Fun fact: the Fender Musicmaster bass was basically the Fender Musicmaster guitar with bass strings. It even reused the six-pole guitar pickup! I think it'd be a cool experiment to try out the "wrong" pickup on guitars and basses. If anything we'd know what happens when the pickup poles don't match the strings
Yep. Have you ever build a Les Paul clone kit guitar? These two humbuckers are bloody good, when you install 4 bass strings. It's just tuned slightly higher, Fis or G for the low string.
Fun fact: vintage Fender musicmaster basses have a single pickup with a plastic cover over it. That's because they came with a 6 pole piece strat-looking pickup. But even with 4 bass strings, they sound great. But you can also go for a rail-type stratocaster-sized humbucker on a bass.
I have a Brice fretless I was thinking might sound cool with a piezo. I'll have to listen with headphones later, but my initial impression is that distorted piezo actually sounds pretty damn good.
Done four such conversions. Can recommend it to anybody who is not afraid of basic wood and metal tools. Built a LP clone kit guitar (added 2 coil split switches, which works out great), and that small bass is very okay. Also did two different strat clones. One was damaged and for strength considerations I replaced the bridge pickup by a block of wood. The other one was a new Indonesian strat clone, sorry for the sunburst fans, I burnt it black and sprayed it black and red. Not bad. Fun detail, in the 5-switch I swapped neck and mid pickup, for I like bridge and neck doing "humbucker effect". And this is the way to get it, without replacing that limited 5-switch. Awkward traditions... And number 4 is a Yamaha Pacifica with a tele bridge. All sound far better than I had expected before. It' just cheap guitar pickups, and not that great wood, after all. That strat clone is some kind of mdf and the tiny strip holding the bridge in place had simply collapsed. Broken. The Pacifica however looks great, it is six nice pieces of wood, glued together. What a waste they painted that Pacifica body black. Never underestimate a Yamaha Pacifica, buy some high end parts, give it a proper setup, remove the finish (too much paint sounds like a sponge) and you can easily be surprised by the sound of your cheap Yamaha. Sorry, I sound like a school teacher... But I love these conversion projects.
Glad you worked on it instead of just returning it. It’s a very creative “first effort” but it’s proof of concept (and a nice travel/home practice instrument) that all you really need are 3 strings on bass. 😎 FYI I’ve modded every bass and guitar I’ve ever owned since 1971.
Oh hey! I've done this with a kit tele. I did 4 strings tho. It turned out garbage lmao. When I first saw this bass in the future cam I thought it was one of those mini strats with a 22" scale, which would have been also super interesting. The double octave thing would be cool, as that's what Chris Squire did on his tele triple neck. Also, have you seen the stewmac mini guitar kit? It seems likes it would be the next perfect incarnation of your soprano guitar as it's tuned up an octave with standard strings. Maybe turn it to a sopranino?
I have a glarry strat and have been considering doing a bass conversion like that (I'm just not a guitar player) and looks like i may proceed. Three string seems the way to go. We'll see! 😎
Man, it does sound awesome. I was thinking of converting a crappy guitar of mine into a bass and I said: Somebody has done it, check RU-vid. And here you are. I might go on with it. I don't have the pieces now, but it's worth the shot. Thank you.
Simply use Ernie Ball 2837 (20-90) with ball end. It works perfectly on Ibanez Grg 140 sb. I've just added one spring to trem (4), tuned an octave lower, and the neck stands stable.
Hey so i got an idea for a project i think you would love cuz we all know you like re stringing alternative tuning things: A 12 string, but instead of regular guitar + higher octave, its regular guitar + lower octave Edit: maybe tuning a 12 string into diferent intervals like minor thirds? You could use the harley benton 12 string, it is pretty cheap but really good
@@SaidTooMuchProductions maybe even tune them to the same octave but diferrent intervals? Like E and G (a major third) and so on so on, it would be a interesting alternative to double guitar
Very cool, it does give more ideas for a thing I wanted to do for some time (that probably already exists but it might be expensive) an adjustable instrument that can be a bass or a guitar, having little effort to switch between those, just by changing parts
Your final statement says it all - and is Spot-On !! You should have returned this faulty, kinda crappy guitar. And..... yep. I'm sure glad you didn't. Turned into an AWESOME project!! I love this. Now I want to try to do one too. I've got all kinds of bodies and necks laying around. Yep. Gunna try to build one too. Thanks for this cool vid!
From experience, you would have been just fine putting on the 4th string. The exact position of the coils on the pickup and the string dont matter as much as youd think. As long as its height is balanced well youll have even volume of all the strings. I converted with 4 strings
the betewwen-the-poles idea is nice, but you can use 4-strings on 6-pole puckups easily. get some of those cheapo flexible fridge magnets that are like 8th inch or less and epoxy that over the poles like a blade pickup. works great. ive done guitar to 4-string bass conversions with this before and had no issue. you can get down to drop C with some effort on a strat-scale but i dont recomend lowere than E. with a 145 string and a peizo just under the C string, it works but you lose that clarity. i add peizos to all my basses, but only under the lowest string and paired with a slanted pickup under the other 3 or 4 so its gets progressively grolwey further down, and then the other normal pickup as a blend.
It came from Indonesia. Cheap labour and still good craftmanship. These workers are good. All the screws are rock solid. If not, it's prolly China. These dudes are in a hurry and you'll see holes drilled in the wrong spots. Simply pay more and you wil get something better. They alway put stickers on. Made in Germany, that is the great example.
Dude that sounds way better then an 8 string!! It feels like it was made for djent !! ....... I say make more of these and sell them !!! ...... P.s. if there was a way to make it four strings it would be better....
@UCQoElgBw4Rb5zI37trQvGZQ @UCQoElgBw4Rb5zI37trQvGZQ Faulty wiring, that's bad but we have a contact mic. A Fender Strata bass would be their next instrument. You could've just strung it w/ Bass VI Strings. The Bass VI is a 6 String Bass tuned E-E an octave below the Guitar.
Sounds somewhere between a Jazz and a Rick, short scale notwithstanding. I wonder why Fender didn't make too many basses with actual neck position pickups around the 24th fret node other than the Bass VI.
Linking from IG has repeatedly failed me. Manually searched and subbed. Files. I ordered a set of 5 and use the three sided for almost everything until the round file for final work.. Widow points. Google that but basically bend the strings where they need to be. You could have kept the Trem if you just attached the stuff to the original plate and removed the saddles. Actually you could have just used that but intonation wouldn't have been enough. Humbucker rail pickups oddly if you buy a mandolin pickguard you can find the entire thing wired with everything for like $10 as long as your ok with white.
Great work, cool idea, I love such projects :) I think it could be great for home demo recording (I bought a Bass for it, and it take some space in my some flat ;) so maybe this could be easier for someone in similiar space issue situation :) for me is some kind of minibass :) I wonder if it would sound even better with some bass pickups :)
I think the tension of 4 strings would be okay. Since the scale length of the guitar is shorter, the strings would come to the right pitch with less tension.
Depends on the gauge you choose. I like the Ernie Ball 2834 (100-80-65-45) for my guitar conversions. Nothing wrong with those. When you want higher tension you are condemned to this 3 string "solution". Or simply beef up the truss rod, if you feel the truss rod can't keep up with your extra tension. You got a point, a guitar neck is shorter, a bit more tension is not always fatal. Personally, I like a slightly lower tension, for bending gets far easier. The sound of the low string is my lower limit, it should not get too floppy.
you can hear the inharmonicity creeping in as you go on those higher frets with such a short scale. might be interesting to do a project that intentionally has as much inharmonicity as possible (short scale + thick strings, they start to act more like xylophone bars than strings)
Did you try .020 strings first? Fender had this thing called Bass VI, which was essentially a guitar tuned one octave lower. Music Man had the SUB, which was the same thing.
i think it is. i would remove the fretboard and headstock combo of the guitar and replace it with a bass fretboard headstock combo. then swap out the bridge and what ever you call that thing that holds the strings in place at the bottom.