I want a bass ukulele. After building a few dozen instruments, the thought of simply buying one from store seems very boring. I will therefore expend the time and money to make a custom bass ukulele that will fulfill my desire.
Before I build, I make a paper mock-up of the instrument. (I included a concert sized acoustic ukulele for scale)
Here are the elements that I want to have:
- 20 inch scale length
- Black Road Toad polyurethane strings
- Maple neck/headstock/fretboard
- Under bridge piezo pickup
- On board Preamp
- Black Hardware
- Orange Paint for the body
The combination of orange, black, and maple should make for an interesting looking instrument. I hope that I don’t live to regret making a bright orange ukulele. Hopefully, a funky color will look good on a funky ukulele.
Hi Daniel… this looks like a really exciting build to me. I have been thinking of a u-bass build myself, but the one thing holding me back is the pickup/bridge combo… Can you shed any light on what you are doing for this? I figure a bass bridge is different than Uke and I have no idea how to fit a piezo under a metal saddle!
Jules,
I’m planning on using an “A style hipshot type” bass bridge. I’ll have to experiment with placement, but I might attach the rod piezo under the strings in that little pocket at the back of the bridge.
More to come soon…
I just found these :-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-string-Bass-Piezo-bridge-B41-/130617048850
but unfortunately they are too wide (string spacing) for my needs. If you are building a custom neck they would work though. They already have a pickup built in.
Hiya, I can see that the bridge you DID use [photograph of hipshot style bridge] is too wide [string spacing] for the neck; when played higher up the neck, I would guarantee that when you finger the G or A string [1st or 4th], the string will want to slide sideways off the neck ??? It would have been interesting to see you play further up the frets, but you didn’t !!!
Daniel : Do you know where I can get dimensions for fret board length fret distance and details on building a UBass? I want to build a cigar box ubass but do not know where to find measurements to use.
http://ukeland.co.uk/tools/fretcalc
right here, Keith 😉
I am looking for tuning pegs for my build of a bass ukulele with the 5/4/3/and 2.5 poly string ,can’t find anywhere.