MIMF

Occasionally my love of building instruments and my love of art meld and become "Instrumental Madness" (The title of this art piece instrument I built)
Its a hollow body with a luan plywood top and back, maple fretboard,bone nut and saddle with a brass door hinge for the tailpiece.
More of a wall hanging than an actual instrument although it does play.
Enjoy

I like your thinking, but why so many frets?

Here's the fretless upright bass I finished yesterday, made from a washing up bowl and some scrap wood I had lying around (I originally typed "crap wood", which is equally true).


Bowl bass front by profchrisreed, on Flickr

Should come in handy at this coming weekend's ukulele festival, though some purists will complain that it has steel strings.

BTW, I like your device (what else can we call it), though I'm at a loss to know how you would hold it, let alone play it. Action pics perhaps?

Hi Chris, hows the tone on that bad boy?
re: my piece, as I said, its more of a wall hanging than a real instrument. Just for show.

Michael Baresi wrote:Hi Chris, hows the tone on that bad boy?
re: my piece, as I said, its more of a wall hanging than a real instrument. Just for show.

With a resonator on the back it sounds like ... I suppose a very cheap and quiet plywood bass with some banjo twang to it. Surprisingly good sustain though - the through neck I guess.

I shall find some time today to brace the top, as the bowl isn't quite up to the string pressure, and bolt on a resonator of 6mm MDF. Then perhaps I could do a sound sample.

And Michael, we need a sample from you!

I do like both instruments!

Ah, but will you like how my bass plays?

Unmodified sound sample, recorded on my laptop's built-in mic which isn't good on bass frequencies:

https://app.box.com/s/7vb0g4vy9l7trwv391gn

I added a bass line to a recording of me playing and singing, and boosted the bass slightly so it matched what I'm hearing:

https://app.box.com/s/rszkg8frfc8d3ov9l9e8

It's very unforgiving of poor technique (!) and pretty twangy, but should be fun at the uke festival.