On Tue, 04 Jul 2006 01:57:56 GMT, "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.




Well, I'm not sure where you can get the tonewood, however, my Son
played a Jon Jusek laminated base all through high school. We tried
to buy it (it belonged to the high school strings association) when he
graduated, however they wouldn't sell.

We ended up buying him a new base with a solid spruce top. Granted,
not the $18K variety, one of those Chinese jobs with a fine Europeon
name stenciled on it.

It is a whole lot more delicate than the laminated base. I spend many
of my woodworking hours doing repairs on the thing. Partially, I'm
sure a testiment to its origin and partially because the solid basses
are just more delicate. He has to stuff it in his car to get back and
forth to his lessons and playing jobs, and then drag it up to his dorm
room.

Wish we had bought an old Kay or some other laminated base. Tried,
couldn't find any to buy.

However, the link below may help you out. I've used this forum for a
lot of help on the repairs.

http://www.violins.on.ca/cgi-bin/ubb...r=1&DaysPrune=

Frank