Viola Shaped Bass Owners

Illsidgus

Illsidgus

Desiccated Member
This for you viola bass owners. I am attempting to build my own viola bass. I have a couple of full size body templates cut out, the depth of the body and the scale length. What I don't know is if the face and the back of the body are flat or slightly arched. None of the music stores in my area have any so I can't just go and look for myself. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
I played an epi viola bass yesterday at a pawn shop....the back and front were arched and the sides seemed bowed also....like a violin.....


it was an interesting guitar...I rather like the short scale.
 
joro said:
I played an epi viola bass yesterday at a pawn shop....the back and front were arched and the sides seemed bowed also....like a violin.....


it was an interesting guitar...I rather like the short scale.
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Thank you for the info. I rather like the short scale also, that may be because I am a guitar player and the shorter scale feels more natural.
 
By definition a viola bass would have an arched top and usually an arched back. If can post a oic of the sort of thing you want to build I may be able to be some help...
 
muttley600 said:
By definition a viola bass would have an arched top and usually an arched back. If can post a oic of the sort of thing you want to build I may be able to be some help...
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What I am building is a copy of the Epiphone Viola or its cheaper twin the Douglas. I think the Douglas may be just a bit smaller than the Epi. I used the dimensions of the Douglas for the body as they very helpfully list the dimensions on line. The scale length is a little shorter than the Epi. Epi = 30.5", Douglas = 30.2". I need to somehow determine the amount of arch in the top and back.
 
My Hofner has an arch of around 8 or 9mm front and back. The edges are pretty much flush to the sides and a kind of oval bowl shape comes out from around 1 inch in. I tried to photograph it for you but it doesn't really show up well in the photos.
 
Mr Clean said:
My Hofner has an arch of around 8 or 9mm front and back. The edges are pretty much flush to the sides and a kind of oval bowl shape comes out from around 1 inch in. I tried to photograph it for you but it doesn't really show up well in the photos.
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Thank you for the info, it is very helpful. I have watched the "How Hofner Basses are Made", video several times. I see that they make their own laminates for the top and back and then use heat and pressure to form them. Since I don't have the equipment to do that I guess that I will have to carve the top and back in the same way a violin is done. Again thank you for the info.
 
Illsidgus said:
What I am building is a copy of the Epiphone Viola or its cheaper twin the Douglas. I think the Douglas may be just a bit smaller than the Epi. I used the dimensions of the Douglas for the body as they very helpfully list the dimensions on line. The scale length is a little shorter than the Epi. Epi = 30.5", Douglas = 30.2". I need to somehow determine the amount of arch in the top and back.
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You start by determining the height of the long arch from front to back and then you work out the cross arch from the height of the long arch at that point. The type of arch can vary nut machine tooled instruments like that almost always use a parabolic curve. You also have to establish the size of the depth and width of the recurve and they are normally different on the front and the back.

It all sounds complicated until you get your head round what is going on. I have a excel spread sheet that will give you isolines for different size and height of body that I designed years ago. If I have time I'll post up a walk through... I also have a complete set of measurements taken from a hofner violin bass that may be a good starting point. I'll see if I can dig them out.
 
Illsidgus said:
Thank you for the info, it is very helpful. I have watched the "How Hofner Basses are Made", video several times. I see that they make their own laminates for the top and back and then use heat and pressure to form them. Since I don't have the equipment to do that I guess that I will have to carve the top and back in the same way a violin is done. Again thank you for the info.
Click to expand...

Carving them is the easier option. laminates are OK if you want to do loads of them.
 
Mr Clean said:
My Hofner has an arch of around 8 or 9mm front and back. The edges are pretty much flush to the sides and a kind of oval bowl shape comes out from around 1 inch in. I tried to photograph it for you but it doesn't really show up well in the photos.
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If you mean the area that is lower than the ribs..Thats called the recurve. Comes from the violin world..
 
muttley600 said:
If you mean the area that is lower than the ribs..Thats called the recurve. Comes from the violin world..
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Yeah that's what I mean. I didn't know the correct terminology of it. I don't know anything at all about Violins. Thanks for correcting me :thumbs up:
 
muttley600 said:
You start by determining the height of the long arch from front to back and then you work out the cross arch from the height of the long arch at that point. The type of arch can vary nut machine tooled instruments like that almost always use a parabolic curve. You also have to establish the size of the depth and width of the recurve and they are normally different on the front and the back.

It all sounds complicated until you get your head round what is going on. I have a excel spread sheet that will give you isolines for different size and height of body that I designed years ago. If I have time I'll post up a walk through... I also have a complete set of measurements taken from a hofner violin bass that may be a good starting point. I'll see if I can dig them out.
Click to expand...

That would be great, thanks.
 
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