The Bassist, who was 17 on Friday, has added to his Bass-player credibility by making his own bass. Yes, from scratch,with wood and stuff. It was his Dad's idea - he thinks that you can do anything as long as you've got a book telling you how. Sadly, he's often right.
This is the result.
For those of you who know about these things, it was going to have a through neck but something warped and the strings lay too low on the fretboard (there's a technical term for this but I've forgotten it and, as the B is at school and the UFF is still in bed as befits a gap-year student, you will have to remain in ignorance. Or not if you know about these things.). So he had to buy a ready-made neck and attach it which was a bit sad but the bass plays beautifully. Apparently, not varnishing it gives it better low tone... he might wax it but then again, it sounds so good as it is he might not want to block up any spaces in the wood... Hmmm.
There are technical details about bridges, pickups etc which I can supply on request if readers of this blog are remotely interested, but only when the Bassist comes home.
I am amazingly impressed - at his age I could barely make toast...
6 comments:
I could never make such a thing in a million years, let alone play it afterwards...
Well done to the Bassist!
Today's verification word is "unkerset": these aren't real words, they're *better* than real words.
Thanks Tim - yes, it is pretty impressive - you should hear him play, too. He's currently trying to get an electro funk band going at school which will give him plenty of opportunity to play 'slap bass' if that means anything to you!
Wow, that's very impressive! Wish my boys were half as productive. Sigh. I'm not sure what slap bass is, but it sounds fun :o)
Wow...how cool is that!! It looks beautiful. Very impressive. Well don B!
I'm awestruck.
Does he know about funk fingers, too? If I can manage to post a link in the comment trail (I'm bad at this) clicking here ought to take you to a video of Tony Levin playing with funk fingers during "Pieces of the Sun."
(As it turns out, I was at that particular concert. The sound recording on this video is awful.)
If the link doesn't work, try pasting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gulqD14vcMI
into your browser...
Karen - hi, yes, I am a proud mummy!
Akasha - you'll have to come and see him in action sometime soon.
David - thanks for the link (the click here worked by the way) I'll show it to the Bassist when he and the Ultimate Frisbee freak get back from the latest frisbee tournament later on this evening. Those 'funk fingers' look kinda freaky to me!!
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