My son plays upright string bass. He is after me to buy him a better one that is a "fully carved" orchestral one.....and not made from plywood. "Better" equals, oh, about $18K. Ack. Fully carved means (typically) two pieces of wood joined/shaped for the front of the bass, and the same for the back.
It's gotten my interest such that I would like to make one....or two, or three until I finally get it right. My mistakes can be sold/given/donated to the local middle school assuming they are not hideously screwed up and moderately playable. Will I ever make one good enough? Not likely, but hey, I think it'd be fun....hence, the draw to try it. Do you realize how
-few- bass luthiers there are out there? Damn few. With 3 year waiting lists. Big market for the ambitious and skillful.
That said, finding chunks of wood large enough for a project like this is -very- challenging. At this point I could care less that the first few be genuine "tonewood" (Spruce, Maple). I just want to find some wood to experiment....and make some sawdust! Dimensions are TWO pieces that are
50" x 14-1/2" x 3" and then tapering down to 1/2". These are glued together to form the front...and pretty much the same goes for the back.Yes, I'm thinking CNC router here :) I've also thought carbon fiber composite.....but that's another story for another newsgroup.
So, wood-gods.....is it me, or is it just impossible to find relatively inexpensive wood in these dimensions? Believe me, I've clicked/search/googled for quite some time now and cannot find hardwoods in large enough dimensions that don't cost an arm, leg and mortgage.
Sure, I could have more than 2 pieces for the front and for the back, but it just struck me that as odd that there are, well, 'limits' to the size of solid wood! :) I guess what we're talking about however is pretty much taking out the whole trunk of a very large tree.
Random thoughts welcome here. Thanks.