Show and Tell: The Kalamo Bass!

[Michael Ambrose]

The boring stuff first...

'61 Alamo Titan neck (34" scale)
'62-'63ish Kay Speed Demon (guitar!) body
Eastwood P90/Mosrite-style single coil.
Early 60's Valco/Kluson (National/Airline/Supro) trapeze bass tailpiece
Alpha pots
Switchcraft insert.
Period Sprague Bumblebee cap.
Custom-made floating rosewood bridge.

The Fun Stuff

Anyone who follows me on here knows that my favorite bass in the world is the Supro Pocket bass... or any of Valco's short-scale basses, for that matter! Which was where this project began... the idea originally was to "repurpose" a Speed Demon body (probably one of the cheapest American-made vintage body you can find nowadays) to be made into a pocket-scale bass.

I got the body first... and then I got swamped and shelved it. Not long after, I got a "weird" vintage neck off ebay for DIRT... one of those "I have no idea what this is, maybe you do" sort of things... It turned out to be an Alamo Titan bass neck. SCORE! I had no idea what I was going to do with it... so it went on the shelf... and I almost completely forgot about them!

So months later I'm moving, and I come across the two pieces... and I have no idea why it didn't hit me earlier to just make a long-scale, small-bodied bass!

What you see is not entirely the finished product. I still have to slot the bridge properly... but man oh man did I just get impatient!

Even without the pickup the bass is incredibly resonant. I almost wish I installed a piezo in there, too!

The tone is DEEP. REAL deep. Eastwood is definitely doing something right with their bass pickups.

I'm pretty proud of this one. Its shortly going to be in the hands of a buddy of mine in a reggae band called The Forthrights. (Well, that is, if he doesn't buy one of my Pockets instead hahaha...) The band is doing big things, so keep an eye out for them... and my bass!!

[Not Steve]

That is an awesome bass you have there! I think that was a genius idea putting those two pieces together! I've been looking at regular 6 string electric guitars and basses wondering why the bodies aren't used interchangeably more. I actually bought two guitar bodies that are identical and when I was talking to the guy I bought them from, I said I might make a 'bass and 6 string' set out of them, and he told me that was pretty much out of the question, but I have been looking at this rogue bass I have and it has a body that is the same general size as this body I have. You have re-inspired me to build that set! I mean, as soon as I have the experience to do so, hahaha! XD

[Michael Ambrose]

Why in the world would it be out of the question??

Man... Any time someone tells me I can't do something... thats what makes me want to do it more! haha...

Everyone on here knows I'm pretty much obsessed with the concept of a pocket bass... not just because of my arthritis, haha... I LOVE the interchangeability!! Its a BRILLIANT idea!! Like I posted a few months ago... I got a mid-60's pocket not too long ago, and beneath the tailpiece cover was actually a six-slotted GUITAR claw-piece!! (I replaced it with a proper 4-slot claw from another old Supro bass I dismantled years ago.)

Right now I'm building another "pocket" bass... I've got an old trans-red Ibanez Gio to use as the donor body... the top half of an archtop rosewood bridge will sit perfectly on the cheap-o bridge studs, funny enough, and i've slotted it for bass... and I nabbed a cheap rosewood-on-maple paddlehead neck from Eden for like $25... already fits the neck pocket perfectly.

Now, you've got to figure that if I work from the same principles as the Pocket, this SHOULD work... the new neck is the same scale, same amount of frets as the old neck... for the moment I'm going to hold the strings on with a trapeze... I'll figure something out with the studs at some point haha...

There's two factors you've got to look at: Proper scale length and neck pocket width/depth.

The neck pocket was a bit of a pain, shaved it down a bit to fit properly... but where I really ran into an issue was with the tailpiece. I just BARELY had enough room for the tail and bridge with the 34" scale. I ended up getting a shorter Supro tailpiece that the (much cooler looking) Dobro-style one I was originally going to use... about half the length, gave me much more room to play with the bridge.

Pfft. Can't use a guitar body to make a bass? No way. Companies used to do it all the time.

[johnnyb]

2 questions. 1. how much did it cost. 2.how does it sound. i play long scale and find shorter scale lacking in sub tones. pocket basses are shorter than ive ever tried. just curious.

[Not Steve]

Ah, you see, my guitar bodies are smallish, but comparing them to the size of the two basses that I have available to me right now, they seem big, haha, but I'm not too sure about my basses. From the bottom of the nut to the farthest part on the saddle is 34", so would that make them both 'pocket' basses? I don't know the scale on a normal bass (I'm JUST starting to learn about this stuff). I would say that I have enough room for making one a bass. The only holes on these bodies are two for humbuckers, and a little one in the back for electronics. I don't think the neck slots are realistic, I actually don't think that the person that designed these bodies intended to actually use them. The guy I bought them from (off of craigslist, my worst addiction) told me that one of his friends works at malden guitars, where they were built. His buddy gave them to him for free and told him to do whatever he wanted with them, they were prototypes for this guitar:
http://www.maldenguitars.com/bulldozer.htm
Mine don't have rounded edges on the front like those, instead they are painted exactly where the bevel would be. Haha, what I am envisioning these guitars were made for was some executive meeting where the guy didn't have enough time to (or maybe he just didn't need to) shape the body exactly to scale. I'm worried about that, only a little though, because I do have a neck that fits inside of the pocket, but it's a twelve string neck. I'm actually strongly considering just using that on one of them, haha, it'll look like one of those old silvertone/danelectro guitars. it is an incredibly nice neck, i just don't want to build a twelve string... too much tuning for me...

Oh, and also, it makes me want to do something more when I'm told that I can't do it... I was told by someone that I couldn't use six string electronics in a bass guitar, and now they are getting their statement reevaluated by me, hahaha, thanks dude!!!

[Michael Ambrose]

On the road with Sammy K of the Forthrights!