it would have been  and even considered using rollers like you might see on some bass bridges. Too complicated and not needed.

What I did find was that it is important to size the width of the nut and bridge slots to be tight with the strings.  You need to stretch the strings and measure the diameter of the strings to size the gaps.  If you size the gaps to the unstrecthed diameter the strings will be loose and give an odd buzzing sound.

There is an Indian stringed instrument that has its bridge shaped this way so that the strings slightly buzz.  If you set something up like this on an Ashbory it sounds like a distortion pedal.

Topher Keep it up and always experiment. Way to go and thanks for the tip.

[Blackthorne]

All three of your basses look fabulous. Acoustic bass next to complete the set?