Double bass scroll template

This is to allow access to the trussrod adjusting nut from the pegbox. Again, I'm building for an EUB here, and this one has a trussrod. I don't cut into the scroll at this point, just the pegbox.

When this step is completed, the assembly will look like this:. The vertical profile of the first turn of the scroll will be marked next. The steps I am describing here are to do this on a more or less ad hoc basis. If one is attempting to copy an existing scroll then a paper template of the vertical profile of the first turn of the scroll is used to mark the blank.

This would be a good time to talk about how the side faces of the scroll will look when the scroll is done. If you take an instrument with a scroll and orient it sideways so the axis of the scroll is pointing up and down and then look at it from the back, the surface of the side of the scroll now facing up can be seen as a sort of ramp. The ramp moves down along the pegbox, and continues to move down as you go around the first turn of the scroll.

The ramp starts to move upwards as you approach the front of the pegbox, and it continues ramping upward as you go around the scroll again to the button. As you approach the button the surface of the side of the scroll tilts toward the outside, so that only the outside edge of the side actually meets the button. First timers will want to have a carved scroll on hand when attempting their first scroll carving. This will serve as an invaluable reference. By the way, the reason the vertical profiles of the scroll sides are marked one turn at a time instead of marking them all at once is because, once you cut out the waste for the first turn you will have cut off your marking for the next turns.

So the procedure is to mark the profile for each turn of the scroll, then cut out the waste for that turn. Cutting out the waste leaves the surface in a series of steps instead of a ramp, but these will eventually be planed to a smooth ramp.

The first step to mark the vertical profile of the first turn of an ad hoc scroll is to draw a horizontal line perpendicular to the scroll's center line at between approximately 9 o'clock and 12 o'clock, when the scroll is viewed from the side. This will represent the narrowest point of the first turn of the scroll — the first turn of the scroll narrows as it exits the back of the pegbox and continues to narrow until it reaches this point, then it starts to widen again.

When it reaches the top of the pegbox it is generally a little wider than the top of the pegbox. If this line is very short the finished scroll will look kind of pinched in. If it is too wide the scroll will look bulky. A reasonable approximation is to make it about a third of the total width of the finished scroll.

The next step is to draw a line from the edge of the back of the scroll around the back of the scroll to one end of the line drawn in the previous step. This is done on both sides of the scroll. From the back the lines look like this:. Now the same thing is done from the front, but this time the lines should begin a little bit outboard of the outside top edge of the pegbox.

From the front the lines look like this:. The lines meet at a sharp angle but in the finished scroll the curves will be nice and smooth. The connection between the line is smoothed out at this point. I just eyeball it when making an ad hoc scroll. After the vertical profile of the first turn of the scroll is established the waste wood between the first turn and the second turn is chopped out.

The two ways I typically do this are with a saw or a small router. The router is quicker and messier but only works for a bass scroll because a smaller scroll just doesn't have enough surface to rest the router on. But the saw method cannot be ignored completely because that is the method that will be used to hog out the waste for the inner turns later. The basic idea in both cases it to quickly hog out as much material as possible, while keeping the sides of the scroll perpendicular to the shoulders as I go.

Because the sides go in and then out on the first turn, care must be taken to not take off too much wood at this step. Once the first turn is hogged off it looks like this:. You can see how the side faces of the first turn have steps in them from the hogging process. The next step will be to establish a smooth blended face on each side of the first turn of the scroll, while at the same time keeping the shoulders of the second turn perpendicular to the sides.

I'll use chisels and rasps to do this for the mahogany scroll. If the scroll was made of plain maple or poplar I'd probably also use a small plane and would probably need a lot more mallet work with the chisels. Figured maple would get the same treatment but also much more care to prevent tear out. Whenever I do tear out a big chunk unintentionally I simply glue it back in with cyanoacrylate and keep going. Note that in the finished scroll the sides will be undercut, that is, slightly hollowed out.

At this point though everything should be kept square. One of the issues with carving a scroll by hand is keeping things even and symmetrical. After the face on one side is smoothed out as described above, measurements are taken from the centerline to the edge of that face at various points. The line representing that edge on the other side of the scroll is redrawn so that the two faces will be symmetrical. Then the uncarved face is carved. Here's the first turn roughly carved:.

When all goes well, I can complete a scroll without a carving mishap. Every now and again, though Now that the first turn is carved, the vertical profile of the second turn is marked on the shoulders. For an ad hoc scroll like this one I just connect the end of the first turn with a point half way between the face of the first turn and the uncarved end where the button will be.

Description Description Kay and Engelhardt bass necks are made in bulk runs and do not feature hand-carved scrolls on their pegboxes. The three models available are: Oval model for Kay basses until model year Round model for Kay basses from on "Plain" style for Engelhardt basses all years See the graphic for actual photos of each model. Add to Cart. We sell replacement OEM units that we get directly Although we also stock CF has a high strength-to-weight ratio, while having a much lower density than steel.

So this high-quality endpin assembly weighs This hollow 10mm replacement endpin is very nicely made by Weidler in Germany. It's stiff and durable, but removes a lot of the mass from the endpin, which some luthiers recommend for tonal Customers Also Viewed.

Pre-Order Now. Tall, dark, and very handsome. That's what these very nice ebony fingerboards are. We've been rocking the TurboTune string winder for almost 20 years. It's been through several licensees, and was even made independently by the patent-holder for a while. Now the It's an extension that allows the low E string to drop to low C. A lot of modern orchestral music has been written for extended range basses, and so professional bassists should have this.

There are little fingers that can pinch the string off at any of the half steps along the length. It's not standard simply because it's an added cost, and people who aren't playing in orchestras will rarely, if ever, need it. Note also that the 5-string bass with the lowest string tuned to B is the more popular way to extend the range downward in Canada and Europe. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. What is this extension on the scroll of a double bass?

Ask Question. Asked 5 years, 9 months ago. Active 5 years, 9 months ago. Viewed 9k times. If I look at a modern orchestra playing here in the USA , many but not all of the bass players will have a bass with a headstock that looks something like this: But the way I think of a bass looking, it lacks such a device as in the image below: What is that extension called, what does it do, and if it is useful then why doesn't every bass player use it?

Improve this question.