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Author Topic: 12 Bass Club IIIM  (Read 817 times)

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Elliot Warburton

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12 Bass Club IIIM
« on: May 22, 2020, 12:18:01 AM »

So, I've finally got stuck into the 12 bass conversion for my Club IIIM which I've posted about before. I've been using the bass mechanism (and some reeds as they were all I could get) from a Chinese Gear4Music GCF. The old stradella type mechanism in the IIIM, though it looked like meta, was in fact wood painted silver (which is rather cute really)
So I took out the bass mech, plugged all the holes with dowel, and drilled the four new holes for the bass buttons. I moved just one part of the reed block retaining wall things as the rest seemed fine where they were- it came off pretty cleanly but needed wood-filler where part of the ply had come off with it.
Drilled some new holes in the soundboard and made a gasket out of neoprene (which is a grim material to cut, it turns out. Ended up making punches out of pipe). Some of the new holes in the soundboard are a little off, but some wood filler has prevented leaks and while it doesn't look too excellent, it seems that it'll work.
I'm a completely amateur tuner but everything went alright, sort of. Moved all the thirds to one reed for each chord and managed to retune all of the useful ones of the Hohner T reeds, which were previously tuned for use with the Stradella thing. I only had to use the Chinese reeds on the declubbed Bb/Bb chord and the Eb/Em chord, as well as for the basses for the new Eb/Em and the F/Dm. But!!! I apologise profusely and beg forgiveness for my sins because, though I know it to be wrong, I have put solder at the BASE of one!!! reed. Only one, thank goodness, and I intend to replace it as soon as I am able (ditto the Chinese ones). You see, I accidentally tuned it down from Eb to D when I meant to go up to F (late-night stupid absentmindedness) and so, as I needed a weird A4/F5 reed, I had to use the illegal technique.
The new mech is now attached, and the previously removed part of the reedblock retaining frame thing has been moved and reglued, with channels cut into the bottom to receive the thirds and fundamental stops that are currently in the making. Just finished making a sort of grotty looking thirds slide and accompanying rails. The bass reedblock has the holes partially drilled into it so the walls will need rebuilding down a little there for the slide to work.
Also, I have had to temporarily fashion some very, err, rustic temporary bass buttons out of dowel for the new buttons. If anyone has some spare yellowy club bass buttons, I'd appreciate 4 of them  ;D (also a treble button, as I'll be de-clubbing the right hand side and I'd like a smooth button to replace the hatched one. I can play club system now as I've been playing it for 4 months since I got it, I like it but I'd rather have the regular layout for now)
Oh, and I also had to modify and move the air button- I'll takr some pictures when it's back in.
Photos on imgur: http://imgur.com/gallery/KJjP1jT
I must say, I'm really enjoying this  (:) (also can't wait to play with all those new notes!!!!)
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Tone Dumb Greg

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Re: 12 Bass Club IIIM
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2020, 09:59:09 AM »

...I've been using the bass mechanism (and some reeds as they were all I could get) from a Chinese Gear4Music GCF...
...I apologise profusely and beg forgiveness for my sins because, though I know it to be wrong, I have put solder at the BASE of one!!! reed...

Interesting project.
Do the Chinese reeds blend in with the rest?
Was your grievous sin effective? If so, if doesn't count as a sin, really (although the late night error might, I imagine your face was a picture).
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Greg Smith
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Winston Smith

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Re: 12 Bass Club IIIM
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2020, 10:46:21 AM »

"I apologise profusely and beg forgiveness for my sins because, though I know it to be wrong, I have put solder at the BASE of one!!! reed"

No sin, but no good either! I did this with quite a few reeds when I converted my Bb/Eb Liliput to D/G, but, while it played the right notes, it didn't really sound right. I was warned off doing it by several of the more experienced among us, and of course they were right, damn them! I ended up having to do it all again using reeds from my dwindling collection of "H" stamped ones.

Mind, if you've only done it with one or two, it would be a much less tiresome chore to change them in the future at some point.
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Elliot Warburton

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Re: 12 Bass Club IIIM
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2020, 11:21:45 AM »

The Chinese reeds seem to be alright on the table but still not so good compared to the Hohner T reeds. Interestingly, and rather bizarrely, the brass weights on the Chinese bass reeds are riveted on! Riveting.
It's only on one reed, and the pitch sounds right but it's probably messed with the response- I'll be taking the box to a competent professional to have it tarted up when this whole virus thing is over.
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Elliot Warburton

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Re: 12 Bass Club IIIM
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2020, 11:25:12 AM »

Update: Thirds stop is done and everything and I just gave it a play. It sounds terrible, which I put partially to the bad reeds and mostly to the verrry rough tuning. If people want I'll post a video of it being played, but I must say I have a sinking feeling that, unless I can send it off to be tarted up and that doesn't cost excessive £££, I may have ruined a good box. Of course, I wasn't expecting it to go particularly well and at least I've learned a fair bit. I don't really trust myself to tune it properly and a bunch of reeds need replacing anyway. A bunch of the chords are voiced far too high which I guess was because I overcompensated in case of muddiness. Also that reed I put the solder at the base of is incredible variable in pitch, going from F to F# or so or more depending on bellows pressure. All-together, this is pretty mediocre but I didn't expect it not to be. But hey, at least it might maybe possibly be able to be saved by an experienced fettler.
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Squeaky Pete

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Re: 12 Bass Club IIIM
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2020, 11:35:21 AM »

You learned a lot then!
I've been doing much the same thing, but I've been trying to limit myself to learning one new thing per project.
Let's see some photos and we can compare notes.
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Poker work DG.
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Nigel.H

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Re: 12 Bass Club IIIM
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2020, 12:04:02 PM »

I may be able to help with some reeds. Send me a PM with what you are looking for....   
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Elliot Warburton

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Re: 12 Bass Club IIIM
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2020, 12:15:14 PM »

PMs sent :)
Also, I've been encouraged to fix it up myself instead of sending it off, so that's what I'll be doing  ;D
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