Boyd Rollins wrote:

My son plays upright string bass. He is after me to buy him a better one
that is a "fully carved" orchestral one.....and not made from plywood.
"Better" equals, oh, about $18K. Ack. Fully carved means (typically) two
pieces of wood joined/shaped for the front of the bass, and the same for
the back.

It's gotten my interest such that I would like to make one....or two, or
three until I finally get it right. My mistakes can be sold/given/donated
to the local middle school assuming they are not hideously screwed up and
moderately playable. Will I ever make one good enough? Not likely, but
hey, I think it'd be fun....hence, the draw to try it. Do you realize how
-few- bass luthiers there are out there? Damn few. With 3 year waiting
lists. Big market for the ambitious and skillful.

That said, finding chunks of wood large enough for a project like this is
-very- challenging. At this point I could care less that the first few be
genuine "tonewood" (Spruce, Maple). I just want to find some wood to
experiment....and make some sawdust! Dimensions are TWO pieces that are
50" x 14-1/2" x 3" and then tapering down to 1/2". These are glued
together to form the front...and pretty much the same goes for the back.
http://www.hvgb.net/~tonewood/prod02.htm indicates the cost for tonewood
of these dimensions. High.

Yes, I'm thinking CNC router here I've also thought carbon fiber
composite.....but that's another story for another newsgroup.

So, wood-gods.....is it me, or is it just impossible to find relatively
inexpensive wood in these dimensions? Believe me, I've
clicked/search/googled for quite some time now and cannot find hardwoods
in large enough dimensions that don't cost an arm, leg and mortgage.

Sure, I could have more than 2 pieces for the front and for the back, but
it just struck me that as odd that there are, well, 'limits' to the size
of solid wood! I guess what we're talking about however is pretty much
taking out the whole trunk of a very large tree.

Random thoughts welcome here. Thanks.

Forget clicking, searching, and googling, get out your phone book and find a
hardwood lumber yard, most of which have never heard of the Internet.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)