System to make any bolt-on bass "foldable" - is there a market for such a thing

[HazBeen]

The background: I am a tinkerer, and love spending time at home either customising my basses, or building FX pedals to give away as birthday present etc. Quite often ideas come to be in my dreams and the other day I woke up having had "one of those nights".

Been playing around with the ideas/dreams and I may have stumbled on something that actually might be useful for more people than just myself.

The vision: What if there was a system that quite easily transforms any bolt-on instrument into a collapseable/foldable instrument that you can assemble or re-assemble (including tuning) in mere minutes. Would that be of interest? I have a vision where you can buy a gigbag for the collapsed intstrument that comes with the required conversion kit.

The disclaimer: just so we are clear, I am not offering anything to anybody at this stage nor am I making any promises to develop this further or commercial statements. It would be really interesting to get some input and commentary from the BC community on if such a system would be of interest.

Thank you.

Edited January 31, 2019 by HazBeen

[Skinnyman]

I spent quite some time looking at the many travel guitars on the market, some of which have demountable (not folding) necks. I don't believe that (apart from the Hofner? Shorty) that there is a similar travelling bass.

A Steinberger is pretty portable though and may already be a reasonable solution for the traveling bassist.

I have no idea of potential market size but if you come up with a decent solution it should work for guitar as well and that's where the money seems to be.

There's a shop in Brighton who specialises in travel guitars - can't remember the name offhand but a quick Google should turn them up - their website was very comprehensive and showed the different solutions that already exist.

A final note - a friend of mine had one of the traveller guitars and I found it virtually unplayable. The string action was at cheese cutter levels and the design meant it couldn't easily be lowered

Good luck with the research

[Aidan63]

There is a bass with a removable neck for travel, they also do guitars, but they are expensive and rarely available from the uk distributor

http://www.macaris.co.uk/ob-660-bass/p/p736

 

in theory sounds like a good idea but how you could make one without modifying the bassic (sic) instrument I can't see and so would only really be applicable to basses so cheap you don't mind modifying sugnificantly

[Skinnyman]

And then there’s this....

https://www.snap-dragon-guitars.co.uk/snap-dragon-e-bass-4-p.asp

[pigface]

34 minutes ago, Skinnyman said:

A final note - a friend of mine had one of the traveller guitars and I found it virtually unplayable. The string action was at cheese cutter levels and the design meant it couldn't easily be lowered

On a happier note, an old friend of mine uses one (a Voyage-Air) professionally in the States and is very happy with it. So I guess they vary a bit.

[HazBeen]

The snap dragon together with the Chadwick folding DB are actually what prompted me I think. It is just that the shape and the scale of both are not what most of us (or guitardists) would be looking for.

But what if you could take your normal P or J (or whatever) and turn it into a long scale full body equivalent? Travel on the tube, space in car etc would be better/easier. I have travelled with the neck detached before (stuffing it in a suitcase), which works but it became quite unwieldly. Hence the idea to have a gig bag (let's say 2 models: 1 for guitar and 1 for bass) that comes with an instrument conversion kit so you can fit your instrument in the bag.

I think the time to fold and rebuild needs to be short, and that is where I think I have had a real epifany.

Anyway, will let this run for a while whilst I am working on a prototype, generally a very slow affair given I have a busy enough job working, gigging and being a Dad, but we'll get there.  

[tonyquipment]

Buy a midi guitar and put that through two oc2s 

[Happy Jack]

2 hours ago, HazBeen said:

The snap dragon together with the Chadwick folding DB are actually what prompted me I think. It is just that the shape and the scale of both are not what most of us (or guitardists) would be looking for.

 

You may well be right, but Silvie bought me one of the Snapdragon folding basses for Xmas and I have to say that I'm delighted with it. The fact that I normally play expensive boutique basses with more strings and a different scale length doesn't impinge ... this is a very practical travel bass which absolutely delivers, and can only be judged in the right context.

Would I play the Snapdragon on stage at the O2? Well, not by choice, no, but if I had to then it wouldn't be a problem for me.

Can anyone get me a gig at the O2, just to prove the point, you understand?

 

[Jabba_the_gut]

I used to travel with work quite a bit and often had a Hohner B2A in the car boot. I had a go on Ped's Wingbass at a bass bash and quite liked it - thought it would make a good travel bass. I decide to have a go at making one but 23" scale, which I did but then changed jobs so am no longer working away!! I'm still building a second one anyway....

 

 

Edited January 31, 2019 by Jabba_the_gut

[fleabag]

Bass at 1:43, and sounds good. So do the guitars

 

[Lozz196]

Think it’s a good idea, mainly for flying gigs where the bass currently has to go in the hold as the case is too big for the cabin but where they’ll let guitars on no probs.

[stewblack]

It's an awesome idea. I want to cycle to rehearsal, use the in house amp carrying only a bass with me and this could be the answer. 

Annoyingly my singer has offered to bring a bass in her car as she stores a couple of mine for me at her house. 

This of course renders my crazy ideas about folding basses redundant. But for gigs on public transport... Maybe..

[PawelG]

I travel with a gig bag and no problems so far, the only theoretical minus being buying extra seat on the plane, so depending where you’re going, can get pricey.

If I was going to detach the neck - I would just do it, it doesn’t really take that long to put everything back together. 

[MacDaddy]

On 31/01/2019 at 13:15, Skinnyman said:

And then there’s this....

https://www.snap-dragon-guitars.co.uk/snap-dragon-e-bass-4-p.asp

 

i have one of these. Review here, and gigging review a few comments later.

 

 

[Boodang]

If I remember correctly, Schack guitars used to do a neck joint which was a 'tongue & groove' design, so it was held together by the tension of the strings. I could be imagining this but I always thought that this arrangement would make it easy to disassemble the bass by just releasing string tension. Not sure how well it would work though.

[itu]

The first ones I saw were in the Guitar Player long ago, before Bass Player. This company had a headless g-word and a bass. There was a system that enabled folding the neck against the body. It was not a success. Company could have been Canadian or Americain.

 

I would make this happen with a CF neck. Wooden ones tends to move quite some after the bass has been in folded position for a longer time.

 

I am very interested to see this happen, though. Travelling without a bass is seriously missing something.

[SteveXFR]

It's a nice idea but I certainly wouldn't modify my basses to make them fold.

[funkypenguin]

9 hours ago, Boodang said:

If I remember correctly, Schack guitars used to do a neck joint which was a 'tongue & groove' design, so it was held together by the tension of the strings. I could be imagining this but I always thought that this arrangement would make it easy to disassemble the bass by just releasing string tension. Not sure how well it would work though.

Does that work something like this??

 

Ben

[Boodang]

18 minutes ago, funkypenguin said:

Does that work something like this??

 

Ben

Well, he doesn't show you the details of how the neck joint is engineered but yes, in essence something like that.

[Bassfinger]

Hofner shorty already fits the bill. They sound nice and bitey (new word, (c) Bassfinger industries 2021), when set up properly they play great, are inexpensive, compact, and lent themselves to being modified if you're a tinkerer. Once you've  got the knack then issues with balance etc aren't  an issue.

 

If you're a tinkerer yourself and what to make such a thing then go for it - I would be very much interested in watching the project unfold. However, I don't believe there is much of a commercual market for such a device, but would be happy to be proven wrong.

 

I don't know if Hazbeen has made any progress since his original post but would be keen to hear if he has.

Edited December 16, 2021 by Bassfinger
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