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Good Vibrations: Repair and Beyond With Chris Brandt
In my last article I posed a leading question to the readers…
A magnetic pickup on an electric bass (or guitar) can not hear wood resonance yet if you plug it in and stand back and listen you CAN hear wood resonance. How does the pickup do it?
Jonathon M. sent a great answer and it opens up a rich way of better understanding the electric bass. He shared:
“In short, the resonance of the wood dictates how the strings vibrate. The resonant characteristics of the wood cause some frequencies to dampen (zero) and others to resonate (pole). The magnetic pickups only react to the magnetic field vibrations caused by the strings, which is entirely determined by the “pole/zero” characteristics of the wood (and the neck joint, bridge mass/material, nut material, etc.). There’s plenty more physics behind the sound of any instrument, but that’s beyond the scope of this question. Thanks for the great question!”
Jonathon’s answer gets to the idea that there is a circulation between the energy in vibrating strings and the energy in the vibration of all the rest of the bass. This continuous circulation of energy shapes the tonal properties arising from the body, neck, bridge, and other parts as well, but it also sets up the flex characteristics principally of the neck. These flex characteristics can effect how low the action can be adjusted and it varies from bass to bass, even on instruments which appear to be identical. Same model, same wood, same everything, yet they aren’t the same and each has to be adjusted for its own best performance.
The electric bass is a system of great complexity and nuance and over the next few articles I’ll discuss some of these subtle and interesting factors. You could say that the vibration in a bass circulates with all of the other vibration in a bass and this accounts for its complexity. It is a sophisticated system. But all of this complexity is balanced by an elegant simplicity as well. The energy (vibration or resonance) flowing back and forth between the body and strings is totaled up within the string vibration. Here you can think of the strings as a delivery system for carrying the resonance from the body and neck to the pickups. Strings do a lot of multi-tasking, and I’ll discuss this in a future article. The complexity within the cross-resonating body might be comparable to the ripple patterns from raindrops on the surface of a pond but this doesn’t bother the strings a bit. They are happy with all of it and the strings pass this energy to the pickups which are like the front door to the rest of the system. This sophisticated system makes for elegance and simplicity and there is tremendous complexity as well.
Here’s what’s cool. Once the pickup comes into the picture, we cross into a historic revolution within the development of stringed instruments. You see, we now have the emergence of an entirely new pathway to get sound to the human ear! By now we’ve all grown up with electric instruments so it is easy to take them for granted, but if you think about the slow development of musical instruments over many centuries you can begin to see how revolutionary this new technology really is. The power of a bass is no longer confined by the acoustic limitations of the pre-electric instrument and the physical capacity of the person playing it. There are enormous new tonal possibilities and it revolutionizes what is now possible in terms of range extension. This business of range is particularly important for the bass because dropping down into low registers has always been hard to do acoustically. This is a big subject and I’ll discuss it more in a future article.
But beyond all this, there is an even more revolutionary effect and it might not necessarily seem obvious. You see, the sound or energy produced by an amplifier becomes a second source of the energy which enters the bass. The first source of energy is the bass player playing the strings but the second source of energy is the sound from the speakers inundating the bass itself. It re-circulates energy back into the bass almost as a form of arco, arco in the sense that a violin bow can indefinitely keep a flow of energy going into the violin. So I think of the energy from amplification as an intrinsic component of the electric bass itself and this “second” source of energy is why an electric bass feels as if it physically comes to life when it is plugged in. This too creates something new in the history of stringed instruments.
Knowledge is power and this is the key to appreciating how fantastic the electric bass really is. I hope that interested bass players will find it helpful to picture how energy moves through out the bass and that this now gets us ready to start talking about all sorts of practical questions having to do with set ups and adjustments, repairs and modifications, differences in construction and much else as well. If you have a few questions about repairs or set ups go ahead and send them my way and we’ll get started.
Bass Player Health
Preparing for Performance with Dr. Randy Kertz
Preparing for Performance…
This month we discuss how to prepare for a performance and easy strategies that go a long way.
Dr. Randall Kertz is the author of The Bassist’s Complete Guide to Injury Management, Prevention and Better Health. Click here to get your copy today!
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Gear Reviews
The Frank Brocklehurst 6-String Fretless Bass Build
A few months ago, my Ken Bebensee 6-string fretted bass needed some TLC. You know, the one rocking those Pink Neon strings! I scoured my Connecticut neighborhood for a top-notch luthier and got pointed to Frank Brocklehurst, F Brock Music. He swung by my place, scooped up the bass, and boom, returned it the next day, good as new. Not only that, he showed up with a custom 5-string fretted bass that blew me away. I couldn’t resist asking if he could whip up a 6-string fretless for me.
Alright, let’s break down the process here. We’ve got our raw materials: Mahogany, Maple, and Holly. Fun fact – the Mahogany and Maple have been chilling in the wood vault for a solid 13 years. Frank is serious about his wood; they buy it, stash it away, and keep an eye on it to make sure it’s stable.
First up, they’re tackling the Mahogany. Frank glues it together, then lets it sit for a few days to let everything settle and the glue to fully dry. After that, it’s onto the thickness planer and sander to get it nice and flat for the CNC machine. The CNC machine’s the real star here – it’s gonna carve out the body chambers and volume control cavity like a pro.
While the Mahogany’s doing its thing, Frank goes onto the neck core. Three pieces of quartersawn maple are coming together for this bad boy. Quartersawn means the grain’s going vertical. He is also sneaking in some graphite rods under the fingerboard for stability and to avoid any dead spots. The truss rod is going to be two-way adjustable, and the CNC machine’s doing its magic to make sure everything’s just right.
Now, onto the design phase. Frank uses CAD software to plan out the body shape, neck pocket, chambering, and those cool f-holes. I had this idea for trapezoid F-holes, just to do something different. The CAD software also helps us map out the neck shape, graphite channels, and truss-rod channel with pinpoint accuracy.
Once everything’s planned out, it’s CNC time again. Frank cuts out the body outline, neck pocket, and the trapezoid F-holes. Then it’s a mix of hand sanding and power tools to get that neck just how we like it. Oh, and those f holes? We’re going for trapezoids of different sizes – gotta keep things interesting.
Next step: gluing that neck into the pocket with some old-school hide glue. It’s got great tonal transfer and can be taken apart later if needed. Then it’s onto hand-carving that neck-body transition.
For the custom-made bridge, Frank uses brass for definition and Ebony for tonal transfer and that warm, woody sound.
BTW, for tunes, Frank went with Hipshot Ultralights with a D Tuner on the low B. This way I can drop to a low A which is a wonderful tone particularly if you are doing any demolition around your house!
Now it’s time for the side dots. Typically, on most basses, these dots sit right in the middle of the frets. But with this bass, they’re placed around the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 12th frets.
Frank’s got his pickup hookup. Since the pickup he was building wasn’t ready, he popped in a Nordstrand blade to give it a whirl.
It sounded good, but I was itching for that single-coil vibe! And speaking of pickups, Frank showed me the Holly cover he was cutting to match, along with all the pink wire – talk about attention to detail!
A couple of things, while it is important for me to go passive, it is equally important for me to just go with a volume knob. Tone knobs are really just low-pass filters and the less in the way of a pure sound for me, the better.
Finally, it’s string time! As usual, I went for the DR Pink Neon strings. Hey, I even have matching pink Cons…Both low tops and high!
Once we’ve got everything tuned up and settled, we’ll give it a day or two and then tweak that truss rod as needed. And voila, we’ve got ourselves a custom-made bass ready to rock and roll.
I want to thank Frank Brocklehurst for creating this 6 string beast for me.
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Bass Videos
Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes
Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes…
It is always great to meet a super busy bassist who simply exudes a love for music and his instrument. Erick “Jesus” Coomes fits this description exactly. Hailing from Southern California, “Jesus” co-founded and plays bass for Lettuce and has found his groove playing with numerous other musicians.
Join us as we hear of his musical journey, how he gets his sound, his ongoing projects, and his plans for the future.
Photo, Bob Forte
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www.lettucefunk.com
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Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
“These stories from the front are with real-life, day-to-day musicians who deal with work life and gigging and how they make it work out. Each month, topics may include… the kind of gigs you get, the money, dealing with less-than-ideal rooms, as well as the gear you need to get the job done… and the list goes on from there.” – Steve the Bass Guy and Shawn Cav
Preparing for Performance with Dr. Randy Kertz
Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
Tour Touch Base (Bass) with Ian Allison
