Another stupid idea ....

[Dazed]

Ok so I’m sharing this idea in public and have fully prepared myself for the very likely abuse and mickey taking it probably deserves, but anyway it’s been a strange year so  here goes ....

Bearing in mind guitars that have suffered heavy damage and snapped head stocks can be repaired and often are stronger than they were before the damage. Realistically how possible would it be to shorten a neck? To go from 34” to 32” or less and retaining the original headstock? It’s also a neck through and not a bolt on neck. 
Obviously it would need a re fret and the side markers would be in the wrong positions. Could the neck be cut, shortened and the widths shaved down to match and rejoined? 
An alternate could be removing the body “wings” from the neck-through block. Shortening the bridge end of the neck-through and moving it further along and reattaching it, then re routing the bridge and pickup cavities. It would still need a re fret and side markers changing.

I realise this would be a huge amount of work and also very costly if it’s even possible at all. 

Opinions welcomed good, bad or ugly. I’m ready,

I still have my originally Tinfoil but now Kevlar upgraded Covid/Brexit conspiracy hat here so fire away! 

[hooky_lowdown]

The problem is the frets, if it's a fretless neck then no issue, however the position of frets relate to intonation, by shortening the neck will mean the intonation will always be out, as the position of each fret will be longer if the neck is shortened.

[LukeFRC]

yes - simple. Remove all the hardware, take of the fretboard, fill the pickup routes, cut the wings off, put the new wings on, shape the new shorter body, attach the new fretboard and frets, put the bridge in it's new place, rout new pickup cutouts... put it all together and viola!

I mean I guess you've saved yourself installing a truss rod compared to starting from scratch  but hey ho!

[Dazed]

24 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said:

The problem is the frets, if it's a fretless neck then no issue, however the position of frets relate to intonation, by shortening the neck will mean the intonation will always be out, as the position of each fret will be longer if the neck is shortened.

Sure that’s what I meant by refret, but to the shorter scale.... I’ll add filling the existing fret slots to the list of jobs 

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 11, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Dazed]

14 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

yes - simple. Remove all the hardware, take of the fretboard, fill the pickup routes, cut the wings off, put the new wings on, shape the new shorter body, attach the new fretboard and frets, put the bridge in it's new place, rout new pickup cutouts... put it all together and viola!

I mean I guess you've saved yourself installing a truss rod compared to starting from scratch  but hey ho!

It wouldn’t need new body wings or a new body. 
Hypothetically the body would slide 2” along the existing neck through block and crudely put the excess overhang of the block would be chopped off. I get your point though it’s an awful lot of work. 

[LukeFRC]

2 minutes ago, Dazed said:

It wouldn’t need new body wings or a new body. 
Hypothetically the body would slide 2” along the existing neck through block and crudely put the excess overhang of the block would be chopped off. I get your point though it’s an awful lot of work. 

Ah - I was keeping the neck the same, moving the bridge and then chopping the back of the body off! 

[Dazed]

2 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

I think there are so many factors which need adjusting- practically nothing would be in the place it started!

I did think about cutting a 5-string down to the fifth fret, though. Everything from there on up would be in the same place, and still afford access to the low E. I believe that is the evening I turned round from taking a cue, and clocked a barmaid in the face with my headstock!

That’s crossed my mind too, shortening the existing neck. Again would the headstock be able to be reattached ?

I’ve just been reading through the build thread of your headless, awesome! I’m very interested to hear what the triple Sims pickup setup sounds like and if it’s worth the outlay?

It’s something I’ve been mulling over recently and was amazed someone else had already done it!

[Dazed]

3 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Ah - I was keeping the neck the same, moving the bridge and then chopping the back of the body off! 

Either way it’s madness 😂 

[Maude]

Technically there's no reason you can't cut a headstock off and reattach it. Loads of headstocks are glued to the neck with a scarf joint. 

If you took two inches off the neck, before you glue the head back on you'd need to get a shorter truss rod, which would mean fretboard off. Once the head is glued back on you'd need to reshape the neck all the way along its length to loose the new 'shoulders', then fit a new fretboard and slot it for your new scale. 

Completely feasible, but ultimately pointless. 

Edit, I've re-read my post and 'pointless' is the wrong word, especially considering what I'm in the middle of. More an awful lot of work which could go wrong and render the bass unusable, for relatively little gain. 

Edited March 7, 2021 by Maude
I was a bit harsh. Grumpy mood. Apologies

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 12, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Andyjr1515]

Back to your original question, @Dazed - I think it depends what it is you are wanting to do. 

Primarily, is the desire to have a shorter physical neck or to have the relative ease of playing a 32" scale rather than a 34"?

Starting with the easy (second) one of the two, then a capo on the 1st fret and detune the strings a semitone gets you to a 32.1" scale, near as makes no difference.  And, actually, can transform the feel and playability of a long scale bass.

Changing the physical length of a neck-through would be challenging on many fronts, almost all in the category of high risk of failure, quite (to very) difficult and ultimately not worth the trip.

Changing the physical length and scale of a bolt-on is more feasible

[PlungerModerno]

I think, if it's a reinforced neck without adjustment (metal or graphite bar) it would be possible without doing anything to the fretboard as @Andyjr1515 said it would just mean cutting and putting the nut at a fret position. In practice I think the most likely situation this might be relevant to might be a headed to headless conversion. If you have to reattach the headstock it's so much work you probably want to just make a new neck.

Likewise if it's an adjustable truss rod, you'll have to replace it or do major work on it, a new neck is nearly as handy. Perhaps if it's set neck or neck through, has a cracked fingerboard AND you're converting to headless - then it might be a good idea to go with the existing neck and replace with a shorter truss rod.

[TheGreek]

In short....The impossible can be done - it just costs a lot...

[LukeFRC]

Or do the solution @Andyjr1515 said - stick a capo on it and tune it 

[kumimajava]

Here's a leftfield idea, in case you also play fretless: just remove the frets, fill the fret-slots with the same material as your fingerboard, and move the bridge. Easy to then add position markers on the side using either paint, or a marker, even stickers.

I have, in fact, done this on an (unlined) fretless that I have, to see how much change in comfort I get going from 34 to 33 or 32 inches - the bridge can be moved forward up to 2 inches (after that it hits the "rear" pickup cavity - I suppose I could also go to 30 inches, by skipping he rear-pickup gap & using the neck pickup only). 

Who knows  - perhaps along the way you'll also find that the slightly (now) non-standard positioning of the pickups produces some interesting tones

[PlungerModerno]

1 hour ago, kumimajava said:

...fill the fret-slots with the same material as your fingerboard, ....

Or use a contrasting shade of wood or another material to get a lined fingerboard. you'll never make a defretted fingerboard look perfectly like an unlined board - unless you plane it down to below the fret slot level. Might as well embrace it in my opinion.

[LukeFRC]

24 minutes ago, PlungerModerno said:

Or use a contrasting shade of wood or another material to get a lined fingerboard. you'll never make a defretted fingerboard look perfectly like an unlined board - unless you plane it down to below the fret slot level. Might as well embrace it in my opinion.

that will be fun if he's moved the bridge!

[PlungerModerno]

3 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

that will be fun if he's moved the bridge!

Lol I clearly needed to do more thinking before I put my foot in my mouth! 

[Maude]

On 09/03/2021 at 14:35, kumimajava said:

Here's a leftfield idea, in case you also play fretless: just remove the frets, fill the fret-slots with the same material as your fingerboard, and move the bridge. Easy to then add position markers on the side using either paint, or a marker, even stickers.

I have, in fact, done this on an (unlined) fretless that I have, to see how much change in comfort I get going from 34 to 33 or 32 inches - the bridge can be moved forward up to 2 inches (after that it hits the "rear" pickup cavity - I suppose I could also go to 30 inches, by skipping he rear-pickup gap & using the neck pickup only). 

Who knows  - perhaps along the way you'll also find that the slightly (now) non-standard positioning of the pickups produces some interesting tones

That's a a good solution for trying out new tones with the new relative pickup positions, but, although it technically is a shortscale, it won't feel particularly shortscale-ish to play as the first fret will still be the same distance from the body, meaning it still has the stretch of a 34" scale. Some semi acoustic and acoustic 34" scale basses feel very long because the bridge is quite far up the body. 

It depends on the reasons for wanting a shortscale I suppose. 

[kumimajava]

1 hour ago, Maude said:

That's a a good solution for trying out new tones with the new relative pickup positions, but, although it technically is a shortscale, it won't feel particularly shortscale-ish to play as the first fret will still be the same distance from the body, meaning it still has the stretch of a 34" scale. Some semi acoustic and acoustic 34" scale basses feel very long because the bridge is quite far up the body. 

It depends on the reasons for wanting a shortscale I suppose. 

Not that it's a universal solution, but I have also moved the strap button, from the edge of the bass, onto the back, and a few inches inwards (like Dingwall does in some of their afterburners and their take on the thunderbird). 

The bass in question is a Tune twb6, which is somewhat notorious for being neck heavy. The strap button move has improved both balance, and the first fret reach