When 4 becomes 5

[Owen]

I have a Ryder P bass. I did not love the headstock so I bought a JIm Deacon P on here for £50 cos it had a nice neck. I swapped necks and flogged the other bits so that the whole excercise was cost neutral. I do not use it because I do not really like a P nut width (as I discovered after buying it) but I hate having things lying around. I bough a Wilikinson 4+1 kit to turn a 4 string into a 5 string years ago and have been keeping it for the right occasion. I mounted it all yesterday and the bass seems quite happy being a 5. Sadly the Wilikinson bridge means I would have to put a shim the size of a brick under the neck so that will come off. I have a spare machine head which will go onto the lower edge of the headstock and I have bought 5 individual chrome bridge units (£7.92 inc postage!) because that is the only way I can see of getting close to 15mm spacing at the moment. There is a one piece bridge out there but that is in black and that would be wrong. The Wilikinson nut is fine. Total outlay including bass = £95 + a new set of stings.

Before with Wilikinson kit on it

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[Ou7shined]

Ace. This is what modding is all about.

[Owen]

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Filling in the original bridge holes with dowelling (AKA matches)

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New machine head. If I knew what I was doing then I would have put it somewhere where the G would run straight after the nut.

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Finished bridge. The A unit happened to sit in the right place using and original screw hole so I bodged the rest around that one.

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Finished headstock. Dodgy string alignment. Do I care? No.

The pickup seems to be fine, but the G+D side is quieter than the B+E+D side. I will raise it up to see what difference that makes. The strings are old spare until I get it working properly.

It took about 2 hours, and I am the bodgiest of the bodgers and it was OK. String spacing is a bit tight, but nothing I cannot work with.

Good times!

[Mr Anthony]

That's pretty cool actually! Nice work. Who cares if it's a bodge job as long as it works!

[DarkHeart]

Could you wind the g string the other way round the post? Ive been thinking of doing this kind of conversion myself so id be interested in how its working.

[DarkHeart]

Ive been thinking of doing this kind of conversion myself so id be interested in how its working.

Edited March 18, 2014 by DarkHeart

[Owen]

It's working nicely. The spacing is obviously TIGHT, but it is not a huge issue. The screw head on the G+D side is knackered so I will have to get into that with something proper, but for an outlay of frankly pennies I am very happy with it..