Making an acoustic bass guitar - "Buachaill Ollmhór"

Hooray!
This will be an interesting build. I'm really looking forward to see the development of this.

Hooray! Can I come and try it when it’s built? What nut width you going for Dave? I went for a precision width on my Brook but wished I had gone for the be narrower Jazz bass width. Also, mine has no cutaway, and I am finding if you wish to play Bach on bass, and any other solo bass kind of stuff, a cutaway mkws it a lot easier. Wow, I am so excited by this build 🙂

 Thanks Dave.  On a bass, you don’t really have the problem of having to play chords, so a narrower fingerboard doesn’t have the same implications as it does on a guitar.  Some players would prefer a wider fingerboard, or at least wider string spacing at the bridge, for slapping, but not many players slap an acoustic bass anyway.  Not sure what my string spacing is, I will have to measure.  But on the whole most manufacturers seem to favour something along the lines of Jazz bass width.  I recently played a Furch, and the width of that neck was very comfortable indeed.

You’ve got plenty of options for strings as well.  Personally I use tape wound strings from la bella.  These are gold (phosphor bronze) with a clear plastic wrap.  Its a nice compromise between the brightness of normal phosphor bronze, but a lot less noise, and a great double bass sort of sound.  Some players use black tape wounds, but these are even darker and ‘thuddier’.  I’ve also tried a bass with nice polished flat wound D’Addario strings.  Another option that has just come out that might be worth thinking about are new GHS pressure wound phosphor bronze strings. Pressure wounds have some of the benefits of flat wounds (i.e  less finger noise) but a little more brightness.

If you ever put a pickup in, consider k and k.  Unfortunately I have a headway in mine, which gives a typical piezo, quacky sound.  Even with my tape wound la bells on I have to role the higher frequencies right off on the amp, due to the harshness of the upper frequencies.  Wish I had gone with k and k.

What are you considering for scale length dave?  Mine is 34”, which is quite comfortable, and fairly standard, but you also find 32” and 30”.

Good luck with the build Dave, can’t wait to see and hear what you come up with

Robbie

Ah yes, I hadn’t cottoned on to the fact it is multi scale- thats going to work really well.

Robbie

... proper chapel hat pegs, those, Dave!

Keith

Time to make the mahogany reverse kerf linings. The strips have been cut and thicknessed and one edge rounded over. The kerfs are then cut on the bandsaw using this jig:





The sides are profiled for the back’s curvature and to build in the “wedge” that makes the sides narrower on the bass side:

Thanks Rob. Not really but maybe when the neck gets done I've got an octave mandolin on the go too so that scales me back.