And Reggie, I don't see the need for all your curfuffle about not wanting to return to the stone-age etc… most of which is pretty obvious but it has nothing to do with the points I was making.

Which is simply, that using an old musical instrument may give a better sound but in my opinion using an old or new anything that isn't a musical instrument gives a better feeling.

And that old drum heads are not soooo easy to find, and new ones are prohibitively expensive, compared to stuff like old or even new boxes, buckets, garbage cans, wash tubs and tea chests etc…

I think what was nagging me about your original post and which caused me to reply in the first place was your implication that a drum-head bass was the be-all and end-all and that nothing else could/would ever do so well and that people might be put off trying to make one if they couldn't find an old drum to use.

And I wanted to say that you can get as good a sound as a drum-skin by using the cross-strings method on any old box, requiring a similar level of technical dexterity to put it together.

And also, that I, as a player, on a personal level, get a far greater intrinsic enjoyment from producing sounds from objects that no matter whether they were made in a factory, workshop or garden shed, were not originally made as a musical instrument.

The same thing applies to using professional double bass strings, which was where my OEggnTHP comment was actually aimed, - and try finding ONE of those, second-hand in a junk shop - they are not designed for a One-String Bass and a One-String Bass is not designed to need them, so using them in my opinion is an unnecessary and in terms of the rest of the instrument, extremely expensive, affection.

Same thing when the drum skin breaks, a trip to the music store, to pay top $$$ for a professionally made piece of brand-new MUSICAL kit.

So yeah, unless you got a spare drum, skins and bass strings lying around handy or a local store with a good cheap supply of used items, or you're in a band and you steal the other player's kit - which is totally allowed BTW - to me it's Over-Egging the pudding!!

Which ain't bad, just a bit unnecessary. Like my Strad-Box.

But I said all along that this was my personal player's opinion and invited other players to comment.

But you're not a player, most of your postings were bass'd(sic) on assumptions of what your friend thinks and does, you don't even know how to string the thing properly, nor even connect the string to a stick - your diagram was bass'd(sic) on guesswork and all you've done with your last post is try to belittle my input by suggesting I am advocating some extreme Luddite viewpoint and that I would consider the use of any professionally made item an affront to the art of Bass-Making.

Which ain't what I said at all.

In fact I think it would be really great to be able to go into my local music shop and pick a brand-new Gretsch/Fender/Gibson/Martin etc… T-Bass off the shelf, I'd love one!!

Please!!

And like I said before, if there's anyone out there with the seed money, I've already got the plans ready for the Electric-MIDI-T-Box Synthesiser Sequencer Sampler Thingy