Post 3: Forging on with an Aluminium bass

    I had to wait for some brass fret wire I ordered to arrive, so I started brainstorming the next instrument. I definitely prefer rich low sounds to high pitched bright ones, always had. I like the cello better than the violin, the bassoon better than the oboe, the tenor and baritone saxes better than the alto and soprano, and the harmonicas in G, A and Bflat better than those in E and F. So naturally, I had considered making a bass instrument. Bass guitar, bass lap, double bass, I wasn't sure..., but  I and had already bought some long bass guitar strings to play with. 

   Again, I looked at the materials on hand to make a mockup. I had another long piece of square tubing 1.25" x 1.25", some more aluminum in various shapes and sizes, and especially a piece of thick 1/4" aluminum about 4" x 30" that seemed to say "fretboard", so I made the fret spacing calculations for a long neck bass guitar with a 36" scale, cut it, and marked the fret positions and the bridge position. I still had plenty of brass balls, and even a whole huge escapement mechanism leftover from an abandoned "Clock Project" :

     So here is the original mockup, again put together very quickly out of materials at hand, basically a stick with useless decorative details:

     I was pretty excited about the idea though, especially the brass nut and the decorative "scroll" of the head, so I decided to go ahead and build it, and ordered a set of black bass tuners and two plain black pickups. I drew the front and side views full scale on poster-board.

    The bridge needed to rest on some kind of solid"soundboard" into which the pickups could be recessed. But they had to sit high above the square tubing because notching it would compromise rigidity. I happened to have another piece of 1/4" aluminum 8" x 10";  that would have to do. I fiddled with the shape for a while, finally deciding on a small guitar shape. I cut it out and hollowed out notches for the pickups. I had to cut an additional rectangular plate to mount them. I started the brass and aluminum tailpiece and cut a 1/2" brass rod spacer to support the fretboard, and roughed an ebony and brass bridge:

       I wasn't able to use my idea for a brass and aluminum "scroll head" because the position of the four massive tuners required a narrow head angled sideways and down from the fretboard so they would line up with the strings and put downward pressure on the nut. 

      Fine then, I would make it an exaggerated "Stratocaster caricature" instead. I will use the scroll on another instrument later! This was really becoming a full scale "PROJECT":

     In fact, I have been toying with the idea of making a "Monster Music Box" since I ran across a very interesting video about "The Apprehension Engine":

     There is a luthier out there actually offering to make an Apprehension Engine for $10,000! 

     I think I can probably make one for a couple hundred bucks, using cheap pickups, tuners, strings and material I already have...  Only, mine would make all kinds of music, not just horror film scores... It would include several sets of short to long strings,  a bow, a hurlyburly type rotating wheel, zither type strings, marimba like tuned percussions, kalimba like steel blades, harmonium like pipes, resonators,  various "sound makers", an amplifier, an equalizer, and even a used spring reverb tank I found cheap on Amazon: