Bass VI Strat conversion

[henry norton]

I've always hankered after a Fender Bass VI but even the Japanese reissues are megabucks so, as I've got all my tools out for a commission at the moment I thought I'd try making a long scale neck at the same time, to retrofit onto a dodgy Strat copy I've 'acquired'. The scale's 29.75 inches and the neck should be a straight swap, tuners and all. Well, that's what I'm hoping anyway. I'm using a bit of slab cut maple I had lying around (I think it started out life as some posh skirting board) but as it's not thick enough to make a one piece neck I've had to machine up a separate maple board. It'll have a flattish vintage truss rod, side dots but no board markers. The pictures are of the rough cut neck/board/truss rod and of the body with a paper neck template in place to see how it balances visually.

It might not work first time, (I'm not entirely sure the tuners will cope even with light bass strings), but hopefully I'll eventually get something close to a grands worth of Bass VI

[Stu-khag]

I really look forward to more updates. I really want an bass vi but cant justify the money and haven't the skills or tools.
have you heard of [url="http://www.offsetguitars.com"]http://www.offsetguitars.com[/url] forum? there's plenty of useful info on building a bass vi on there and people are often selling the various bits on there also.

[essexbasscat]

This should be interesting

[EdwardHimself]

Looks like it'll be cool. Keep us posted.

[xilddx]

This does look interesting! I wonder if the truss rod is up to it.

I played a real Fender Bass VI last year, at a studio I was recording in, and it was a horrible thing to play.

[Delberthot]

I've always wanted one after seeing Jack Bruce play one with his fingers from many moons ago. Hmm wonder if He'd have gone for the Gibby if the paint was actually dry on his after The Fool paint job

[henry norton]

Thanks for all the comments and the offset guitars resource Stu - it's already answered a couple of my concerns regarding using the bog standard guitar tuners (seems like that's what Fender used which means it'll be closer to a straight swap instead of having to modify them or, shock horror, buy new ones!). I'll keep everyone posted as I go along. I'm puzzling over strings now; Fender Bass VI strings might be too long to cope with the tail piece so I'm looking at the D'Addario and Ernie Ball short scale VI sets. All opinions, positive and negative, are welcome

[henry norton]

Here's the neck so far - it fits fine but I need to slim down the profile a bit to go with the 'dainty' string spacing. Once I'm happy with it I'll fit the dots and frets and we'll see whether it really works. I've set it next to a 34" Precision to give a sense of the scale.

[Delberthot]

Interesting - would there be enough room on the body to put the bridge as close to the edge as possible and use a hardtail bridge instead of using a longer neck?

Fill in the existing route for the vibrato and maybe even have a 4th pickup.

[henry norton]

[quote name='Delberthot' post='1020433' date='Nov 11 2010, 06:31 PM']Interesting - would there be enough room on the body to put the bridge as close to the edge as possible and use a hardtail bridge instead of using a longer neck?

Fill in the existing route for the vibrato and maybe even have a 4th pickup.[/quote]

Yeah absolutely, although the idea behind this neck was to transform a bog standard Stratocaster (or Tele) into a Bass VI with no more work than bolting a new neck onto your existing body & hardware. That way the bass is a bit longer but you have 2 octave board and no extra work. Landing Guitars [url="http://www.landingbass.com/New%20Main%20Page.html"]Click Here[/url]make more or less exactly what you're suggesting except as a 4 string - a short scale bass neck set into a Strat body with the bridge set right back. They're nice and compact but not what I'm after with this conversion as I want 6 strings and a tremolo.

[fjbarton59]

[quote name='henry norton' post='1005535' date='Oct 29 2010, 04:57 PM']I've always hankered after a Fender Bass VI but even the Japanese reissues are megabucks so, as I've got all my tools out for a commission at the moment I thought I'd try making a long scale neck at the same time, to retrofit onto a dodgy Strat copy I've 'acquired'. The scale's 29.75 inches and the neck should be a straight swap, tuners and all. Well, that's what I'm hoping anyway. I'm using a bit of slab cut maple I had lying around (I think it started out life as some posh skirting board) but as it's not thick enough to make a one piece neck I've had to machine up a separate maple board. It'll have a flattish vintage truss rod, side dots but no board markers. The pictures are of the rough cut neck/board/truss rod and of the body with a paper neck template in place to see how it balances visually.

It might not work first time, (I'm not entirely sure the tuners will cope even with light bass strings), but hopefully I'll eventually get something close to a grands worth of Bass VI[/quote]

Now that's a fair point. The guitar you are converting to bass. I have axactly the same guitar except for mine is painted red. That's an idea though. For the neck, where did you find the dimensions and what wood did you use?

[henry norton]

[quote name='fjbarton59' post='1092460' date='Jan 17 2011, 02:35 PM']Now that's a fair point. The guitar you are converting to bass. I have axactly the same guitar except for mine is painted red. That's an idea though. For the neck, where did you find the dimensions and what wood did you use?[/quote]
I'd have preferred a proper Fender or Squier as this one really was a cheapie with a narrow string spacing, 3 way switch(!) and no trem, but it's a start and will prove the concept. The wood's just bog standard slab sawn hard maple (I used an old bit of maple skirting board I'd kept in the shed for years), the same wood you'd find on any Fender neck. I got the dimensions by measuring 29.75 inches back from the bridge saddles - that gave me the length of the board from the nut to the end of the heel. Add the headstock to the end and you have a layout for the complete neck. This is just an experiment I'm working on when I find a bit of time but considering how close to a bog standard Fender Jaguar the Bass VI was I'm pretty certain I can get a Strat Bass VI to work.