Review: my newest washtub bass

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 Apr 06 - 03:09 PM

frogprince -

I'm not sure which pink tank top you're lookin' at, but the answer is most likely no, since I was taking the pics and didn't get in very many of them.

With SWMBO's Dulcimer.

SWMBO (Lin In Kansas) with her NEW McSpad

When I was younger

The front page: browse as needed.

John

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: frogprince
Date: 24 Apr 06 - 02:22 PM

Neat touch, Guest.

JohninKansas, is that you in the pink tank top?

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: GUEST,thanx...
Date: 24 Apr 06 - 12:22 PM

to GutBucketeer...

i've sold a few, NOT enuff to quit the Post Office.
I'm very lazy about having to carry things, at first i made custom wooden wedges to lift the washtub... i sold a few of those sets too (perhaps other WTBs are lazier than i)
I sold one to a guy that collects basses and owns a Bass store in Detroit, the HE has one for sale in his store (NOT mine) so i had to do something a bit different than his...
THATS why i carved images in the washtub, and it inadvertantly became "the sound hole"...
smaller holes away from the round-face-plate seems to be good.
I include 3 "ropes":
1. cotton (warmth)
2. nylon cord (loud, but percussive when hit)
3. heavy twine (perfect sound, but it hurts!)

i dont like .80 weed whacker nylon because it streaches so much
and the other heavier gauges are usually orange (yuk)!

i recently listed that bass in Ebay,
this is a very interesting experiment.

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 20 Apr 06 - 09:13 AM

Very nice, if somewhat simple. Does the sound hole change the sound, or make it louder? What are the 3 different types of strings you provide with the ones you sell? Have you actually sold any?

JAB

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 02:13 PM

Steve-o

If I'm not mistaken, the BanjoZilla is by the same guy at my link up above:

An "interesting variation" here

It's not the same instrument, so maybe the one he had at WVA 2005 is a "refinement." For that one he used a bass drum for the "tub" and a banjoish rig. He should'a got something better than his wheelchair for the street stomps though. He was having a lot of trouble with the gravel on the roads.

Thanks for the link. I'll have to check out his I.D. next Sept at WVA 2006. His original, at your link, appears to have come from about the same time when my "more-guts-double-gutbucket-double-bass" design got built.

John

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: Kaleea
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 12:57 PM

If'n yew wanna git technichamall--it's called an "F cleff." Somethin' about it looks like an F in fancy cursive writin'.

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: Steve-o
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 12:16 PM

Check out this Bass Banjo- it's actually designed and engineered up to WORK!
http://www.xstrange.com/bassbanjo.htm

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 03:45 AM

Helmholtz was a physicist some years back who calculated that a "volume" with a hole in it would have a very precise frequency that could be calculated from just the volume of the container and the area of the hole (Or the sum of the areas of all the holes). He constructed a bunch of glass globes calibrated (according to formula) to use as standards for determining the pitch of tones he was studying.

Since the formula is pretty simple - and extremely accurate - it's become customary to refer to the main "resonant frequency" of a bucket - or other more or less bulky "noisemaker" as its "Helmholtz frequency." Things like guitar bodies can be described by their "Helmholtz" freqency, but of course they're complex enough that you have to also talk about plate frequencies and buzz tones and such. A "mostly closed" gutbucket can produce a fairly sharp "boom" at a specific pitch, if you work on it a bit.

Trivial example, the ocarina. It has a fixed internal volume, but the number of holes that you open determines the pitch. If the holes are all about the same size, it doesn't much matter which ones you open - just how many of them. It makes for a really simple fingering chart.

John

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: PoppaGator
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 03:30 AM

Very interesting. I'm not familiar with "Helmholtz" ! is that some kind of audiophile technical term, or perhaps a brand-name washtub?

Your idea about installing a spigot is a good one; go for it!

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 02:26 AM

PoppaGator -

It's TWO WASHTUBS ("double bass") carefully selected to provide separated resonant frequencies, separated in the middle with a diaphragm with a carefully calculated hole to couple the two Helmholtz resonating volumes to give uniform tonal response over approximately an octave.

But I have considered putting a spigot on just for looks.

John

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: PoppaGator
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 01:48 AM

That bass clef looks like the letter "C," but I'm not sure that it is properly called a "C Clef." It's been too many years since I took music classes, but I seem to remember that it's called an F Clef. I may be wrong, but I'm posting this anyway; somebody will certainly correct me if necessary. Regardless of the proper name, it does look cool and certainly denotes bass-ness.

I do know that the familiar treble-register clef is the G Clef.

JohnInKansas: Are you sure that thing is a washtub bass? It looks suspiciously like a beer keg to me...

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Apr 06 - 12:21 AM

A "classic" gutbucket.

The crowd I hang with have mostly copied my modern double bass, with fixed fingerboard in place of the pully-string, although no one has successfully duplicated my coupled-resonant-dual-tuned-double-bucket construction. There are still lots of novel designs cropping up - and many repeats of the classic ones.

An "interesting variation" here. He seemed to have too much trouble maneuvering his undercarriage through the road gravel to play much, so I didn't get any recordings.

John

Subject: RE: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: Janie
Date: 18 Apr 06 - 11:04 PM

Tres kewl!

Subject: Review: my newest washtub bass
From: GUEST,washtub bass player
Date: 18 Apr 06 - 10:44 PM

i carved a C Clef into my washtub...

i just luv it!
here's a pic
http://www.geocities.com/washtubbass/washtubbass.html