Jam Table – a real live Standup Bass

Sketch – neck of a standup bass. First idea was to have it connected to a resonator similar in shape to a washtub. This might have fit into the top of the table, but would have interfered with the kick drum. (Click to zoom)

The acoustic bass is pretty simple, mechanically speaking:

Strings stretch across a resonant box, making deep notes when plucked or bowed.

You can make one out of a washtub and a broomstick if you like.

For the Jam Table, I would rather build something that any fool can fool with – but that any bass player will want to play.

So I started sketching, trying to puzzle out how to make the playing surface easy to reach – and how to stuff the body under the table surface without running into the table base’s stainless steel frame.

I had a few long strips of acacia butcher block left over from installing a new countertop. Acacia would seem to be strong enough to function as the neck of a standup bass, but I did wonder quite a bit whether it would need some kind of reinforcement or truss rod installed.

(Click to zoom): Early alignment sketches. (L) Using the scrap acacia plank to check the best angle for the neck and resulting space requirements for the resonant body. (R) Another sketch showing measurements of the room I had to play with for each element while squeezing in a distance of 43.5 inches between nut and bridge.

I have no way of drilling a hole the 36-inch length and 3/8″ diameter of the neck at all, let alone accurately to the line of the neck to insert a scrap stainless steel rod I have left over from another home project.

So I proceeded with this assumption: If the tension of the thick double-bass strings that I’m using does deform the neck, I’m gonna have to (hell, I dunno) groove the back of the neck with a router and insert the rod and tie it in with … bolts? Ugh. I’m not a religious man, but I am praying on this.