Due to the ah, more mature nature of the people on this forum, this is going on here first.
Really it has Gandalfe, Merlin, Helen etc and I know you guys are more active here and since this is about a bass, well, who better.
So here's what's going on
I have been wanting another bass since I sold my Conn a while ago. I read Helens thing on the Buescher low G bass and decided I wanted one.
When I heard Gandalfe's recording of Mr. Grinch, I knew that I wasn't going to get a contrabass since I'm still in school and transport and $ are a hindrance, but I knew I needed a low A. I was thinking about it, and as a tuba player for much of my gigs *marching band and brass ensembles etc.* I know that they play a LOT of low G's, but a decent amount of low F's.
Hence the low G.
Problems:
It's hideous
The key length from low G was insane.
Key dilemma:
I talked with a buddy of mine about this extensively because he wanted to send a bari to low E. Which is insane btw. I have a contrabass clarinet to low C, no bass unfortunately, but it was good enough for this.
I was thinking about how it could go lower. Where your fingers were and what they needed to do. A clarinet going to low C is equivalent to a sax going to low G, so it makes sense, to me at least. From a keying standpoint, the Buescher didn't make sense. With the Ab on the left and the G on the right, it just didn't click. They can't have anything on the left thumb because it was otherwise occupied, but you had low Eb with the right pinky, and low D on the left pinky. I decided the low Ab and G were going on the right thumb and have the G actuate the Ab similar to the Bb actuating the B on the table. The odds of playing the Ab were slim, so it was one less key to worry about.
This way, you could have the low A down like on a bari and just flip the low G in and voi la. Should be relatively easy
Aesthetics:
I was talking to J'Elle Stainer about the low G. Gilberto said that the low G was ugly since it looked like a Chimney and the low A basses were the most aesthetically pleasing. I realized awefully quick that it made sense and I agreed with him.
So how do I get a low G horn to look like a low A horn? Extend the body.
Now I didn't want to make this a manufacturing nightmare because I'm trying to keep the cost down, so making a new bow was out of the question. I knew the Eb C and C# needed to end up on the body, but I didn't know how it was going to get there.
I was talking to the same buddy and he send me some pictures of the low A bells Lance was doing. He was cutting them and putting a small piece of brass in to expand it to keep the conical bore going. I emailed Lance and he said he could do this to the bow. There's that problem.
Low G key:
One of the biggest problems on Bari's and especially basses is key whip. I hate the Selmer Low A mechanism, but Yamahas is much better, so hopefully that will work out. Extending the body leaves the G and Ab keys about as long as the low Bb key would normally be, which should minimize key whip problems and allow it to stay in better regulation.
He's going to add E F and F# keys to it, which will be nice albeit novelty notes, but nice to have a full range up top.
Any other suggestions, please let me know.
Really it has Gandalfe, Merlin, Helen etc and I know you guys are more active here and since this is about a bass, well, who better.
So here's what's going on
I have been wanting another bass since I sold my Conn a while ago. I read Helens thing on the Buescher low G bass and decided I wanted one.
When I heard Gandalfe's recording of Mr. Grinch, I knew that I wasn't going to get a contrabass since I'm still in school and transport and $ are a hindrance, but I knew I needed a low A. I was thinking about it, and as a tuba player for much of my gigs *marching band and brass ensembles etc.* I know that they play a LOT of low G's, but a decent amount of low F's.
Hence the low G.
Problems:
It's hideous
The key length from low G was insane.
Key dilemma:
I talked with a buddy of mine about this extensively because he wanted to send a bari to low E. Which is insane btw. I have a contrabass clarinet to low C, no bass unfortunately, but it was good enough for this.
I was thinking about how it could go lower. Where your fingers were and what they needed to do. A clarinet going to low C is equivalent to a sax going to low G, so it makes sense, to me at least. From a keying standpoint, the Buescher didn't make sense. With the Ab on the left and the G on the right, it just didn't click. They can't have anything on the left thumb because it was otherwise occupied, but you had low Eb with the right pinky, and low D on the left pinky. I decided the low Ab and G were going on the right thumb and have the G actuate the Ab similar to the Bb actuating the B on the table. The odds of playing the Ab were slim, so it was one less key to worry about.
This way, you could have the low A down like on a bari and just flip the low G in and voi la. Should be relatively easy
Aesthetics:
I was talking to J'Elle Stainer about the low G. Gilberto said that the low G was ugly since it looked like a Chimney and the low A basses were the most aesthetically pleasing. I realized awefully quick that it made sense and I agreed with him.
So how do I get a low G horn to look like a low A horn? Extend the body.
Now I didn't want to make this a manufacturing nightmare because I'm trying to keep the cost down, so making a new bow was out of the question. I knew the Eb C and C# needed to end up on the body, but I didn't know how it was going to get there.
I was talking to the same buddy and he send me some pictures of the low A bells Lance was doing. He was cutting them and putting a small piece of brass in to expand it to keep the conical bore going. I emailed Lance and he said he could do this to the bow. There's that problem.
Low G key:
One of the biggest problems on Bari's and especially basses is key whip. I hate the Selmer Low A mechanism, but Yamahas is much better, so hopefully that will work out. Extending the body leaves the G and Ab keys about as long as the low Bb key would normally be, which should minimize key whip problems and allow it to stay in better regulation.
He's going to add E F and F# keys to it, which will be nice albeit novelty notes, but nice to have a full range up top.
Any other suggestions, please let me know.