[Bass of the Week] Arnott/Eko/Premier Bass Banjolele

See the business listing for this bass builder here

The bass banjolele. It’s not something that happens often because it has a very quirky sound to it, but sometimes when a bass builder wants something really different, you can’t get much more different than this.

Builder Jake Arnott writes:

Some time ago, I woke up with the idea that it would be possible to build a bass banjolele with a bass guitar neck, and a drum of some sort. Having had the idea, I thought it would be fun to create a new sort of instrument, that might actually sound quite reasonable.

I had a neck – a Telecaster-style neck from my first acoustic bass. That was sold as a Brandoni, and consisted of an Eko neck fairly crudely screwed to a jumbo guitar body (probably also Eko), which together sounded a lot better than might have been expected.

I bought a 16″ Premier tomtom in very poor condition on eBay, cleaned it up, and bought it a new head.

I didn’t want to load the shell with the tension of the strings, so the easiest way of attaching the neck seemed to be to pass a bat-shaped spar through the drum, projecting from the top.

A piece of oak from a kitchen worktop provided the timber, and the tradition of attaching the neck with large screws (and a metal plate) has been maintained.

I read somewhere that the neck of a banjo should lean back at 7° from the skin, and a bit of trigonometry half remembered from school told me to make the exit hole 2 cm back from the rim of the drum.

The bridge and string holder were fashioned from a bit of oak floorboard, and the stringholder is attached to the drum with a section of wire coat hanger.

Note that the wire passes through and in front of the stringholder – this is the third design, the first was a disaster, the second was ripped apart by string tension, but now the wire takes the tension, the oak is in compression, and it seems to be quite stable.

The pickup comes from the Brandoni bass – it looks like it would produce a very weedy sound, but in fact it’s surprisingly deep and warm. I’m sure much better pickups are available, but for the rare occasions that it gets amplified, it’s good enough for now.

The depth of the drum gives the bass a very pleasing resonance, and it seems to work particularly well with the couple of ukulele groups I play with – it’s visually quite striking, doesn’t take itself very seriously, and the sound doesn’t dominate above the gentle strumming of the ukes. It often sparks conversations with audience members, and it currently looks like it may get us a gig on local radio!

Very well done, Jake!

Want YOUR bass to be featured for Bass of the Week?
Submit yours right now using our easy web form