SamIAm

Just watched this rather brilliant video and thought I'd share ... hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I'll need to check out the rest of the series. S'manth x

I totally buy that! Having only played UBASSes, I did go shopping for a bass guitar. With a 34inch I felt like I was having to reach into the building next door to reach the low frets and my previously effortless stretching over 5 frets could barely manage 3! I did have an Ibanez Mikro 4 string for a short time (I really liked it) but I play in a ukulele band and it stood out like a sore thumb! Ponty (my bass) has a scale length of 24.5 and I really like it, but in going for a 5'er I don't think I could get away that short AGCs appear lovely! And the work that Andy turns out is amazing!

Similar, I did my Physics A level in the early 80s ... it was always my favorite subject. The reading I've been doing is fascinating and I do grok the underlying factors better than I did a few days ago ... now I think I'm just going to go to NewTone, tell them what I'm looking for and let them do their magic! S'manth x

They sound really quite good! They do a multiscale, but it's too wee for me

So basically, what I'm hearing... S'manth, less and more And so ... B0 - 800mm scale length (31.49 in) G2 - 730mm scale length (28.74 in) And now to model it S'manth x

Do you have a licence for that!? x

This is one of the scariest things I've read of late! 🤣

I'm attempting to 'scale the heights' of the early design of Flo. (Sorry 😜). It appears that the scale & fretboard will be a major (perhaps the major?) driver of the design. It will determine neck length, bridge positioning, etc. Fundamental to the EBB5 is the use of 5 strings; I wish to give myself the extra low range provided by a B0 string so for open tuning I'm aiming for B0 E1 A1 D2 G2. From what I have read on the internet, it seems that longer B strings play/sound better ... some claim that the speaking length on a B0 string needs to be 31/32 inches or more (I've been heavily influenced by the lovely basses that birdsong produce). This site was my favourite describing how 'not to fret' about fret spacing ... (Sorry again). I'm reading it through and am likely to do so again (and again). I started to poke around at the various fret spacing tools on the internet and then came across this great video on creating a parametric fretboard model in Fusion 360 (I use Fusion a lot for 3D printing) OK, so this will let me model things ... but during this research more questions came up than were being answered, for example: If I am aiming for a 32 inch B0 scale length, what should my G2 be? So I started scouring specs for various other guitars (Very much a work in progress) But it seems that the B0/G2 ratio tends to lie in the 1.06-1.09 range. But why any particular scale length for a B0? I mean, why pick 812.8 (32 inch) and not 815 or 830? Given that I just want it to sound good and not be too floppy, what is "best"? I gather that the construction of the string (diameter/core/winding/taper) will affect stiffness and mass per unit length, which will in turn affect resonance of the open string (Does this even matter!?). Several folks have mentioned Newtone custom strings and looking at the permutations gave me a headache! 🤣 And then ... I stumbled across this Mind blown! So the stiffness of a string can affect how floppy it will be, but can also affect how well intoned it will play ... but also impact on the scale length and the tension being playable and ... I feel like I cannot see the woods for the trees! 😱 I am finding it all very interesting, but ... Is there some "scientific" way I can land on an "optimum" scale length per string (or at least for B0 & G2 which would then drive the other string's scale lengths ... did I say I'm going for a multiscale) or do I just stick my finger in the air and decide "How long is a piece of guitar string" ... or is there another way? Guidance/help/experience all very (very) welcome! S'manth x

I have never considered designing a stringed instrument before. The most advanced thing I've attempted to date was 3D printing ... a kazoo! 🤣 In my mind's eye I can almost picture how Flo will look; I can imagine how she will feel to hold. My mind's ear is not so clear, simply want Flo to sound lovely and thuddy, no nasty buzzing or other artefacts; It is her basic sound that I'm thinking about as I imagine I can affect this quite a bit by my technique and a good signal chain. I'm going to be documenting my musings, things I've found, ideas etc here; partly 'for the record', partly so that others may find something of interest ... but a large part of it is to expose the design to the BC gang who have "been there & done that" and will hopefully point out any gaffs ... before I make them. So ... if you spot something that is not quite right, please pitch in! S'manth x

Actually, apologies to self-promote @Billy Bongo... but I've a rather nice Focusrite Scarlett USB-2 Audio interface listed for sale in the marketplace ...

Thanks Andy, I'm rather pleased with it! Dimensions: 85mm deep, 190mm wide, 45mm high (60mm to top of switches) Weight: 380g Configuration: Using the built-in webserver from a browser on computer/tablet/phone. Power: External USB via USB-C port Wifi: Built in, can connect to WiFi hub or act as a standalone unit (For instance if I need to reconfigure it at a venue) Midi over BLE: Built-in The various mechanical bits and bobs (switches/etc) cost about £25 The various circuit boards (ESP-32/OLEDx4/OLED Multiplexer/etc) £32 Connector wires, perspex, tools (Dremel,3D printer) and assorted stuff (filament, bolts/mounts) I had to hand So all in well under a ton in parts, much more cost effective than buying one off the shelf (If you could even find something with it's capabilities![*]) and I can get it to do anything I want! Well worth building one if one has the skills (or can find someone here on BC who would do it for you ) [*] I did not need all the capabilities that the PedalinoMini™ supports, which are listed as: Plug-and-play with any MIDI-compatible app on iOS 8 and above as well as OS X Yosemite and above. High customizable using web interface Bluetooth, WiFI, USB and legacy MIDI interfaces No extra drivers to connect Windows, macOS, iOS (iPad/iPhone) and Android Bluetooth LE MIDI (iOS and macOS compatible) Network MIDI (aka AppleMIDI or RTP-MIDI) ipMIDI Open Sound Control (OSC) IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 2.4 GHZ with WPA/WPA2 authentication Bluetooth Low Energy 4.0 DIN MIDI IN and MIDI OUT connectors MIDI routing MIDI clock master and slave MIDI Time Code (MTC) master and slave OSC to MIDI and viceversa Any number of pedals of any type in any order Auto-sensing footswitches and expression pedals The range of 3rd party pedals that can be connected in is amazing! S'manth

this is true

A few years old from on of our Xmas shows (I was playing my UBASS at the time)

You need one of these https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MD464ZM/A/thunderbolt-to-firewire-adapter

The end of chapter one. I printed the bottom cover for Trampa last night. The USB adaptor fits nicely this time 😭 The old hole (to the right) can stay ... I think at some point I will print the main enclosure again, but with 3mm walls instead of the current 2mm; this will depend on how Tramp holds up under use. 12mm M3 bolts seem to be the right size. Using a soldering iron set to 200c (The working temp of the plastic filament used in the enclosure is 220-230) I set the receiving mounts in the body. The holes printed are smaller than the mount diameter so that they will melt into place; the hole was designed to be deeper than required to take the M3 bolt, this was to allow space for any molten plastic to 'escape' ... otherwise it might ooze up through the mount and block the thread. Attach the cover Apply some magic Velcro And like magic ... ready for band practice this afternoon. I'm using an external USB battery for now, it's handy as it shows remaining charge ... and it fits nicely under the wireless guitar cable receiver. Now to try it out, see how it holds up, figure out the best configuration for gigs. At some point I will install the additional OLED displays and update the hardware/software to support them; for now ... time to practice some more chord tone patterns S'manth x

The ACGs are gorgeous ... as are those that @Andyjr1515 creates ... and the ones I've seen that @Jabba_the_gut made are fab! I like to think Flo will have some ... interesting features ... I'm trying to put together a visual design and for insights from those who done it before! S'manth x

I also signed up at the last minute ... I really like his teaching style and, whilst it is not cheap, with paypal "pay over 3 months" I can just about swing it.

+1 for iRealPro

Trampa.mp4 Working sufficiently well for band practice Wednesday, tho I still need to print a bottom cover for the enclosure before then and get it Velcroed to my pedalboard (That's why I had to hold it down for the video). The item in the top right is a USB battery bank that is powering the Trampa; I'd like to be able to drive the Ant, the Stomp and Trampa using one of these so I am not tied to mains power. Next At 21s in the video the name of the switch pressed shows up well. This is the type of label I want displayed adjacent to every switch in a scribble strip fashion (Like my mockup image) This will require a change to the wiring to add in the missing OLED panels as well as getting the software to support them. Add in a battery charging module as well as an internal battery. The LEDs work (as can be seen during startup) however I cannot see how to configure them in the way I want at present; software modification required. The Pedalino s/w that Trampa is currently running, whilst really rather cool, has some features I am unlikely to ever need and is lacking some features I do. As I mentioned before, I have a couple of other projects in mind that will allow tighter integration with the Stomp (Like HX Edit can); I'm playing with Patchbox with a view to building some sort of synth, recorder, looper, drum machine, sound F/X thing and it would be nice from a design perspective to have a uniform user interface across all of these modules. As such I am likely to develop new software to run Trampa and its siblings.

Controlboard wired in OLED display wired in USB connection to controlboard successful and firmware uploaded. Initial configuration to connect to WiFi SamFi. System powered on and ... VID_20220529_220630.mp4 The video shows Trampa successfully connecting to SamFi. Pointing a web browser at Trampa displays the basic system info Looking good so far! Now to hook up the footswitches and LEDs

The chip at the heart is the rather amazing ESP-32 which incorporates a number of elements that are useful in the IOT (Internet of Things) space; the ESP seems quite revolutionary in packaging all of these in a single chip. The Core contains a pair of microprocessors that can run freeRTOS (think a micro linux). The chip is widely available on boards like this that provide a USB interface (for programming/debugging) as well as access to many of the I/O pins on the chip. In small quantities they are about £10 each! Programming the system can be done using the Arduino toolkit and there are many libraries available to do things like read a switch with debounce, drive a LCD/OLED display chip, connect to WiFi, send data over bluetooth and so on. It is also possible to load a python system (micropython or circuitpython) on the chip; it then appears as a USB drive on your computer ... writing a python file (or set of them) to the USB drive and the chip will run them. As with the arduino toolkit, there are many libraries available. My preference is to use the development system offered by the chip manufacturer Espriff, called ESP-IDF. It is more technical in nature but provides better access to low level stuff in the chip and in a more effective fashion; this chip can do crazy things like face/voice detection, connect to AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT and Google IoT Core cloud, even DSP. Amazon Echo devices have something like this in them. Development can be done using Eclipse or VSCode and there are plugins available for these to make this easy. I started work in IT in the 80s; my first 'real' computer was a ZX-81; they were exciting times. I stumbled into the world of microcontrollers just a few weeks ago (I retrained as a nurse in 2015 so have not been as hands on with IT as I used to be) and the capabilities just blew my socks off!!! There are a vast number of resources on the web about working with these type of devices, RandomNerd is quite a good one. S'manth x

The LED wiring seems sound (No circuit shorts or breaks) tho I won't really know until I've hooked it all up. Foot-switches mounted. The pins soldered on the switches are to allow me to use solderless connections (A bit like EMG do) to interconnect everything. As this is the first prototype build it gives me more flexibility to modify the circuit; this will be very handy when I come to the modification for the multiple OLED displays. I've only installed one OLED at present as the current software does not support more; I will either need to modify it (It is open source) or more likely write my own to replace it. A rewrite is a bigger job but I have dreams of a sound chain management eco-system (You can tell I was once an IT Consultant!) that incorporates midi control (wired and BLE), a synth/looper box (Occasionally some backing drums would add to our songs and I really fancy trying to get a midi signal out of my axe to drive a synth) and a HX Edit type editor. All talking to each other and to my Stomp. All available to view and configure from a web based interface (Tablet mounted on my mic/music stand) 🤔 but just for now ... With all the switches in, trampa has a lovely heft to it. Next will be final wiring, testing, flashing the firmware, testing, initial configuration, testing and then trying it for real (Well, with my gear in the living room) ... I am determined that I'll have it operational before band practice on Wednesday S'manth x By the way, the squares on the green cutting board are 10mm x 10mm.

Is one of those to throw to the adoring fans? S'manth x

Not as much progress made as I'd hoped .... I hate soldering so it tends to go slow and I've a few other projects on the boil that I spent some time on (One is Flo). But I have got the perspex OLED display protectors mounted and the LEDs are mounted and soldered up (Just need to test all the hookups are sound ... tedious but not onerous). The footswitches are half soldered (Yech more soldering!) and once I'm sure the LEDs are hooked up correctly I can mount the switches. S'manth x

Introduction I've been playing at playing bass for a few years, but recently kicked it up a notch and moved from UBASS to my current MCR-1 Short Scale. I really like it ... but ... there are some things I would like to be different ... none of them can be achieved by modding Ponty so I started looking for a bass that ticked my boxes; which are: Short overall length (33 inches or less). I play in a ukulele band and I do not want my bass to appear out of place (Does my bass look big in this band?) Plus a smaller bass is lighter (I've a bad back), easier to handle/transport and probably less dangerous to my band mates ... 5 Strings - Specifically a BEADG tuning. Hmmm ... to avoid the low B feeling/sounding like a piece of wet spaghetti it seems that a scale scale length of 31 inches or more is needed (Looking at various high quality short scale bass makers e.g. Birdsong) ... but how to fit that in a 33 inch bass? Headless 0 fret Having searched a lot I could not find anyone brilliant (insane!?) enough to be making this kind of thing and so the EBB5 Eclectic - design draws on ideas from all over Bespoke - custom build B - bass guitar 5 - 5 strings She shall be called Flo (It's a tide thing). And this will be her story ... S'manth edit: Building Flo turned into a building protoype build of Twiggy (5 string, fretless made from a 2x4 I happened to have lying around). After a delightful outcome I'm about to embark on Flo, learning from my mistakes and some successes with Twiggy ... new build diary here Flo - A second generation EBB5 bass