MIMF

As there have always been three discussion area titles:
Flattop acoustic guitars and bass guitars
Solid and chambered guitars and bass guitars
Archtop guitars and bass guitars...

I was just hoping there might now be an opportunity for disambiguation so that folks dropping by for the first time don't get confused.

Or perhaps we could ask nicely for a bass guitar area

What type of Bass guitar? Electric, Archtop or Flattop acoustic?

Top level topic bass, then three sub levels

The three that were would be good as David said, but it might be nice to distinguish.

The flattop and archtop basses have been few and far between from what I remember, so it may be easier to just have solidbody and acoustic bass sections.

I guess I'm on the fence about this one. While guitars and basses have their own unique characters, I would worry about input being missed becouse a guitar builder never looks at the bass section or vice versa.
Oh and also-
Thanks Charlie and Thank you Deb for so many years.

Steven

Personally, I feel like the way it is works well, at least on the electric and flattop sides, because it puts similar builds together. That means that the problems can be addressed by a larger group. As Steven said, I think we could lose some of the useful input.

Might want to keep them together - where would a bass/6string double neck go?
nice look for the forum

Thanks Rick and welcome. I kind of think we're going to leave it as is for now and see how much traffic we get (if we get a lot, we'll look into splitting it up).

Grouping according to similar construction types has been helpful to me. Some great ideas and inspiration for my last bass came from the high-strung builds (and builders). Maybe put basses before guitars?

This is off topic (but slightly related), I know Charlie said he wants to leave the categories as is for now, but other places I have been to (not all instrument related) have a section for tutorials and tips. It is nice to have a single place to search for how-tos, and it seems to encouragempeople to make tutorials.

tutorials and tips and how to's are always welcome, it's pretty much what the mimf.tng is all about, and better to have them come up in the sections where they are revelant.

I was just thinking we could spell out "Flat top acoustic guitars and *acoustic* bass guitars" etc. Never considered it necessary or appropriate for basses to be in their own little ghetto.

"Flat top acoustic guitars and *acoustic* bass guitars" etc.

Actualy the proper gramer for your proposed title should read 'Acoustic Bass and Guitars'

Steven Wilson wrote:I guess I'm on the fence about this one. While guitars and basses have their own unique characters, I would worry about input being missed becouse a guitar builder never looks at the bass section or vice versa.
Oh and also-
Thanks Charlie and Thank you Deb for so many years.

Steven

I read the arch-top and acoustic sections even though I don't build any of those at the moment.

I'd like a bass section as well. I think that generally means electric bass guitars.

Steven Wilson wrote:I guess I'm on the fence about this one. While guitars and basses have their own unique characters, I would worry about input being missed becouse a guitar builder never looks at the bass section or vice versa.
Oh and also-
Thanks Charlie and Thank you Deb for so many years.

Steven

I agree with Steven wholeheartedly! I have been in and out of MIMF for about 12(ish) years and my focuses tend to be on whatever project I am working on.... I have gotten a lot of good information on both guitar and bass posts that have been relavent to the opposite instrument's construction... I think the connections should therefore stick with the main body type of the construction (I/e Solidbody, archtop, etc.).

Veronica Merryfield wrote:Top level topic bass, then three sub levels

10,000 votes against any sub levels. The only reason to start sub forums is if the post count in the parent forum is so high that topics get bumped too many pages deep too quickly.

I've been a short time member on a few forums where it was obvious that the forum owner made as many sub forums as he or she could think of and it just ended in fragmentation and a difficult to navigate forum. Only resort to sub forums when necessary.

What Andy said. Keep. It. Simple.

I'd like a bass section as well. I think that generally means electric bass guitars.

No. For many of us, if you just say "bass", we instantly think "upright bass". An electric bass guitar is just that; an electric guitar. It just happens to have a rather long scale and (typically) fewer strings than typical electric guitars.

Oh my..., nope, nope, nope. For those of us on the other side of the fence, an electric bass is not at all an electric guitar. Lots and lots of different things are happening not to mention that the electric bass player has a whole range of different expectations and priorities. On paper, they look about the same in construction but the end goals are quite different. I have no preference one way or the other about where we stick basses. I can be quite happy to leave things as they are because I know where to look and since a cello is the same thing as a violin I see no reason for change.

If it means anything - I've been lurking for a while now and cast my vote for a bass guitars section. the first few times I lurked - I totally overlooked the Solid-Body and Chambered or Semi-Solid Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars section looking for just a bass section. So I was one of those who was confused at first.

Thanks