Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

hi - recently finished a 3/4 size electric upright bass for my son. Specs are:
- 1051mm scale length
- tas myrtle body (kind of hollowed) with a vic ash cap.
- neck is vic ash with a jarrah strip
- fingerboard and tailpiece are grey ironbark
- bridge is vic ash
- tuners from stewmac
- 2 piezo discs on the tailpiece side of the bridge -> volume, tone and blender controls -> homemade tillman preamp http://www.till.com/articles/GuitarPreamp/
Got the idea of the piezos from here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3371&p=41066&hilit= ... scs#p41059

Many thanks to Bill Paulin for your help and great construction pics on the ozbassforum http://www.ozbassforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1484 Spent lots of time examining those pics.

Don't have sound clip yet as I need to replace one the strings that got damaged. But here's some pics for now.

Paul

Nice.....I like the lines of this, well done Paul, I'm sure your son loves it!

A thing of beauty, Paul.
Re: Tillman preamp....Where did you get hold of a J201 FET? I've been using a modified design with a more common MPF102 transistor. It's not directly interchangeable but with the mods it works a treat.
Your boy will be stoked.

Derek

Hi, I like that, looks like a fun build. I built one for a mate some years ago and enjoyed the challenge of treading new ground, it was a five string.

Very nice Paul,

I like your body rest solution and introducing a curve to the body. Hard to do on a long narrow shape. Most try for a recurve and the body isn't wide enough for that to work.

Taffy Evans wrote:Hi, I like that, looks like a fun build. I built one for a mate some years ago and enjoyed the challenge of treading new ground, it was a five string.

Taffy,
What scale length and did you get much out put from the B string? I built one as well and wasn't happy with the B.

Hi Bill, the bass had a good even response from all strings, possible due to the modified electric bass bridge I used, see pic.

oops, sorry 34" scale length.

Dekka wrote:A thing of beauty, Paul.
Re: Tillman preamp....Where did you get hold of a J201 FET? I've been using a modified design with a more common MPF102 transistor. It's not directly interchangeable but with the mods it works a treat.
Your boy will be stoked.

Derek

hi - the j201 came from Element14 http://au.element14.com/ (part no 1017715).

Thanks for the comments everyone. My son does like it.

And feel free to use that body shape Bill. Send you a template if you want one.

Paul.

Thanks for the offer Paul. I have a couple of early attempts still kicking around the workshop I look at from time to time.