Shortscale bass (for baritone conversion)

Dillon · Post by **Dillon** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 11:56 pm

Dunno if this belongs in this forum or the "other guitars" forum, feel free to move it. I've really been wanting a baritone guitar lately, but I can't seem to find one in current production that really interests me. I'd love a Jaguar Baritone / Bass VI, but damn if they aren't rare and expensive and almost always sunburst.

So I got the idea to convert a shortscale bass (preferably 28" scale if that exists, but most are 30" scale) to a baritone...just dowel the tuner holes, then replace the nut and bridge. Anyone know of an affordable short scale bass? Mustang / Bronco style would be perfect. Ideal candidate right now seems to be the Squier shortscale basses (Jaguar or Mustang). Thoughts / suggestions? Anyone ever tried this, or know someone who has?

Shaguar · Post by **Shaguar** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 12:37 am

How much is affordable? Squier Bronco basses can be had for 150$ or less.

Dillon · Post by **Dillon** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 12:39 am

I don't know, less than $350 maybe? I just don't want to pay too much for something that's possibly going to be hacked up

The nicer it looks from the factory, the better though. I quite like the necks on other VM series basses I've tried so Squier is definitely looking like the way to go at the moment, just thought I'd see if there are any other options (Epiphone EB or Thunderbird maybe?)

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 1:49 am

The Bronco Bass makes the most sense because the Bronco and Mustang Basses are the most guitar like of all the necks, and the Bronco is significant cheaper. Also, thanks to top loading bridge, there are no ferrules to worry about.

singlepup · Post by **singlepup** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:19 am

Funny, I was just thinking about this yesterday. Do a google search, I saw mixed results on other forums. Bronco definitely seems to be the best choice due to price and neck. I think some people kept the original bronco pickup as well.

I am also GAS-ing for a VI, and thinking to wait for the new Japanese reissues.

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:06 am

DO WHAT I DID.

buy a mustang bass
buy a pack of bass VI strings.
put the middle 4 strings from the pack on the bass.

now you got a 30" bass with 34 44 56 and 72 string gauges.

it plays exactly like all of my guitars with one extra big ass string on the end. the thickest 3 strings on my guitar are 35 45 56

the strings are thin enough to make chords n shit on. totally works without tearing apart your shit.

[youtube][/youtube]

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:09 am

i think the final string on a regular bass is like .100 or .90 or some shit. doing it my way you are only bottoming out at .72

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:03 pm

find matthewk's thread.

Dillon · Post by **Dillon** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 6:19 pm

Huh, that's an interesting idea, but I definitely think I want a six string, I'd use it for B to B tuning mostly.

Bronco bass definitely looks like the way to go. Jag or jazz bass would be cool too, but I'm not so sure about the pickups, the bridge pickup is probably too far back to sound good.

This thread?

http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31305

Informative for sure, glad to see I'm not the only one who had that idea.

I forgot about the Schecter Hellcat VI, I'd dig one of those, might just do that instead. And, apparently, Agile used to make a Harm 1 baritone (the Rick-style thing) but I can't find it on their website...not sure you can buy them new anymore or I'd probably just do that.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Agile-Harm-1-Ba ... 45ffabf0c0

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 6:27 pm

I realised after doing a quick search on Offset that grabbing a Squier Bronco, filling the tuner holes and redrilling for six guitar tuners is possibly the cheapest way to obtain a Baritone bass, Fender Bass VI style. Not sure why I'd never thought of that before. I could even use my two Tri-sonic pickups I have lying around in it, too. And I'd probably go the whole hog and reshape the headstock to a Jaguar style, too, seeing as though I have a little experience with that now. Fuckyeah. I know I'm in the middle of the Teardrop, but I can't do fuck all until the weather lets up a little bit, it's been raining fucking constantly.

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 12:06 am

ekwatts wrote:I realised after doing a quick search on Offset that grabbing a Squier Bronco, filling the tuner holes and redrilling for six guitar tuners is possibly the cheapest way to obtain a Baritone bass, Fender Bass VI style. Not sure why I'd never thought of that before. I could even use my two Tri-sonic pickups I have lying around in it, too. And I'd probably go the whole hog and reshape the headstock to a Jaguar style, too, seeing as though I have a little experience with that now. Fuckyeah. I know I'm in the middle of the Teardrop, but I can't do fuck all until the weather lets up a little bit, it's been raining fucking constantly.

I'd just put two holes in the Squier side of the headstock for two guitar tuners for the top thinner strings. Less messing round.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 2:00 am

It looks amateur. I'm not into that ghetto-booty school-level workmanship, arf. I've seen it done, and I can see it works, but it just looks gash.

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 12:16 pm

ekwatts wrote:It looks amateur. I'm not into that ghetto-booty school-level workmanship, arf. I've seen it done, and I can see it works, but it just looks gash.

I'd rather look 'amateur' than look 'paulk1' though.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 2:16 pm

wwrrss wrote:
ekwatts wrote:It looks amateur. I'm not into that ghetto-booty school-level workmanship, arf. I've seen it done, and I can see it works, but it just looks gash.
I'd rather look 'amateur' than look 'paulk1' though.

What, ya mean become a terrible spammer who can't format a post? I don't think that should be a worry.
Unless you're talking about the work itself, which, well, he does an ok job.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 4:31 pm

But he does amazing custom work.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 5:55 pm

His work is indeed great, he just seems to lack a bit of self-awareness.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 7:51 pm

and whatever kind of awareness that's required in order to not make every guitar into a bound/blocked jaguar or jazzmaster.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 8:03 pm

I also wouldn't put a Fender decal on a non-Fender neck and then try to sell it but that's just me. Hell, if I were that good, I'd probably have my own logo on my own shit.

MattK · Post by **MattK** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 9:00 pm

Your main problem with a dowel-and-redrill is that the distance from the tuner holes to the edge of the headstock is much greater on a bass because of the size of the tuners. So if you want the strings to be straight across the nut, on a standard bass headstock they would be crowded right down the end, and 2 won't even fit. If you install standard tuners where the bass tuners are, you will have an extreme break angle at the nut which will make tuning impossible. I solved this by doing a cut-and shut - I sliced out the row of tuners from a shortscale headstock to make the normal Klusons fit.
Problem:

Solution:

Thread:
Mustang VI
I'll finish it one day, I promise. After my house.

singlepup · Post by **singlepup** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 1:21 am

honeyiscool wrote:I also wouldn't put a Fender decal on a non-Fender neck and then try to sell it but that's just me. Hell, if I were that good, I'd probably have my own logo on my own shit.

+1