My Neck

Package just arrived from Shenzhen; a violin neck and fingerboard for my Double Chin experiment.

So time to post pics of my work so far. Here's the proof-of-concept, roughly shaped from white pine:

I think this was when it still had a 21" scale length, which turned out to be uncomfortable to fret. So I cut it down to 18" scale length -- slightly longer than the longer violas -- and that's not bad to hold. 

Oh, right. Metal-wound Ubass strings from Kala, viola bridge, bass machine heads. According to other builders standard machine heads are a little narrow to be comfortable with Ubass strings, but these aren't the original "gummy bear" (what they called pahoehoe) strings; these are somewhat smaller. Also what I currently have on my solid-body Ubass:

That's what makes this trick possible. Okay, to clarify; here's the Ubass beside a soprano ukulele, and a 3/4 guitar:

So, yes; the first part was a success. I can bow and fret and more-or-less comfortably hold it just like my violin...but play the pitches of a double bass.

Ah, but the next issue is, how does it sound? So far...not good. The first thing I tried (today, as it happens) is an under-bridge pick-up designed for violin.

For twenty bucks you get a lot of fun parts; 9v battery compartment with hatch, two band equalizer and volume, and of course the piezo pickup itself.

(If you are wondering why I bothered even cutting this in a violin shape, the above pic should partially explain. It allows me to attach standard violin chin rest and shoulder rest, to hold it like a violin, and as important as these; as a violinist I develop muscle memory of my instrument through landmarks such as where the upper bout is and where my hand hits the scroll. So making it a violin shaped as possible means I can leverage as much of my violin experience as possible.)

So I'm not sure why it isn't sounding good. I suspect I need to isolate the body from the strings, as there is no useful resonance there. Interestingly, there is one gang who took the same Convolution Reverb technology that's being used to reconstruct the acoustics of a cathedral into a simulated reproduction of the same space, to sample the body resonances of a collection of expensive violins so a simulation of those same body resonances could be applied to the otherwise rather thin sound of an electric (or "silent") violin.

But then, as someone at the Talk Bass forum said, it isn't about making an instrument that sounds good. We already have that, and it is called the acoustic or concert double bass. It is about the look on the audience's face when you place an arco BASS part on an instrument that's tucked under your chin like a  concert violin.