Telenator
Member
Here's an update on the bass guitar I built for a friend in South Dakota.
I gave it to him back in May and it's been working very well. Since then I have gotten e-mails from around the world and have teamed up with Mark Stoleson of Stol Guitars http://www.stolguitars.com to make these on his CNC machine. It's been an extremely busy summer with little time for anything else but work, and more work on this project.
Here's a brief photo history of the project:
June 2010 I'm in South Dakota watching a physically challanged friend play bass in a wheel chair. The bass is in the wrong place and the neck position is just plain wrong. The wheels start turning and I bought and modified a new Ibanez bass to prove a concept. A neck rotation to improve the hand position on the neck because of the way people tend to sit back in wheel chairs.
I brought the bass out to South Dakota in August of 2010. The neck rotation is very successfull and my friend likes it alot. He stops playing his other basses in favor of this new one. Then I notice that he can't reach up the neck far enough because the leg cut is in the wrong position forcing the bass to sit way off to his right side.
After taking a bunch of measurements I came up with a new shape that moves the leg cut further back, which in turn moves the whole bass more directly in front of the player.
Now that the bass sits properly in front of the player, the weight of the neck became a big issue. Two weeks before I was supposed to give the finished bass to him, I still didn't have a solution. Then it hit me. A leaf spring suspension bar! It takes the neck heavy bias of the bass and transfers the weight to the players lef leg in a dynamic fashion where the bass is actually free to bounce around without the neck diving to the floor! Note the leather sheath mounted to the bottom of the bass and crossing over to the players left leg.
When all was said and done, the bass performed perfectly and I flew it out to South Dakota this past May and gave it to my friend.
Here are some photos of the finished bass.
Here's my buddy Vince playing it.
Because of the interest generated by the few photos that popped up around the net, I have teamed up with a friend of mine to produce these in small quantities for those who may benefit from such an instrument. There are other instruments and contraptions currently on the market but none of them address the seated bass players needs so thoroughly and simply as the Ergo-Vibe Bass.
Here are the bodies we're building to prove the CNC program and work through the bugs. One of them is a 4 string model and the other a 5 string. We should be ready to produce these in another 8 weeks or so. I'm excited!
This is what I've been doing all summer.
I gave it to him back in May and it's been working very well. Since then I have gotten e-mails from around the world and have teamed up with Mark Stoleson of Stol Guitars http://www.stolguitars.com to make these on his CNC machine. It's been an extremely busy summer with little time for anything else but work, and more work on this project.
Here's a brief photo history of the project:
June 2010 I'm in South Dakota watching a physically challanged friend play bass in a wheel chair. The bass is in the wrong place and the neck position is just plain wrong. The wheels start turning and I bought and modified a new Ibanez bass to prove a concept. A neck rotation to improve the hand position on the neck because of the way people tend to sit back in wheel chairs.
I brought the bass out to South Dakota in August of 2010. The neck rotation is very successfull and my friend likes it alot. He stops playing his other basses in favor of this new one. Then I notice that he can't reach up the neck far enough because the leg cut is in the wrong position forcing the bass to sit way off to his right side.
After taking a bunch of measurements I came up with a new shape that moves the leg cut further back, which in turn moves the whole bass more directly in front of the player.
Now that the bass sits properly in front of the player, the weight of the neck became a big issue. Two weeks before I was supposed to give the finished bass to him, I still didn't have a solution. Then it hit me. A leaf spring suspension bar! It takes the neck heavy bias of the bass and transfers the weight to the players lef leg in a dynamic fashion where the bass is actually free to bounce around without the neck diving to the floor! Note the leather sheath mounted to the bottom of the bass and crossing over to the players left leg.
When all was said and done, the bass performed perfectly and I flew it out to South Dakota this past May and gave it to my friend.
Here are some photos of the finished bass.
Here's my buddy Vince playing it.
Because of the interest generated by the few photos that popped up around the net, I have teamed up with a friend of mine to produce these in small quantities for those who may benefit from such an instrument. There are other instruments and contraptions currently on the market but none of them address the seated bass players needs so thoroughly and simply as the Ergo-Vibe Bass.
Here are the bodies we're building to prove the CNC program and work through the bugs. One of them is a 4 string model and the other a 5 string. We should be ready to produce these in another 8 weeks or so. I'm excited!
This is what I've been doing all summer.
