Paul’s new SUITBASS
Ever the innovator, and also working towards a truly travel-friendly bass, Paul Wargaski rolled out Beta Version 1 of his SuitBass at rehearsal last night.
Yes, that’s a vintage wooden suitcase complete with f-holes, a custom bridge, and a re-purposed neck from a dead bass in Paul’s shop.
I’ll let him add any other key details in the comments below, but I wanted to post this picture while it was still fresh.
And yes, the thing sounds freaking insane (i.e. definitely needs a better pickup/pre-/amplification solution than we had last night), but it sure is fun to look upon, and I have no doubt Paul will work out the kinks in due time.
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This beta version has a removeable neck which reduces its size in half for travel purposes. Now that this bass is up and running you may see it at the next gig we have to fly to. The next solution I’m working on is its amplification. Any of you basafiles out there feel free to share what’s been working for you in the acoustic pick-up/pre-amp world. You can leave a comment here or drop me an email.
Paul
Comment by Paul Wargaski — 7/13/2007 @ 12:17 pm
The difference in tone quality and volume between nylon and steel strings was significant. With nylon strings, it sounded like a suitcase with a bass neck attached to it. With steel strings, it was as loud as - and had tone comparable to - a beginners-quality string bass. Through a decent preamp, the tone could be downright decent.
By the way, we tried opening it up and dropping a dynamic mic inside to see what kind of tone we would get. The output wasn’t hot enough to make it usable onstage that way. It’ll have to go through the transducer pickup Paul mounted under the bridge.
Comment by Kenneth Rainey — 7/13/2007 @ 12:47 pm
It’s worth noting that we used an ancient Rickenbacker guitar amp. to power the SuitBass last night, with the treble rolled back and the bass cranked up, so that surely wasn’t the best, but it was all we had at hand… so we gave it a try. A real bass amp surely would have sounded better. Paul’s California Blonde Acoustic bass-amp should make a good option when we get a chance to try it out.
Comment by Scott Judd — 7/13/2007 @ 1:19 pm
Looks like there’s a commercial SuitBass on the market, made by a company called MusicMakers. You can see a picture over at Elderly Instruments.
Comment by Kenneth Rainey — 7/13/2007 @ 1:31 pm