Double Bass Wood for Carved Top DB

[Ned Smith]

Any suggestions for 8/4 lumber for a carved top DB? Species and source please.
My search for Sitka spruce finds only one source and it is far from me.
TIA

 

[stefaniw80401]

Well, you're in the south, so you're gonna have to travel north to pickup, or pay shipping. Consider another species? Maybe something that you can find locally in old barn, warehouse or church reclaim timbers? @arnoldschnitzer recently used redwood. Joey Nager and Mitch Mohring are building down in Texas with interesting woods.

 

[Ned Smith]

How about cypress? Availabel at my local hardwood lumber wood

 

[Don Hergert]

If this is a first DB, as with building many other instruments but especially for a large instrument like a DB, it seems logical to consider less expensive and more easily available woods for a "practice run", in particular for a carved top.

A "practice run" before a person really invests in fine woods could provide an excellent learning experience. Plus all the supplies, forms and tools that will be necessary for the "real job" will be acquired and at hand after the "practice run".

Best of luck with this!

 

[RCWilliams]

western red ceder can work nicely as a top wood. If you have s source where you can pick through to select the closest to 1/4 sawn 8/4 in appropriate lengths. A multi piece top on a first effort should be reasonable.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

You can use pine, but it has to be well-cured, not Home Depot garbage wood.

One of my basses has a top made from western red cedar and it’s alarmingly splitty.

 

[Matthew Tucker]

i actually disagree about the practice run suggestion. you're going to put a huge amount of time into it, and it may be the first and last one you build.
everyone i know who has built a "first bass" has ended up with something worthwhile.

dont skimp materials, but for sure be creative; multi-piece tops and backs are common and work well. cedar and good pine and cypress if well cut and dried can all work well. (but personally i think putting money on a spruce bass set and having it shipped to you would be simplest and best, if not the cheapest option. )

 

[1st Bass]

I absolutely agree with Matthew Tucker.
Don’t skimp on wood. You can have a good spruce top shipped to you.
The labor you are investing is FAR more costly than all the materials combined. Make it a good investment by using decent wood!

 

[BPM Strings]

If you Google double bass tone wood you should be able to find someone within driving distance. I know there is a guy in Winston-Salem. You might have better luck searching for violin tone wood suppliers who should be able to help your hunt down some wood. You really want something quarter sawn and air dried, and you are going to have a hard time find that outside of tone wood dealers.

 

[Ned Smith]

I will give it a try.

 

[1st Bass]

International violin company sometimes has bass tops.
(800) 542-3538
Sometimes they don’t. It doesn’t hurt to call and ask. If they do, it will be decent quality European spruce.

I have bought violin, viola, and cello tops from them. All good.

 

[james condino]

Who is this person in Winston Salem that sells bass tops????????? 'More stuff to load into the Prius returning from the next gig I have there!

If you are in Chattanooga, call up the Hampton Brothers in Sevierville; they have some of the finest spruce in the nation and a LOT of it. I buy from them regularly.

You are likely to put 100+ hours of effort into carving your first double bass top. The cost of a nice top is almost irrelevant to the labor effort.

If you put together a cheap solution, you'll likely treat it as a cheap alternative and not put as much effort into it. When I pay full retail for very nice tonewoods, I put my best effort into every plane stroke, in part because of the price, but more so because of the respect I show towards those precious woods.

If you live in the US, within a weekend drive, almost every one of us has access to US forest service land where you can get a $20 firewood permit and harvest a pickup truck full of beautiful spruce. They may not be 300' tall or 6' in diameter, but they will be useable. It may be Engleman, or red or sitka or white or black. I've done it many times...but....every time I have "dumpster dived" for tonewoods, I wasted a LOT more time, effort, and $$$ than if I just called up one of the Pacific northwest or Alaska suppliers and purchased a top. "Spruce expeditions"...

Remember that there is an economy of scale with spruce. If I buy one top, often it will cost $450-750. If I spend $2500 from the same supplier, I can often get 10 or more. So I buy ten, sell off 8 of them for $500 each (or whatever the going rate is), keep two, and pay for the rest of my build off the sales.

 

[BPM Strings]

James, it's oldworldtonewood.com He mostly has wood for the smaller instruments, but he had a complete bass set, top, back, sides and neck he was selling as a package, last summer.

You make a great point about using wood that inspires you to make your best effort.

 

[1st Bass]

I always advise new makers to get wood they really like. That way, if snd when they complete that first instrument, it will be an object of joy to them as the maker.
As James pointed out, you will have possibly hundreds of hours into that first instrument, working carefully, “feeling your way along.” The cost of materials is insignificant compared to the investment of time and anxiety. (In my own case, I was accustomed to working with either heavy wood or steel. Working with wood, one to three millimeters thick was pretty scary. I always was afraid I would break it!)