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This week’s feature bass is a successful attempt at building a bass uke.
Builder Maurice Coutanceau from Maurice Paul Guitars writes:
My sister plays bass in a uke band and has done so for some time now using one of my acoustic basses with silicone strings, but she approached me to make an electric bass uke. I spent some time Googling this instrument but found that no one out there was into them apart from a guy called Max in America. After a few conversations with him I decided to give it a go and design my own bass uke, and this is the result. My main aims were that the bass should use magnetic pickups which required standard steel strings. The problems I faced were: 1 Making the body shape balanced when standing with a shoulder strap. I have kept to the formula of an upper horn placed around the 12th fret, and this seemed to work even for such a small instrument. Shaping the neck so that the strings would intersect the magnets on a standard P bass pickup Finding a bridge with string spacing that would allow #2 Finding strings that would have high enough tension so that the action would be low enough to play, but not so low that there would be fret buzz. After talking to Max, I decided to use strings made for a 5 string bass using the low B for the E, the E for the A, the A for the D and the D for the G. Initially I fretted the neck, but even with the higher tension of the thicker strings, there was a lot of fret buzz unless I raised the action so high that the bass was unplayable and the intonation was impossible to correct. So I chose to make it fretless. . Once I took out the frets and replaced the slots with a veneer, I was able to lower the action which also helped to correct the intonation problem to a point. Initially I had separate bass elements for the bridge as I was worried that the string spacing at the saddle would not be anywhere near standard 4 string. I was surprised to find that the spacing was almost the same as my full sized bass, so I elected to use a Schaller four string bridge which looked better I think. Since there are no steel strings made for the uke bass with a 21” scale length, I needed to cut the strings short and file the ends in order for them to fit into the machine heads. This was especially needed for the B string as there was no way it was going to fit into the Gotoh machine head slot. The Pickup I chose for this is an active EMG P bass pickup which I routinely use and really like on my full sized basses not knowing if it would work on such a small instrument. I was really surprised by the way it sounds. I think the B string (instead of the E) really works well and sounds amazing. The upper strings have a clarity that I don’t have on my other basses and so if I didn’t have such thick fingers I think this would be the bass of my choice to play in the band. This project has been a lot of fun and I will continue to make uke basses and experiment with the combination of woods, pickups and strings.
Well done!
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Turns the idea if a piccolo bass upside down. This is the cutest thing I have ever seen.
Want!
I really like the drawing with the semi-hollow “s” holes – though I agree, this top is too nice to cut into like that! Nice job!
I love the drawing showing the semi-hollow “s” shaped soundholes – but I agree, this top doesn’t need them, it’d be a shame to cut into it! Nice job!
Sweetness possessed!
That’s the way to go if you want it to sound “bassy”; keeping the aspect ratio short pronounces the fundamental and low harmonics. A lot of folks string up a full-scale bass as a piccolo, and it ends up sounding like a twangy guitar.
I am curious about what types of wood were used in this. The top wood is beautiful and the finger board as well.
Hi, the main body is camphor laurel, the front veneer is huon pine from Tasmania. The neck is Queensland maple with Indian rosewood stripes. The fretboard is Canadian maple and the knobs gidgi which is a local hardwood her in Queensland.
It’s adorable! And you gotta love the photo-bombing peacock.
The main body is Camphor Laurel, the front veneer and headstock veneer is Tasmanian huon pine, the neck is Queensland maple with Indian rosewood stripes. The fretboard is Canadian maple and the back veneer on the headstock is blonde camphor laurel. the knobs are Gidgi which is a Queensland wood made by David Linton here in Maleney.
What would it cost to make another one – I’m in Maleney too.
Best to contact me by phone as there are so many variables. 0400989923
Can you make another one – how much ?
WHEN I THINK I HAVE HEARD AND SEEN IT ALL I SEE SOMETHING LIKE THIS,MAURICE IN MY BOOK YOU ARE ONE COOL DUDE,THE SMILES ON YOUR BUILDERS FACES ARE PRICELESS,THE UKE BUILD IS BEAUTIFUL…THE LITTLE GIRL HOLDING HER NEW BASS IS DEFINITELY PROUD AS A PEACOCK!
Sick build! The fretboard is BEAUTIFUL! I definitely would have been a fan of that semi-hollow drawing you had there.
(By the way, Kala does make something called a U-Bass, but this puts them to shame)
Thanks for the compliment, I do like the kala basses but as far as I know they use silicone strings like their acoustic and so a piezo pickup, I wanted a more conventional magnetic pickup so needed to use steel strings. If you want to make one of these then contact Max Kaye from best bass gear as he has been experimenting with short bass strings specifically for this type of instrument.
very nice job, is there a video or something? i wanna see it live in action.