Subject: RE: Washtub Bass: What kind of string & why?
From:
GUEST,Nervous Paulvis Eggsley
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 11:20 PM
And, it does work, Hot Dang!!
Well Hi Y'all,
I've just spent an enjoyable hour reading through this thread and hoping to find at least one person still connected in 2011, so, Hi ya Reggie and here be my two-penneth worth.
And yes, you're right Reggie, using a small drum for the box and the drum skin for the resonator is much more responsive and sounds much better than a tin tub or wooden box lid, but well, it's not really a tea/tub bass, as the point about making something from scratch is lost by the use of a professionally made instrument in the first place, ie: the drum, even an old broken down drum was still professionally made in a musical instrument factory.
For that matter, any instrument that has more than one string is obviously not a real tea/tub bass, and even a tub/chest box affair that can ONLY be fretted instead of pulling on the stick to change notes is not in, my opinion, the real thing either, tho close this kind of contraption would be more correctly referred to a bass diddly bow.
I've been making Tea-Chest/Wash-Tub/ or Bush (as they're known in Oz) Basses (or Inbindi's as they're called in parts of Africa or Ek-Tara's in India) for over 30 years and have experimented with all types of tubs, chests, strings, sticks and acoustic and electronic amplification methods, including the aforementioned drum-bass.
And as you'll see by following the links in the above message - www.youtube.com/nervouspaulvis - I have built what (IMNSHO) is probably, the best wash tub / tea chest bass in the world.
It took me six weeks to make in a guitar building workshop in Goa, India - www.jungleguitars.com - under the watchful eye of UK luthier Chris Teacher.
And get this folks: It is a truly bee-ooo-tee-full, fully luthier'd, all teak body, with jack-fruit wood - and faux guitar neck - stick, concert quality, Ek-Tara (One-String) Bass.
The string I use is 8-knots to the inch, 3-ply (8/3) - 1.5mm (0.06") diameter, high-twist nylon, fishing net string, with a breaking strain of around 60Kg (130lb).
In the UK, I use a similar gauge 1.5mm builder's cord (used for plumb-lines and for lining up when brick-laying) which has a nylon core and a cotton/synthetic braiding - like a very thin sash cord.
These thin yet extremely strong strings afford a player a much greater range of notes than the more traditional piece of old rope, sisal or GPO string. - I reckon I can go across 1.5 - 2 octaves - and is much cheaper than using regular bass strings or even old bicycle cables - ouch!! - and far easier on the fingers with a much better finger grip and feel than any kind of shiny plastic lawn strimmer or fishing line.
It still causes blisters though, so until the calluses grow it's a good idea to wrap a couple of fingers with gaffa (duct) tape or even better, just apply some super glue to your fingers - let it dry before closing your own or shaking anyone else's hand though!! - which has amazing protective qualities yet washes off with warm soapy water.
There is enough elasticity in this string to allow it to return to the hand after plucking and enough tension and sustain to allow notes to be actually bent, although this is best heard when amplified.
To this end, I have attached a double-headed stick-on piezo-electric, passive pick-up similar to those sold in most music stores for amping up acoustic guitars or violins etc but these are easy enough to make yourself too.
These can be plugged straight into most guitar/bass amps and even into a mic input if you're careful, to give a pretty good LOUD sound but when I've played pro-gigs a sound man (or girl) usually plugs me into something I think is called a DI box which can produce a fantastic full deep almost double bass sound.
I have also used these pick-ups on the stick too, which produces a totally different much higher tonal quality but is still effective and can even on rare occassions negate the need for the actual box/tub altogether - go see my Tub-Less Tea-Chest at my Bass-Ek Instinct #4 page - http://www.youtube.com/nervouspaulvis#p/u/2/9F6Pd827Fk0 - and accord me the title of genius (-:
And of course there are any number of effects that can be applied to a live sound with a couple of guitar pedals, flange, override, reverb etc and even more that can be digitally added to a recording.
But the secret in getting the acoustic sound out of the box/tub itself is simply to turn the darn thing upside down!!
Or more correctly, the right way up!!
Wha?
Yes really, that great big hole at the top of your box is where most of the sound comes out - dur!! - and it's just plain wrong to muffle it by placing it face-down on the ground.
That's like putting the sound-hole on the back of a guitar!!
And I can already hear you saying but what about the resonator? If the lid/bottom of the box/tub is touching the floor, the sound will be muffled to start with.
Well yes of course, but the answer to that, is that instead of using the lid/bottom of the box/tub, you use the sides as a resonator.
All you need to do, is to simply drill a couple of small holes about an inch apart, about half-way up each side of the box - it's good idea to reinforce these sides by gluing a small piece of wood/metal to each side - inside and out - before drilling the holes - and then looping a series of cross-strings through these holes, using the same 1.5 mm cord, so you are basically tying the opposite sides of the box/tub to each other, with all the strings overlapping each other somewhere near the actual centre of the cube/spheriod.
Tie these loops up as tight as you can - I use a sliding parcel knot and then twist a stick into the outside loops for added tension - preferably until the sides bow inward slightly, but certainly tight enough to create a definite ring when any of these string are plucked on their own.
And then… and then simply tie or loop the bottom end of the stick-string through the middle of all these strings where they overlap each other and voila!!
Instead of just a single flat plate, you now have a 4-sided (in the case of a square tea-chest) or circular (in the case of a wash-tub) resonator!!
Measure the string to the stick and tie it so that under normal tension, the stick has a forced angle of about 45º against the upright, but make sure there's enough "give" in the string to be able to pull the stick upright and back.
I usually screw a guitar strap tab, or small screw-hook, onto the end of the stick and tie a small loop in the end of the string for easy attachment.
The string will stretch a bit but can be easily shortened by cutting it - ha ha - or by simply tying extra knots along it's length. I always like to have one knot about half way up the string which I can grab with my finger tips to give a little extra pull or even let it hit the stick to produce a rockabilly slap effect.
The tub/box is now placed the right way up, with the bottom on the ground and the hole at the top, and you can hear the full unadulterated sound coming right up into your ears - yee-haw!!
If the tub/box is big enough you can stand upright with a foot right inside it to keep it in place (mind the cross-strings when you're getting in and out though) or if it's too small - like my luthier'd beauty - screw, stick or strap it to a standing board, and now you don't have to keep your knee bent for hours at a time.
It's always best to lay a blanket or mat on the ground to place your tub on as it helps to keep it steady and muffles any hard scratching and bumping and I put a small sheepskin mat on the inside too, to again muffle any unwanted sound but also to keep my foot warm and comfy.
If the stick is long enough it can balance on the ground outside the box/tub but you get much better control (and a lower tone) with a short stick balanced in some kind of holder on the corner/edge of the box - I often use the upturned plastic screw-on lid off of a jar of peanut butter or something, screwed into the frame with a lump of blu-tac inside to stop the stick from scraping on the screw.
I don't know about being the best player, I don't really enjoy playing bass rhythms - all that 1-dudda-5, 1-dudda-5 stuff gets pretty boring for me - So I prefer to play strictly on the beat, mostly at double time and my preferred styles are hot rockin' country-blues, wild-ass rockabilly with a psycho twist and what was called at one time, Progressive Skiffle.
Although I was roped into playing with a dub-rhythm reggae-funk band last year and apparently can also put down a solid roots blue-beat bass line on the thing too.
I've played my bass with a number of bands, most notably the sadly now defunct Blo-Weevils and some of our best recordings can be heard at my - www.myspace.com/nervouspaul - page.
I'd love to be playing more gigs though, so if any bands out there need a solid tub-thumper with lead singer aspirations, do give me a call - paulvis@fastmail.fm - and while we're at it, if Scott Leeper would care to give up a few of his gigs in favour of me then he'd surely get a chance to see at least one other fairly good (tho I say so myself) player playing.
But if I can't play with anyone else I also, now dig this if'n you're still listening…
I also, use my Bass as part of my One-Mad-Man-Banned set-up and ceptin' maybe Jessie Fuller, have developed the only known method of playing bass, guitar and drums at the same time.
I hold the neck of my guitar between the string and the stick of my bass and play the bass string against the chorded guitar strings while manoeuvring the bass stick with the guitar neck.
Yeah Man!!
All this whilst playing harmonica/kazoo (I'm looking for the right size jug) and working the pedals of a bass drum and hi-hat, with an egg shaker attached to my plucking wrist, temple bells around one ankle and a tambourine around the other.
There are better examples available tho I'm not sure where, but an early venture into this type of One-Man-Bandmadness can be viewed at my Bass-Ek Instinct #5 page - http://www.youtube.com/nervouspaulvis#p/u/1/NgKb5CdgLdY -
So maybe not the best One-String Bass (to give it it's correct generic term) Player of all time but surely one of the most enlightened, original and creative.
What do you think?
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sj
