Jeffu Warmouth

Clawfoot Bass-Tub

Clawfoot Bass-Tub Clawfoot Bass-Tub, 2003, Cast iron, wood, nylon strings, hardware, 30 x 84 x 24 inches

Created for BOOM BOX: The Art of Sound, 2003 at the Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, curated by Roland Smart. It hung as part of a suite of homemade musical instruments, together titled JeffuPhonia.

JeffuPhonia JeffuPhonia, 2003, installation view, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA

Clawfoot Bass-Tub is a working double bass created from a cast-iron clawfoot bathtub, wood, and hardware. To create this instrument, I researched the construction of acoustic instruments such as the upright bass, as well as homemade and folk instruments such as the washtub bass. The neck is bolted through the drainpipe hole in such a way that the tub itself is not damaged. All of the wooden elements are handmade, using methods based on the construction of an actual bass. The string scale is about 125% the length of a standard 3/4 upright bass. The strings themselves are made from different guages of "weed wacker" string, and are tuned with guitar tuners, the only standard music hardware used on this sculpture.

Clawfoot Bass-Tub Clawfoot Bass-Tub details, 2003, Cast iron, wood, nylon strings, hardware, 30 x 84 x 24 inches

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