Plastic Fantastic or not?

[basskit_case]

Just wondering if anybody had used plastic of any sort for a body when building a bass?

If you have can you recommend a good plastic in terms of tone and weight?

Also, what is easier to work with plastic or more traditional wood?

Thanks

[YouMa]

The only plastic guitars i know of were airline and maybe national,the bloke out the white stripes uses one,they are made of resoglass which i think is just grp or some sort of glass fibre.

[Al Heeley]

Wasn't it Ampeg, released the clear plexiglass guitars in the 70's ? - (Dan Armstrong plexi, 1969) now seen as vintage collectables. i think they did a bass and a lead, as pupularised by the classic Chic line up. Heavy, hard to machine precisely, not known for its tonal qualities, I think it may have been released as a gimmick but its now a classic and they're doing a limited number of reissues now.

I have a feeling Yamaha released a plastic or maybe composite-bodied lead guitar last year too,. sleek white lines, flush fitted controls and a couple of doody LED's built in for good measure. Not sure how well it did, guitarists are notoriously conservative, if it don't look a bit stratty or les paully they wouldn't be able to pose with it at a gig. bassists are on the whole a lot more imaginative

Edited August 25, 2009 by Al Heeley

[paul h]

They also do the bass version.

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='paul h' post='580185' date='Aug 25 2009, 01:39 PM']They also do the bass version.[/quote]

Those Yammys have a tendancy to crack at the neck pocket. Always quite liked them... was going to buy one as a pub bass... but that puts me right off.

The thing to consider is that a lot of plastics have a tendency to get a static charge on them which is not at all useful when it comes to musical instruments. You'll be sounding like a popcorn machine in no time. Same problem you can sometimes get with charged pickguards...

[grumble]

Something like [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wesley-Acrylic-5-String-Transparent-Bass-Guitar_W0QQitemZ250485060481QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item3a5212b381&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14"]this[/url] maybe ?

Didn't Curved Air start out playing see through plastic instruments or was I one spliff too many at the time

Edited August 26, 2009 by grumble

[BigRedX]

Most "plastic" or composite made instruments are formed in a mould, so once you're tooled up for production the unit is cost is pretty cheap hence the £100 Wesley acrylic basses. However getting to this point will not be a quick or cheap process. I would imagine that the prototypes would be made out of wood in the conventional way and once the designers are happy with the shape only then are moulds made. Not exactly an easy or cost-effective solution for a one-off. I don't suppose you can do sand-casting like you can with aluminium.

If you're a plastics/composite materials specialist you may have more detailed information to prove me wrong, but judging from your op I'm guessing not. If that's the case I'd stick to wood as it's much easier to work for the home builder.

Apart from graphite/carbon fibre, alternative materials to wood haven't really caught on for guitar and bass and even then they're the domain of high-end custom specialists such as [url="http://www.basslab.de/"]BassLab[/url], [url="http://www.gusguitars.com/"]Gus[/url] and [url="http://www.status-graphite.com/"]Status[/url].

Here's my Switch Innovo Bass moulded in one piece from Vibracell. Needless to say these instruments are no longer being made.

[Al Heeley]

You can make a fibreglass mould from a wood-body blank and then use that mould for making geetar bodies, so thats not a costly or lengthy process at all if you're in the GRP industry. Only good for half a dozen runs though. So for proper commercial mfr, a hugely costly cnc-milled metal mould may be required.

[henry norton]

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='581191' date='Aug 26 2009, 12:49 PM']You can make a fibreglass mould from a wood-body blank and then use that mould for making geetar bodies, so thats not a costly or lengthy process at all if you're in the GRP industry. Only good for half a dozen runs though. So for proper commercial mfr, a hugely costly cnc-milled metal mould may be required.[/quote]

You can use rubber moulds which can last a good long while for glass, kevlar or carbon reinforced plastic. I guess most people regard most plastics as 'cheap', unless it's hi-tech materials such as woven carbon. In fact you could make a pretty good neck from glass fibre reinforced resin - it's just the majority of the cost is in the time spent laying it all up so in the end it wouldn't be much cheaper than a Status or Modulus graphite neck, and nobody would buy it 'cos it's 'glassfibre'.

[NickH]

I believe Ibanez' EDB / ECD range of basses, plus a few others, are made of a composite they call Luthite in their blurb.
No idea what materials go into making it though.

I used to own an ECD705 back in the day. I got the feeling they wanted a pretty body and put in some rather <ahem> flavoursome pickups to compensate for the resulting sound. It didn't have a great natural resonance, and sounded pretty dull.
I guess caveat emptor - you could spend a lot of time and money crafting a synthetic body only to get a lacklustre result.

[Mr. Foxen]

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='NickH' post='583527' date='Aug 28 2009, 01:30 PM']I believe Ibanez' EDB / ECD range of basses, plus a few others, are made of a composite they call Luthite in their blurb.
No idea what materials go into making it though.

I used to own an ECD705 back in the day. I got the feeling they wanted a pretty body and put in some rather <ahem> flavoursome pickups to compensate for the resulting sound. It didn't have a great natural resonance, and sounded pretty dull.
I guess caveat emptor - you could spend a lot of time and money crafting a synthetic body only to get a lacklustre result.[/quote]

I had an EDB600 in Luthite. It was an excellent instrument (aided by the fact that I paid £80 for it!) Sounded really neutral and even to my ears, but one man's neutral is another man's dull...
Downsides? They chip and flake rather than ding. Mine bit the dust when I dropped it - the whole body cracked irreparably.