CONSTRUCTION AND MODIFICATION OF THE BASS GUITAR WITH THE TUNING PEGS AT THE BODY
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| Format: Ms Word | 1-5 Chapters | Table of Content|
INSTANT PROJECT MATERIAL DOWNLOAD
Study Level: BTech, BSc, BEng, BA, HND, ND or NCE
Amount: ₦3,000.00
https://projectsolutionz.com.ng/payment/
Abstract
Construction of the bass guitar with the tuning pegs constructed at the belly (base) of the guitar, is a major technical advancement in the field of music technology. This development conveys a high degree of imaginative power where creativity is converted into reality through the means of technology. Construction and upgrading of musical instrument has exclusively been regarded as the heritage of the Europeans alone. Therefore, the blacks (Africans) have done no or little effort on proving the notion negative and void, except a few music technologist who have demonstrated their effort in trying to imitate the Europeans in constructing Western Musical instrument from local materials. The researcher, after assessing and evaluating the level of milestone the Africans have covered in the area of technology, has decided to embark on this project research in sourcing materials from the local environment for the construction of a Western musical instrument (bass guitar) with a remarkable difference as a contribution to the world of music technology. The method of collecting data in this research includes, review of literature, citation from internet, imaginative power, participant method and oral interview related to the study. The researcher is also assisted by a research assistant who happens to be a music technologist with full innovative support on the usage of Machines (tools). This research project tends to establish in Akwa Ibom and Nigeria at large an entrepreneurial base where hidden skills and potentials that lie under Nigerians will be adequately explored. It is recommended that craft and music should be included in the curriculum right from primary to tertiary level.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover page
Title Page — — — — — — — — — — i
Dedication — — — — — — — — — — ii
Approval — — — — — — — — — — iii
Certification — — — — — — — — — — iv
Acknowledgement — — — — — — — — — v
Abstract — — — — — — — — — — vi
Table of Contents — — — — — — — — — vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study — — — — — — — 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem — — — — — — — 2
1.3 Objective of the Study — — — — — — — 4
1.4 Significance of the Study — — — — — — — 4
1.5 Scope of the Study — — — — — — — — 5
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 The Guitar — — — — — — — — — 6
2.2 History of the Guitar — — — — — — — — 7
2.3 Evolution of the Guitar — — — — — — — 8
2.4 Development of the guitar — — — — — — — 12
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design — — — — — — — — 18
3.2 Design Consideration — — — — — — — — 19
3.3 Electronics: Passive and Active — — — — — — — 27
3.4 Fretted And Fretless Basses — — — — — — — 28
3.5 String and Tuning — — — — — — — — 29
3.6 Sound Properties — — — — — — — — 31
3.7 Sitting or Standing — — — — — — — — 32
3.8 Performing Technique — — — — — — — 32
3.9 The Role Of The Bass Guitar In A Band — — — — — 37
3.10 The Role of The Bassist — — — — — — — 38
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 The Raw Materials and Tools Used — — — — — — 39
4.2 Construction of The Bass Guitar — — — — — — 40
CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 Summary — — — — — — — — — 44
5.2 Conclusion — — — — — — — — — 44
5.3 Recommendation — — — — — — — — 45
References
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
According to the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2002) “guitar is a string instrument of the lute family, plucked or strummed and normally with frets along the finger board. The sound of the guitar is amplified acoustically through a sound hole or a resonator. It is difficult to define precisely what features distinguish guitars from the other members of the lute family, because the name guitar has been applied to instruments exhibiting a wide variation in morphology and performing practice”. There are four general categories of acoustic (non-acoustic guitars: flat-top to steel stringed, arched top classic and flamenco. References to guitar like instruments date back many centuries, and virtually every society throughout history has been found to have used a variation of the instrument. The fore runner of today’s guitars were single bows developed during early human history.
In sections of Asia and African, bows of this have been unearthed in archaeological dig of ancient civilizations. Interestingly, one of these discoveries included an ancient Hittite carving dated back more than 3,000 years that depicted an instrument bearing many of the same features of today guitar: the curves of the body, a flat top with an incurred are of fives sound goles on either side and a long fitted neck that runs the entire length of the body. As music technology developed, more strings were added to the early guitars. A four string variety (named guitarra latina) existed in Spain in the late thirteen century. The guitarra latina closely resembled the ancient Hittite carving except that the instrument now includes a bridge that holds the strings as they passed over sound hole. When a fifth string was added in the early Sixteen Century, the guitars popularity explodes. A sixth stringed (bass E) was added near the end of the 1700s, an evolution that brought the instruments closer to it’s present day functioning. The carulli guitar of 1810 was one of the first to have six single strings tuned to notes in the present arrangement EADGBE. Guitar technology finally made its way to United State in the early nineteenth Century, with Charles Friedrich Martin, a German guitar maker who emigrated to New York in 1833, leading the way in the early 1900s, the Martin Company now located in Nazareth, Pennsylvania produced larger guitar that still adhered to design of the classic models, especially the Spanish guitar another company, the Gibson company, followed suit and began to produce large steel-string guitars with arched fronts and backs, known as the cello guitar. This instrument produced a sound more suited for jazz and dance clubs. Another major innovation of the early 1900s was the use of magnetic pickups fitted beneath the string by which sound traveled through a wire into an amplifier. It is note worthy, that the purpose of this work does not only lie solely on the technological advancement of bass guitar rather, on the construction of the bass guitar which anchors on the transfer of technology; knowledge developed in one place or for one purpose is applied and exploited in another place for same or some other purposes.
The new grove dictionary of music and musicians opines that the transfer of technology from disparate branches of knowledge has had a far reaching impact on the design and construction of musical instruments. During the Middle Ages various technological innovations – including the development of mining and the vertical trip hammer-operated mill, copper smelting and the more efficient production of calamine, a zinc sulphate used in alloying brass-made it possible to produce stronger and a smoother sheet metal of consistent quality and thickness. Thus, skilled instrument makers were able to form thin tubes for trumpets and organ pipes; to fashion folded trumpets as well as slides for what later became trombones; and to flare bells out at the end with more reliability and uniformity. All these factors contributed to the acoustical properties of the instruments; not only could the players produce far more ‘musical’ notes, but slides extended by transposition the instruments’ natural harmonic series.
Commencing in the late 14th century a number of keyboard instrument incorporated radically new actions employing pivoting keys which returned to their original positions after striking or plucking a string. Technology has indeed helped in advancing peoples lives. It has broadened it’s reach to other fields and one of the areas that has gained a lot of advantage from technology is the music business. Generally, all forms of technology, involving the musical arts is music technology. This kind of technology uses electronic devices and computer software in playback, recording, composition performance and construction of musical instrument.
Technology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society and the environment covering areas such as engineering applied science, pure science, and industrial arts. The researcher is not pondering on technology itself, rather, on MUSIC TECHNOLOGY. Music technology is the approach to construction and making of musical instrument. It is also an area that seeks into bringing out new innovations and techniques in the musical parlance and musical gadgets at large to enhance a better performance. There is a general notion that the electronic bass guitar could only be produced by the westerners. That is why the researcher has embarked on this research to denied the validity of such perception in considering the making of the bass guitar by sourcing the raw materials and components from the local environment.
According to Agu (2009) “We appreciate the fact that there is a great need for us African at this point in time to re-orientate our minds and musical sensibility towards being more African in essence than Western-Classical as we create, learn and perform African music, I strongly feel that the surest way of achieving this is by providing texts and activities that would not only serve as facilitators to a literary approach to African musical arts education but would also act as guides and lay the right solid foundations that would initiates us back to our African roots with emphasis on African methodology and technical knowhow and communication in African music creativity and performance”.
To that end, the researcher, seeks to re-modify the shape and structure of the bass guitar through the transfer of technology; where technology will be applied and exploited in another place for the same purpose. This is achieved by inverting the original shape and structure of the bass guitar such that the neck that embodied the tuning pegs is constructed at the belly (base) of the instrument instead at the front neck end of the handle. This concept of the shape gives the guitar a distinctive and a distinguished appearance but the underlying element of tone timbre, remains the same as compare to other modern bass guitars. This research is aimed at exploring and bringing to reality the unpredictable shapes and technological advances that a bass guitar could possibly assume, if thorough research and imaginative power is adequately employed. It is no doubt that this could be termed as creatively but it is also pertinent to be aware of the fact that creativity on it’s own will not projects a concept into reality until a driven force is applied (potential) with the technical know out to handle the facilities and resources to arrive at a point of conclusion. This different entities are fussed into one unify area known as technology.
The researcher believes in the theory that says “Winners don’t make different things rather, they make things differently”. As such, the aim of this work is to bring to reality in Nigeria a bass guitar that is not commonly found if only it exist elsewhere; through the means of transfer of technology. The researcher sees this as an opportunity to inspire the potentials that lie on the inside of the Akwa Ibom Child and Nigeria at large especially those gifted in the area of music technology. The researcher of this work centralizes his target on the making of the bass guitar (Wooden form). It is no doubt, that vital parts of the bass guitar are of metal and other parts in wood (neck, handle). But here, the researcher is coming up with new technological innovation in blending most of the metal parts with wood. This is to emphasize that in as much as western world can produce the bass guitar with adequate resources available to them; the African, (Akwa Ibom) are also capable of making a sophisticated bass guitar with the rich and enormous resources available. This could be possibly realize through the transfer of technology.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
It is no doubt, that bass guitar as been considered as an exclusive instrument of the Westerners. As a sequel to this misconception, most people have come to believe that construction of bass guitar using local materials or source could not be easily realized. To that end, the researcher is bent on proving such perception invalid, by implementing the notion of transfer of technology; where technology will be applied and exploited in another place for the same purpose. This study seeks to develop and maintain most of the instruments in the western world with reference to African (Nigeria).
1.3 Objective of the Study
The primary aim of this research (Construction of a bass guitar) using local materials and sources is to create avenue in unlocking the potentials that lie within the African music technologist. To create job opportunities for the Nigerians who are determined to embrace or learn the needed skill. This study goes as far as promoting and encouraging entrepreneurial activities to eliminate the plaque of unemployment. This research is bent on exploiting local materials and sources for the successful making of the bass guitar, thus preserving our cultural heritage. The researcher is looking forward to create an environment where music technology will be sufficiently explored to incite the love for musical instruments construction in the young stars and generation yet unborn.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The researcher also sees this medium as an avenue of creating job opportunities for Nigerians who may be willing to learn the needed skills in instrument making. This study is also aimed at sustaining and developing musical industries and it’s subordinates, in order to produce good number of musical variations. To also creates wealth for the researcher. The researcher, with ample knowledge gain from the research can produce good numbers of bass guitar.
1.5 Scope of the Study
Research time is challenging and expensive, thus the researcher ability is limited to an extent by covering certain local Government Area, in Akwa Ibom State as sample area, such as Uyo, Ikot Ekpene and Obot Akara Local Government Area. Materials needed for this work are mainly obtained from wood, strings and two metal objects. This study is limited to the construction of the wooden bass guitar with tuning pegs constructed at the belly (base) of the guitar.