Electric Upright V2.0 - Episode 5 - 3D printed pickup and UV cured resin, Final Assembly
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- It's done - for now anyway. with just a few little things to touch up but it's finally complete. In the last episode of the series I run you through my process for 3D printing a pickup and make a body brace, and we have a serious look at using UV cure resin as a wood finish.
For those wanting to make this pickup for themselves, here are the .stl files
drive.google.c...
Things to note: The wire is 0.06mm, that's very close to AWG 42, 7000 wraps per coil. The pole pieces are 8mm x 15mm, the neodymium magnets are 14mm x 3mm and the thicker end of the bobbin is there to put some distance between the magnet and the coil to let the coil read the string a little clearer. Everything is printed in ABS with 100% infill so it's good and sturdy. Try not to break the wires off when sliding the bobbins into the housing, it takes a little practice.
Wow. You have made another very useful instrument.
The magnetic pickup will porentially be a useful gig practical sound . Sadly though the lack of fundamental content will prevent any magnetic pickup sounding like an upright if that is the goal.
Reason being that the pickup is positioned relatively close to a fixed end of the string and is responding to tranverse string movement. There is not much tranverse movement from the fundamental when the pickup is away from the centre.
Some sort of pickup that responds to variation in string tension at the bridge will capture a full spectrum sound.
The subtle soft spread of the fundamental through the room is the beauty of an upright versus the chest thumping overtone (80-120 Hz) from the bass guitar.
Good on ya man.
I had to read that twice to figure it out... Damn. You're right and it's so obvious not that I see it, a fully acoustic body+pickup is going to cop the full force of the strings movement whereas I'm only capturing a small slice of it.
We should hang out more😁
@@peterstephen1562 he's already running the regular upright through an amp though, to be heard over the band. So realistically, it shouldn't be a drastic difference. Especially since this pickup is microphonic, picking up more of the acoustic sound of the string than the pickup on the acoustic upright.
@quitfiddle . Not an issue with me and my explanation may not have been ideal.
But I see in your comment that you didn’t comprehend my point about fundamentals and pickup topologies.
How this channel doesn’t have 100k subscribers is beyond me. Even as a non musician your woodworking and on the fly design/engineering skills are fun to watch.
Thank you, I think the reason I'm not more popular is that it's a fairly niche subject, not a whole lot of broad appeal. I also have a policy of not introducing midroll ads until the video is 1 year old, and I suspect youtube doesn't like me doing that, but I hate getting interrupted when I'm watching something so I never want to do that to my loyal audience. After 1 year though, yeah, screw it, money is money🤣
@@fanbladeinstruments I appreciate that. I hate getting interrupted by ads as well. I’m not monetized so I don’t have to worry about that. I honestly don’t think I would monetize even if I had enough subs and views. It seems like a bit of a headache and I just post because I like making stuff. Cheers from Detroit-ish. ✌🏻
@@fanbladeinstruments if I'm not mistaken, the current trend is to use a video thumbnail with a nice girl on it; that catches a lof of eyes. Maybe you should photoshop a model holding your basses in a "pose that suggests some sort of innuendo" (you do know what I mean) XD
@@cydrych totally agreed
@@RobertoVernina either that or he could pose in a Speedo for the thumbnail 🤣
It is so great to witness passion at work! Not only the built of the instrument but your passion for music in general. Very inspiring!
I can't stop looking at that beautiful fretboard, i saw every episode and going from a piece of rough brown wood to what now seems like richlite it just amazing.
Can't wait for thevm "Electric Upright Bass v3 Revenge of the 3D printer" 😂
"EUBV3 - This time it's professional"😂
Amazing!
1) The pickup looks JUST FINE SIR. Its almost an extension of the neck.
2) Yes! It sounds BETTER than the double bass!
3) Does the bridge need a weight reduction? If not, then cool.
Great job!!!!!!!!!
Yes@ Completely cool. You've done a great job all round. I'm really impressed with the sound you're getting from it. That pickup gives this bass some real personality. I do agree with you on the fture version with a timber housing. So long as it had nice rolled edging to compliment all that hard work you did on the overall body design. Timber with those bold adjustable coils, I'd be a big fan of that. But this build has been impressive. I think my favorite to date. Congrats and what a great share. Looking forward to your next build.
Excellent work, great result, and very nice incidental music too! Thanks for the video!
Sounds great, Geoff. That pickup design is a winner.
Wow, love the way that bass sounds, fantastic work!
Been a great series this. Loved v1 as well. Saw that pickup vid mentioned is really worth a watch if anyone is interested. I'm a double bass player who hasn't played in years and my missus isn't keen on me watching your channel, gives me ideas 😂
You can't keep a good idea down😉
as always, nice job mate! Every time you finish a build, it has always something better to it than the previous one. You're right, it's all about learning. Anyway, if I might comment on the pickup I have a couple of things to say. First, I really like the design. I mean, smoothing it out would only nake it look more "polished", but the design itself is very appealing to me. The second observation is more of a suggestion: if you are experiencing inconsistencies between polepieces, you could always try to "force-gaussing" your magnet, so you can make sure that all of them have the same magnetic field. I'm not going into too many details - I'll leave it to you to search for it - but in a nutshell it involves a vise and a couple of very, very strong magnets. That said, please keep going with this good stuff!
I've done a similar process to revitalize a fading alnico P pickup, but I'm not sure it would work on these as the polepieces are simply steel and I'm using neodymium magnets anyway.
In the first version the pole pieces were M6 cap screws and I suspect that the magnets may not have been sitting right - or at least not consistant, in the new design I'm using 8mm hardened bearing rollers so they're a lot more precise and even.
Enjoyed the build series. The tone of the completed instrument was outstanding.
Thanks for taking us along for the journey.
Looking forward to seeing what's next.
I love the narration in the pickup making montage - that's like a poetry slam! 👍
Thanks, I only do that occasionally because it's a lot of extra work to edit all the clips together but it's a great way of covering a LOT of ground very quickly. If I'd done the regular thing of talking about each stage before showing it then this video would've been over an hour long. Cheers
Geoff, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the pickup. It looks like an extention of the fingerboard and looking from a northern hemisphere feels entirely professionally made. And if you add some contours to that bridge, it'll be a killer bass!
Nice innovative approach (albeit a bit cavalier) to designing and solving problems on the go.Can't argue with the outcome though.Works well and sounds good , says it all. Well done mate!
I was waiting for this episode all week, and it was well worth the wait. That bass turned out beautiful and sounds great!
That's a beautiful and great sounding instrument! It would be fun to compare the sound of the same parts played on an electric fretless with similar strings and pickup
Excellent workmanship and groove! Bravo!
That turned out more than great. What a fantastic tone from that pup. The Wal type design is really cool. Almost bought a pbass the other day like your Greco. Still might.
And I agree, the pickup looked out of sorts but.. imagine a whole 3d printed (rather industrial looking) upright or electric bass. 😎
Do it! Those weirdo Greco (Maxon) pickups are a thing of beauty. I nearly bought a second one with a dead pickup so I could dissect it even further to learn all of it's secrets, but I got outbid.
Yes. I like those pickups. To my ears sounds more like a double bass than your actual double bass! Well done, mate!
Needless to say i made that comment, just before you essentially said the same thing. Watch first...THEN comment!
Great minds think alike😁 Thank you sir.
Geoff, you rock man. Keep up the amazing work! Always love whatever you cook up in that larger-than-ever bass lair :)
What an enjoyable series. I enjoyed it very much.
What a wonderful build, thanks for sharing it with us
Excellent work!
Have a look out for a Fishman Platinum Stage, tiny little high quality preamp used by a lot of upright players that has a belt clip so just a short lead from your DB pickup. I picked mine up for under £80 off eBay, I have a feeling NZ prices might be crazy though.
I second that it is a lovely bit of kit. I use it on everything. Transparent and so flexible for many types of pickups and instruments.
Thanks, I'll look into it, a good preamp goes a long way.
Such a great series, I love the music too!
What a great bass sound !
I had previously commented on a video in this series that you should try blending in a piezo pickup; I am plaesed to announce that I couldn't have been more wrong. That pickup design is incredible, and if you ever decide to manufacture them (and ship them to the US), I'll be first in line to buy one.
Sell them? I'm not quite ready for that level of capitalism yet, but while I mentally prepare for becoming a corporate behemoth here are the .stl files so you can just make one yourself.
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ryqfp1bZ3kXyR5f_mb_N6cV_vSj61A--?usp=sharing
Things to note: The wire is 0.06mm, that's very close to AWG 42, 7000 wraps per coil.The pole pieces are 8mm x 15mm, the neodymium magnets are 14mm x 3mm and the thicker end of the bobbin is there to put some distance between the magnet and the coil to let the coil read the string a little clearer. Everything is printed in ABS with 100% infill so it's good and sturdy. Try not to break the wires off when sliding the bobbins into the housing, it takes a little practice.
I might actually pop that lot up into the description so everyone can have at it if they wish.
I enjoy it when your tangents (the need to extend the upper bout) sprout tangents (a dive into UV resin, so to speak). As you were crafting that, I was considering “Well, couldn’t you design in a really asymmetrical upper bout that extends out on the left to your thigh?” Then I realized that would be pretty grotesque, and so would its case. 😂 (Edit: No, wait… an electric upright with an inverted body. A smaller bout below!)
- Paul
It's interesting, I never think of them as tangents, in my head every step is a part of the whole project but that's because I already know where I'm trying to go with it even if some bits seem to take a sharp left turn.
I agree with your bubble hypothesis but would add that i’ve found that when applying resin , do it in falling temperatures. Air expanding from the woods pores as the job heats up is one cause of bubbles…try warming the wood first then allowing the whole job too cool while setting.
By the way I think your bass is the real deal! Congrats.
GENIUS! Makes total sense to me 😁 That sounds like the voice of experience talking and I will absolutely be taking that idea on board for the next one, thank you Sir👏👏
Very well done Brother! Nice to see an old Trace Elliott bass amp there (I hade one a few decades ago)
Cool, yeah it's the GP7 SM preamp, it was part of my live rig for about a decade but now it's retired to the studio and handles all my bass requirements for recording. It's probably 30 years old and still sounds fantastic.
Sounds great! Your builds are always quirky and wonderful!
Watching you with the mic at the beginning gave me an idea: how about trying microphone builds? I'll bet you could do a great job with dynamic or ribbon mics.
I have a love of odd microphones that's second only to my love of basses, and yes, I've thought long and hard about how to make one, and that's a level of technical research and engineering precision, coupled with a lot of advanced mathematical concepts that I'm just not going to be able to achieve on my own in my dusty garage.
That said, people are making kick drum mics out of 8" speakers, so there may be something for me to play with in that area, but it's not something I've ever felt I could do better than what I can buy for (relatively) little cost.
Fantastic, i love it 👍🏾
awesome project, enjoyed watching!
Great tone mate.... love it!
It sounds great! Great job on it. If I were you, I'd ebonize the bridge to match the fret board.
Great idea, but unfortunately Oak doesn't ebonize. It's the solution reacting with tannins in the wood and Oak doesn't have many, if any. I tried an offcut a while ago and it just went a dirty grey color, not the deep black that you would hope for. It does need some finish though, I'll probably just CA glue it this afternoon, if I leave it too long I'll never get around to it and then it'll go a dirty grey color all by itself.
@fanbladeinstruments oh dang, I didn't know that, I don't know my woods to well yet 😅
Looks fantastic and sounds amazing! Not sure a man waving his wood around in public is very youtube friendly though 😂
😅
Dude! That sounds amazing!! Any chance I could some dimensions and specs on how you made the pickup? I have 2 EUB projects mid build in my shop (set to the side for now, but I hope to get back to them soon). Glad to hear you follow Tim Sway too, love that guy ❤
Oh, I was thinking about your drill press last week- have you taken the spring apart yet? You were saying it was hard to find a replacement, but you might be able to fix it. Most are just a coil of steel, one end probably just snapped at the bend where it anchors. You might be able to bene the end to reattach it to the quill retractor. It’s probably worth a try anyway.
I'm popping the .stl files into the description with some additional info so anyone who wants to can make one.
As for the drill press, yes there's plenty of spring left over but I'll need a blowtorch to heat up the end, that spring steel doesn't want to bend easily. And I'm a little scared of taking the spring out of it's enclosure without full body armor🤣
@@fanbladeinstruments it sounds like the end of the spring is broken, which means it shouldn't be inder tension, but yeah better safe than sorry. You might be able to bend the end by putting in a bench vise and using heavy pliers, a pipe wrench, vise grips or similar, but a torch would definitely help. Although if you heat it, it will ruin the temper, making the steel softer, which drastically impacts the spring's ability to, ya know, spring 😁
Excellent design and craftsmanship. Really cool. And was the groove at the end in 5/4? Love it!
Thanks for noticing, and yes 5/4 time is one of the few technically challanging things that I'm actually good at. I don't why or how, 7/4 confuses the hell out of me, but for some reason I can rip in 5/4 just as fluidly as 4/4, 6/8 and all the others. It's like I'm being given an extra beat to play with and my brain can easily fill that gap with something, and it feels totally natural to me. Whereas 7/4 feels like a beat is taken away and I struggle to get back to the 1 on time. It's odd. Literally😉
You mentioned how this sounds more like a double bass than your actual double bass, and that reminded me of a funny old technique I used to use. I had a bad microphone when I first began recording music, and very little knowledge of how to mix things properly, and I found that if I played my electric guitar plugged in, and on a separate track recorded the guitar through my mic, with a bit of mixing it sounded much more like an acoustic guitar than my actual acoustic guitar lol.
I wonder if the same principle applies here, it might be getting just enough acoustics to sound natural, while also having the richer sound of an electric instrument giving it a better tone than what a microphone could give you.
It's a lot of random elements that sometimes combine in unexpected ways, There are some things you can do to steer the weirdness in a particular direction but a lot of the time a freak occurrence will carry you off to places you were never expecting to visit. In the case of your microphone there will have been a perfect combination of factors like mic frequency response and placement, the speaker size and type, the guitar pickups and strings, etc, how any of it fits together is anyone's guess but if it works, go with it.
Funny story, years ago I was play a covers gig and some kind of radio crosstalk was happening where the guitarists wah pedal was picking up my bass. It took us a few moments to work out what was happening and the song very quickly turned into a funk bass solo with the guitarist wahing my bass through his amp. We never figured out why it happened and it never happened again, but it's one of my favorite stage moments ever. Weird shit can happen sometimes and you've just gotta let it happen😁
@@fanbladeinstruments Funnily enough your story reminds me of another story. One time I was recording my guitar but I kept hearing the faintest voices. I pushed record, held my guitar silent, and cranked up the volume afterwards. It was picking up radio signals and I heard men talking, I could hear distinct words and everything. Like you mentioned it never happened again, even when I tried to recreate it, but it was a bizarre and funny experience.
Import you pickup case to Fusion 360 and apply some filets to the edges to take that sharpness off, also you can print in matte filament or carbon fibre PLA and you wont have that 3D printed layer look, or you could design a pattern to be engraved into the surface, lots of things you can do with fusion to make it look better!
I have an AMS to go with my X1 Carbon 3D printer and sometimes add an accent colour for some pinstriping.
Thanks, I'm using ABS for structural rigidity but carbon fiber might be a better option. I'm only just scratching the surface of how to do 3d modeling, and Tinkercad has been very good for me but I may need to upgrade to something a little more comprehensive now that I've sort of got my brain around how the whole thing works. Cheers
@@fanbladeinstruments I too have used Tinkercad and find its workflow suits me, although there are some things that are hard on it, filets and chamfers being one of them, I have been trying to learn fusion for about a year but still revert to Tinkercad if I get stuck, and even pencil and paper from time to time!
Smoothing ABS in an acetone fume bath works well, if you like shiny plastic.
Yes, I've heard about Acetone's effects on ABS but initial experiments didn't work very well. I have a friend locally who does it all the time so I think I'll have to pay him a visit and actually see his process.
@@fanbladeinstruments I’ve gone the fusion 360 route .. the like to upcharge and remove access at the drop of a hat .. I moved to freecad it’s totally free and works great for 3D printing and cnc .. it’s a great program .
Love the Eub builds .. great stuff !!
You can give coats of superglue to the 3D printed parts, same as the guitar body..... or use a wood VENEER
Good Idea, veneer would save me a lot of work in rebuilding the thing from scratch, I'll have a closer look at that soon, thanks
@@fanbladeinstruments you can cut a think layer from the same wood used for the neck, and then tape it, and make it as thin as possible with the sand paper, the tape will prevent it tears apart (also you can attach it to a block on top to have a better grip), after that, glueing on the pickup and C glue will be easy.
I tried putting a poly futon a guitar and kind of ran into a similar problem and it was also running but wouldn’t level out and would leave the brush marks…so I stripped it cos it just pissed me off , was a marine grade and hard wearing floor polyurethane
Seymour Duncan makes a pickup called P-Rails, it has pole pieces and a rail, I wonder if that might be a better design?! 🤔
The p-rails are also a combo p-90 & rail single coil, I’m wildly curious to try them out one day
That’s cool as Bro
I have an idea for a set of pickups that I think the idea is cool but even more so if it works, been thinking about it for some time now, just need to get off my ass and try the idea out, but yeah if it works then that’s when I’ll share the idea with you..
Always like your ideas too, and I think it’s where I get some of my inspiration from, if I go ahead it will be like a cross breed type thing of Yourself and
TimSway…..
Got ya thinking now ?
And then there's this nutter. I'm thinking record player stylus resting on the bridge, phono preamp in a small housing, 2 x 9v batteries and you're off to the races.
ruclips.net/video/S2B9Kc1-LAg/видео.htmlsi=BvV-TaRWF5DrnEPs
@@fanbladeinstruments
Yep he’s MAD 😂😂😂
@@fanbladeinstruments
I tell ya what, I’m just gonna lay my idea out to you…
The idea is I have a brand new unused Tattoo Machine and got to thinking if it would be ok to use them as a P Bass type deal since the Tattoo Machines are twin coil and the idea was to inlay the whole machine, do you think it may work or do you think I’m as MAD as that Simon Guy ?😂😂😂😂😂😂
I just had a quick google of the specs of those and it looks like the copper wire might be too thick? I mean, It'll generate a signal for sure but how it actually sounds is anyone's guess. Try it, you might just be sitting on the next great idea. Or you might be as mad as me and my mate Simon🤣
@@fanbladeinstruments
I was born Nuts in 1969
😂😂
Having worked with resin in woodturning i can tell you, yes, sealing the wood makes a YUGE difference. Unless you seal the wood, air is going to escape from the wood fibers. The only other way to deal with it is a pressure pot, which that thing would never fit in.
Why not a threaded insert and a photography monopod?
Good Idea, I'll look at that for the next one. In this case I had a few old mic stand parts so that's what I used but there's certainly better options out there. Cheers
...Hm, can you put a strap around it and wield it like a bass? It does look like a Hofner bass to me.
It weighs over 6kg and would be horribly unbalanced, so yes...but not really😆
Can pickup coils be hidden under the end of the fretboard, or would they just sound like someone farting in another room?
There's not quite enough room widthwise for them, I could try to make them smaller and then inset them into the underside so they'd be close enough to the strings, but the height adjustment issue would be a strange problem to solve and I don't know if the smaller coils would sound as good. It's a great idea, just needs some troubleshooting to make it work, thanks
Where did you, by the neck?
I visited a dark forest at midnight, my contact had told me to meet them at the final tree adjacent to the moonlit alter used by ancient civilizations for ritual sacrifice. I turned the corner as a lone raven flew overhead and a cloaked shadow stepped into a clearing wielding a long object in a velvet sack. He greeted me and we spoke of the dangers I would face and we drank a ceremonial toast to ward off the evils for my return journey back out into the real world.
Nah, I just build the thing out of the crap I had laying around in the garage.
Three things: I had no idea that the bridge of a cello or double bass was removable. I suppose it shouldn't be surprising. The Japanese koto has thirteen moveable bridges. Second, congrats on rediscovering the breast brace concept once used with large hand drills. Lastly, I was expecting you to finish the bridge. Raw wood is not attractive. A bit of stain is called for.
Sleeping bag ?
Not a bad starting point, reinforced with stiff cardboard perhaps? Or even just make a big cardboard box and line it with a sleeping bag? There's plenty of options for sure.
@@fanbladeinstruments that there is