Bass aficionado's say, "the fewer pieces of wood an instrument is made of - the better the vibrations can travel. Well, this bass is made of one-piece rock hard maple (neck and body from top to bottom - one continuous piece of wood)".

Essential Bass Architecture
By Jan Levenson

Jan Levenson, CCS    

Like many fine things in life, this upright electric bass plan is simple and the user has to carefully plan out options and diagrams to their own liking and design.

The graphic plans included are not to scale so proper judgment has to be used by the user to design a bass that works and is carefully designed.  Carefully carve wood into a useable work of art by the user.

Here are some suggestions and hints that I am aware of to build an electric upright bass.

I suggest that you read violin-building books from the library or contact a violin builder/maker for other ideas.

Wood Materials used to build a bass:
One large piece of Rock Hard Eastern Maple Wood  2” x 4” x 48”   to    2” x 8” x 72”

Building the bridge and the neck string bit made of the same Hard Eastern Maple does sound good.  If you choose to use ebony or Rosewood for the bridge and upper neck string bit, you will probably have pieces large enough from your fingerboard blank that could be used for the bridge and neck bit.

Holes can be drilled into the bottom of the bass so that the strings can be put through them from the back of the bass, over the bridge, over the fingerboard, over the neck bit and fastened to each tuning machine at the top of the bass.  For a smaller bass guitar size upright bass you can use a bass guitar string stop, like that on a bass guitar, to stop the strings at the bottom of the bass.   And you will not have to put holes through the wood.  But for an upright length bass, the holes through the wood for the string stops, works pretty good.

Routing out the places for the tuning machines is critical and must be done with careful planning and thought.  It is actually one of the hardest parts to do.

I choose to use a drill routing bit, starting with a drill first and then using larger routing bits (up to one inch routing bit to route out the tuning machine areas) and gently slope an area so that the strings will lay gently into the routed holes and then wind onto the tuning machines.  The tuning machines are attached through additional holes at the side of the neck on the bass. 

Four to six tuning keys in line on one side the scroll area or keys on each side of the scroll area.   It depends on the scroll design that you want to use, for example four strings, five strings, six strings, left or right handed, etc.

It is possible that a bass could be built from just using one piece of hard eastern maple.  The neck bit and the bridge would accordingly be short, because there would not be the added height of the additional fingerboard.

You have to make an educated guess whether a piece wood will work for you.  Since hard maple is the same wood used for bowling pins.  You can tap on a raw hard maple board and it will almost have a familiar (ping sound) as a bowling pin ping, when struck by a hard object or your knuckle.  You do not want to get the wood wet before it is finished, it will warp.  You want to look for a piece of wood that will not have knots or large flaws in critical areas such as the fingerboard area.

Woodwork tools needed:
Draw Knives
Some tools can be used to do similar jobs depending on your needs.
I find most important is a drawknife that can be held by both hands to pull along the distance of a piece of wood, to carve out large slivers of wood at a time.  Also, a good planer can be used to remove flat slivers along the wood and also can be used similar as sand paper.  (Check it out).

Router if available to route out edges of electronics cavity in the back of the bass and other edging areas, and or to route out the string tuning machines areas, or the pickup cavity area.

Sharp clean blades are very important because the tools work better.  There is less kickback from power tools, there may be less gouges in the wood.

A good circular saw, you might want to consider a new sharp blade for the cleanest cuts of wood.  Because both the ebony and the hard maple are very hard on blades and tend to burn sap into the blades causing problems unless the blades are cleaned regularly and/or changed regularly.

A circular saw to make the large cuts in a pre designed area of wood for the large shape of the bass neck and body combination.  And also the main area of the fingerboard area to glue onto the bass body area.

The neck bit is going to be similar to the width of the fingerboard.

The width of the bridge is going to be as wide as the fingerboard where it exists near the middle to bottom of the bass. Approximately 4” – 5”.
 
You can design your fingerboard and neck width by drawing a straight line from the top of the neck bit area at the fingerboard to the bottom of the fingerboard approximately 36” at the bottom of the fingerboard; this is a standard upright bass fingerboard length.

fingerboard at
estimated 2" wide at bit and 1" thick runs to upper string bit at est. 2" wide, 1" wide
and 1.3" tall.(a little taller than the fingerboard itself by about 1/16” to 3/16”)

Height and position of strings will have to be adjusted manually
in a (several to many try operation).

The width and length of the fingerboard can be customized by the user.  Careful consideration must be taken to design the bass so that the pieces will fit together nicely.

Care must be taken whenever drilling holes into the wood from the bottom of the bass where 3/32” inch holes will be drilled to create a tailpiece within the bottom piece of the bass body.  At the top of the bass neck where holes ¼” holes will be drilled to start the areas for the string tuning machines to exist, and below the fingerboard and above the bridge where the electronics will exists in the back of the bass and within the bass.  Structural integrity and strength of the wood must be maintained whereby at least a 1” cubic diameter will exist to maintain the strength needed to maintain the wood structure and force of the strings running and being support from the top of the bass at the top string bit through the bridge (wood must be 1 inch thick under the bridge and surrounding areas to maintain the pressure from the bridge on the top of the bass.

The neck fingerboard is going to run down the middle of the bass so it is more or less only cosmetic what the body of the bass looks like and shaped. 

The important points on building this bass are where to place the cavity for the electronics (volume, tone switches for the pickups.  I choose to locate the cavity in the back of the bass about ½” down from the fingerboard area approximately 36” from where the top string alignment bit is located (top of the neck where the strings go to string tuning machines in the scroll area of the neck of the bass).

Depending on the total design chosen by the user, a piece of hard maple 2” thick x 4” wide by 4’  could be used but an end pin (adjustable or not adjustable end pin) would have to be used to bring the body/neck combination to a desired height by the user.

The planer can be used almost like sand paper, this is a helpful hint.  You can use up to 150 sandpaper to finish the wood until the fine grains begin to show up clearly, just keep sanding and working the wood.  If you keep working the wood, magic kind of happens and the bass starts to appear.

You can use a circular saw to do the large cuts on a piece of Ebony wood and rosewood but the actual shaping of the fingerboard must be sanded usually with a belt sander.  Starting with rougher grade sanding belts 75 to 100 grit, and then to finer grade sanding belts 150-220 grit to finish.  Because of the heavy nature of Ebony and rosewood, chipping will result using any other method to modify a wood structure made of these woods other than sanding. 

(Any power tools are kind of like taking a chain saw to the wood, be careful or the power tool will gouge, sand too much, or cause serious injury or death.  Power tools are dangerous, use at your own risk! This works fine at first and is actually part of the process in carving the wood, but when the bass is close to its finished sizing, there is not much wood left to undo a gouge.  (Yikes!)

Anyway, good luck to you in building your bass.  Map out your design carefully from a three dimensional perspective to you know what to cut or sand where and how much before final sanding.  Keep working the wood.  Things happen!

When you are ready to finish the instrument you could use Tung oil and suggested 3 to 5 coats on all of the wood surfaces, follow the Tung Oil directions to put it on the wood.

Miscellaneous Bass finishing notes:

Any place that a string touches the wood should be very smooth without abrupt 90 degree edges (square edges) because the strings will rub those areas and the strings can be damaged and start to unwind before their time.

The edges of the fingerboard on the sides should be rounded very slightly, not enough to remove too much of the area of the edges of the fingerboard but the edges should not be a sharp point and in fact should be very smooth for a comfort for the bass player to place his hands anywhere on the bass.

Where the strings go over the bridge, edges and sharp angles should be removed so that the strings can just float on a smooth surface indentation on both the bridge and the top fingerboard nut alignment piece.  Also, when the strings are going to the string tuners areas there should be a gentle sloping contour to the string tuners. 

When you are playing your bass, it is just you, your bass and the music.  Make your bass comfortable because it is part of where the music comes from.

When getting ready to place the tuners onto string tuners areas, place the tuners first and align them so they are going in the correct direction and look good to your satisfaction
While they are held in place by one hand make the drill holes with a sharp pen or pencil.  Then drill those marks with ½ size of the actual screws that will be used for the length of the screw (if you are using extremely tiny screws) otherwise it is a standard procedure to use a drill bit one size smaller than the screw.

Since the strings vibrate at different wavelength there are graduated distances for the bridge area, where the string end is attached, and also the fingerboard nut.  Although a strict straight line could also be used, a slightly graduated line (more for larger strings) will help the tuning of the strings over all.  If you are using adjustable end pin string tuners than you have much more and better control of exact tuning.

About four inches below the area where the strings attach (end) at the bottom of the bass the main body of the bass could end and you would have a bass similar to the style of  Steinberger bass.  After you draw a design for the bottom of the bass, you can use a circular saw to shape the bottom of the bass, then a rasp, then the sanding process.

I think to get the best possible control out of an upright electric bass it should mounted securely on a tom tom hardware stand near the balancing point of the bass body or slightly above the balancing point because pressure from using your left hand often the bass fingerboard changes the balancing point to further up the neck of the bas, possibly ¼ distance from the true balancing point without fingerboard pressure.

Using furniture scrapers, small and large planes, pull knives, chisels, sandpaper, rasps, electric planers, electric routers, electric sanders, electric circular or other saws or can adjust the bass any way you want.  Please be careful though because it is difficult to put the thing back together again.

The electronics compartment needs to have a ¼ inch routed area on the outsides of the actual compartment, which is the thickness of whatever material you use to make a control knob cover for the electronics compartment.  All of the electronics, the guitar plug in and output, the volume and tone knobs and or other switches would be located in the cover of the electronics compartment.

Make sure everything dry fits together properly before you do the actual work.

Any tools that use blades must be very sharp to work correctly.  Unless any tools you use with blades are new you probably need to practice sharpening blades and adjusting the tools you use so that they will work properly.  Start with minimum settings so as not to gouge the wood unexpectedly.

Materials you can use for the cover of the electronics compartment are bass from a doorstop.  You also, may need a brass or bone fingerboard upper nut to adjust the strings before they align to the string tuners.  The actual distance above the fingerboard where the upper string nut aligns the strings is about 1/16 to 3/16 above the fingerboard.  The area at the bridge where the strings go over the bridge is about ¼” to ¾”, more for the larger strings.

If you put an additional fingerboard onto the bass then the additional thickness of the fingerboard is added to both the upper neck bit and the bridge height, so that the upper neck bit and the bridge are higher than the fingerboard.

When the bass is not in use for long periods of time, please loosen the string, but they do not have to hand completely loose.

If there are any noticeable errors in the wood, you can cover it up with a wood inlay or art painting to cover the blemish.  Painting in whole or in a part of the instrument is an option.  Also, applying a brass or other metal emblem art piece can cover the blemish.

Exotic Woods Company Inc.
444 Erial-Williamstown Road
P.O. Box 532
Sicklerville, New Jersey 08081
Phone (856) 728-5555
Orders 800-GIDWANI1-800
Fax (856)728-6262
Email: gulab@exoticwoods.com
Excellent Ebony fingerboard blanks.

Wood carving tools can be ordered on the web at
WOODCRAFT
www.woodcraft.com
Draw Knives
Excellent rosewood fingerboard blanks

EMG electronics Corporation
http://www.emginc.com/

Tuning Keys, Guitar Hardware etc.
Allparts.com
E-mail: allparts@allparts.com
Telephone: 281/391-0637

Please contact Jan Levenson at customuprightbass@mindspring.com
 if you have a question. 

Thank you for your interest and good luck to you on your upright electric bass project.

Sincerely,

Jan

Finger Board at estimated 4" wide at bottom of finger board high position of bass and .75 to 1.5" thickness

Height and position of bridge for strings will have to be adjusted manually so the bridge will raise the strings no more than 1/4" above finger
board height above the bass body.

The bridge and bit (and in fact the entire bass), should be rough carved first larger than what is estimated
with height needs and then using a drill or rat tail wood file, (or carving knife and sand paper) to put grooves for the strings to cradle in, the bridge and upper neck string bit areas similarly. 

The height of the strings will effect both the playing height of the strings on the both the neck bit and bridge and the sound of vibrations coming through the pickups locations.  So this is a very tedious process
to finish the bass up nicely.

A diagram follows showing the shape of the bridge and bit pieces that I have
found have worked well on this bass design.
You could use (JB Weld an automotive all purpose epoxy like glue to fix) a
problem on a bridge or the neck string bit area, for example to raise or
fill in a chipped or over drilled out place.  The JB Weld has a hard texture
similar to hard wood itself.  You might have to paint the area over the JB
weld.  For a large gouge, I find recarving a round or rectangular, or other sliver plug out of the same wood and gluing the piece in place to fill the gap works out pretty good, but you want to make as few mistaken cuts as possible because it will effect how the bass looks and possibly the integrity of the strength of the bass.

Miscellaneous Bass finishing notes:

Any place that a string touches the wood should be very smooth without abrupt 90 degree edges (square edges) because the strings will rub those areas and the strings can be damaged and start to unwind before their time.

The edges of the fingerboard on the sides should be rounded very slightly, not enough to remove too much of the area of the edges of the fingerboard but the edges should not be a sharp point and in fact should be very smooth for a comfort for the bass player to place the player hand’s anywhere on the bass.

Where the strings go over the bridge, edges and sharp angles should be removed so that the strings can just float on a smooth surface cradle indentation on both the bridge and the top fingerboard nut alignment piece.  Also, when the strings are going to the string tuners areas there should be a gentle sloping contour to the string tuners. 

When you are playing your bass, it is just you, your bass and the music.  Make your bass comfortable because it is part of where the music comes from.

When getting ready to place the tuners onto string tuners areas, place the tuners first and align them so they are going in the correct direction and look good to your satisfaction.
 
While they are held in place by one hand make the drill holes with a sharp pen or pencil.  Then drill those marks with ½ size of the actual screws that will be used for the length of the screw (if you are using extremely tiny screws) otherwise it is a standard procedure to use a drill bit one size smaller than the screw.

Since the strings vibrate at different wavelength the strings are in graduated distances for the bridge area, where the string end is attached, and also the fingerboard nut.  Although a strict straight line could also be used, a slightly graduated line (more for larger strings) will help the tuning of the strings over all.  If you are using adjustable end pin string tuners than you have much more and better control of exact tuning.

About four inches below the area where the strings attach (end) at the bottom of the bass the main body of the bass could end abruptly, and with an additional end pin or a tripod stand for your bass (really important) (you would have a bass similar to the style of Steinberger bass.  After you draw a design for the bottom of the bass, you can use a circular saw to shape the bottom of the bass, then a rasp, then the sanding process.

I think to get the best possible control out of an upright electric bass it should mounted securely on a tom tom hardware stand near the balancing point of the bass body or slightly above the balancing point because pressure from using your left hand often the bass fingerboard changes the balancing point to further up the neck of the bas, possibly ¼ distance from the true balancing point without fingerboard pressure.

Using furniture cabinet scrapers, small and large planes, pull knives, chisels, sandpaper, rasps, electric planers, electric routers, electric sanders, electric circular or other saws, drills, hand tools etc. you can adjust the bass any way you want.  Please be careful though because it is difficult to put the thing back together again if a big mistake is made.

The electronics compartment needs to have a ¼ inch routed area on the outsides of the actual compartment, which is the thickness of whatever material you use to make a control knob cover for the electronics compartment.  All of the electronics, the guitar plug in and output, the volume and tone knobs and or other switches would be located in the cover of the electronics compartment.

Make sure everything dry fits together properly before you do the actual work.

Any tools that use blades must be very sharp to work correctly.  Unless any tools you use with blades are new you probably need to practice sharpening blades and adjusting the tools you use so that they will work properly.  Start with minimum settings so as not to gouge the wood unexpectedly.

Materials you can use for the cover of the electronics compartment are brass from a doorstop.  You also, may need a brass or bone fingerboard upper nut to adjust the strings before they align to the string tuners.  The actual distance above the fingerboard where the upper string nut aligns the strings is about 1/16 to 3/16 above the fingerboard.  The area at the bridge where the strings go over the bridge is about ¼” to ¾”, more for the larger strings.

If you put an additional fingerboard onto the bass then the additional thickness of the fingerboard is added to both the upper neck bit and the bridge height, so that the upper neck bit and the bridge are higher than the fingerboard.

When the bass is not in use for long periods of time, please loosen the strings, but they do not have to be completely loose.  Be careful when winding strings onto the string tuners so that the strings gently and smoothly wind onto the string tuners, there are hundreds of pounds of pressure on the pivot points when all of the strings are tuned to their specifications.

If there are any noticeable errors in the wood, you can cover it up with a wood inlay or art painting to cover the blemish.  Painting in whole or in a part of the instrument is also an option.  Also, applying a brass or other metal emblem art piece can cover the blemish.  Water based wood stains, with several coatings can vary the wood color dramatically before the final coating of tung oil or polyester varnish.

You can add a 1” piece of ebony from Exotic Woods in NY State if you want to add to the thickness of the neck.

  You want to flat plain perfect the top of the maple fingerboard area and the bottom of the ebony, rosewood, or maple fingerboard blank so that when they are glued together the will marry perfectly.  After you glue the pieces together you finish sanding the wood on the fingerboard areas top and bottom, and simulate playing the bass so that the neck feels right top and bottom.

   Piezo Pickups the home made way
 
Tto make a bass piezo pickup you  need to purchase a piezo element from radio shack (electronics store) the kind that buzzes on
   small electronic equipment.  The piezo elements may be called micro  speakers   (Piezo speakers) they cost about 1.50 to $3 dollars each.
 
   All you have to do is remove the piezo element from the plastic  enclosure   and you will see the piezo element has two wires (positive and negative
   going to the element, just like a stereo speaker).
 
   The piezo element acts just like a microphone if it is wired in reverse,
   rather than a speaker.
 
   You will need to carefully solder small wires to the positive and
 negative posts on the piezo element, then cover the soldered areas with a small
  patch of hard glue and then you will have to experiment with the placement of
  the piezo pickups by either taping it to the wood surface, under the bridge
 of the bass or guitar.  Or sandwiching the piezo pickup in between two
 pieces or wood, brass plates, or j-weld steel impregnated glue, or possibly
 hard yellow wood glue.
 
   You can also experiment with using one piezo pickup under each string at
  the bridge, or pickups in different areas of the bass for different sounds.
 
   You may be able to wire the pickups directly to a male guitar plug to
 plug   directly into your amplifier, or you may want to use a pre amplifier to
  amplify the sound from the pickups before they go to the amplifier as a
  hot   pickup connections.
 
   You can also use different piezo elements to determine which sound the
  best.

Good luck!

Jan

To receive an Upright Electric Bass Kit, you can order a semi rough pre carved combination upright bass neck and body made out of rock hard eastern maple for $595 dollars plus shipping (approximately $40), you also receive the URB bass plans with options, materials lists and suggestions.

You can actually make the entire bass including the fingerboard out of this carved rock hard maple body/fingerboard and neck included here. The hard maple is almost as hard as ebony. The same hard maple is used on many Fender Precision bass necks and fingerboards.

You would need to buy pickups, string tuning machines, strings, electronics compartment cover plate, knobs and or hardware screws, etc. I include the wood for the upper neck string bit and bridge (all wood is included.) Please contact me for ordering and shipping instructions at newbass@ccsplus.com

Rough Carved Bass Kit Body/Neck Combo Pictures. Optional bass designs are available.



Write to us
for information or for a price quote.



To build a bass, proper wood working safety concerns must be observed.

Sincerely,

Jan Levenson