Bass bar wood?

[polkat]

Is there any advantage to considering alternative woods for the bass bar? I have a friend who has made them from pine, though I question it. If that's not a good idea, how many grains per inch should a good spruce bar have? Thanks!

[Ratcliffiddles]

No, there are no" advantages" in making bass bars out of anything else than the norm. That is not to say that they wouldn't work. But why on earth would you do that??

[FiddleDoug]

The top is spruce, and the grain orientation is the same for both the top and the bass bar. I would worry about differences in expansion and contraction if different woods were used. Use properly cut spruce. You can buy decent, aged blanks from most major suppliers for just a few $.

[Doug Marples]

The bass bar should be of spruce (sometimes called 'pine' by British writers, however) of medium grain width, on the order of what would be used for a soundpost (around 1.0 mm per annual ring give or take). The most important thing is that the blank be split and/or planed exactly parallel to the grain so there is no run out and that it has very straight grain. A practical explanation of technique for accurately installing a bass bar was given by my former teacher, Georg Meiwes at the VSA last week.