# Questions about building a mutant pbass 6 string guitar.



## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

I have a pos pbass knock off that I don't use anymore and I had an idea pop into my head for a unique fun build. What I intend to do is buy a cheap ebay guitar neck and mount on the pbass body, buy a new bridge and mount it at the right position for a 25.5 scale length, for the rest use/adapt spare parts I have accumulated over the years to complete it into a working guitar. I have a a bridge PU from a strat that I'm gonna put in the bridge, probably going to use one of the strat pickguards I have. I know they won't cover a space at the rear of the orginal pbass control route but asthetics aren't really a concern in this project haha. 

From researching on the net, I know that the neck pocket on the bass body is a fair bit longer than a guitar and a smidgen wider, though the screw holes are the same. So mechanically I shouldn't have any problems mounting the neck right? Are the gaps going to cause any problems functionally? Are there any issues you guys can for see that I am missing?


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## copperhead (May 24, 2006)

the main concern is where a bass got a long scale length your guitar bridge will need to be back around where your pickup cavities are not at the end of the body like p bass .I'm not too familiar with a bass buy maybe a baritone neck . it might be possible with some cutting & a custom pickguard maybe always cool to see frankensteins i made i couple myself but to give you an ideal where your bridge will sit will be about 7 1/4" from the end of the neck pocket


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## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

copperhead said:


> first thing the neck pocket will be allot bigger on the body for the guitar neck, a standerd strat neck pocket are 3" long by 2 3/16" wide a p bass are around 2 1/2" by 3 7/8" so there will be a bit of a gap but might work but the bigger concern is where a bass got a long scale length your guitar bridge will need to be back around where your pickup cavities are not at the end of the body like p bass .I'm not too familiar with a bass buy maybe a baritone neck . it might be possible with some cutting & a custom pickguard maybe


Yup, both points are what I had figured so far, thanks.


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## copperhead (May 24, 2006)

i dont think a baritone will work either cause they are made to fit a standard strat body


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

Well, that 1/8" space you'll have on both sides of the neck might cause some alignment issues. The screws alone may not hold it straight. 

How about cutting & shaping a block to fill the neck pocket, glueing it in place and then routing out a new neck pocket the right size? :smile:


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## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

Lincoln said:


> Well, that 1/8" space you'll have on both sides of the neck might cause some alignment issues. The screws alone may not hold it straight.
> 
> How about cutting & shaping a block to fill the neck pocket, glueing it in place and then routing out a new neck pocket the right size? :smile:


I hadn't thought about the alignment going out of whack but that makes sense. Shouldn't be a problem to shim it in there with some scrap wood, thanks!


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## copperhead (May 24, 2006)

i have seen guys even use bondo for filling in pickup cavities i have not tried this, i have filled them with a wooden block and filler & route new ones


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

If you have to buy a neck anyway......a 24 fret Ibanez/Jackson style neck is a bit longer in the pocket.....might fit better for length/help with the bridge position.


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## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

This is the body and pickguard I am going to use, only putting in a bridge pu, but I will still have to remove a bit of wood behind there.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

bussche said:


> This is the body and pickguard I am going to use, only putting in a bridge pu, but I will still have to remove a bit of wood behind there.



Better kill the bugs first....




yeah I am bored and have nothing to contribute


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## peter benn (Mar 29, 2007)

*Never been tried, but...*

Very interesting idea you have here. On the other forum (TDPRI) there were people that did the opposite: bass neck on a Telecaster guitar body.

If memory serves, the extreme end of a bass pocket reaches to the back of the Tele rhythm pickup rout, and covering it over, except for the sides.

With your reversal of this idea, a Tele guitar center (p/u and pocket section with some extra all around) could potentially be set into your bass body as a routed patch.

Or a plan of the Tele neck pocket area could be drawn on a plug for your present, bass, pocket.

Both ideas utilize the extreme deep end of the bass pocket, and yield a guitar that is going to be too long, top and bottom.

But the other way, to effectively shorten the bass pocket from the "outside" and maybe shorten the horns, too, is going to radically change your shape. You could conceivably get a normal-length guitar this way, though, provided you took some off the bottom as well. And you'd have to patch the sides of the pocket.

It all sounds like a lot of work, and there are plenty of good quality bodies out there.


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## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

peter benn said:


> Very interesting idea you have here. On the other forum (TDPRI) there were people that did the opposite: bass neck on a Telecaster guitar body.
> 
> If memory serves, the extreme end of a bass pocket reaches to the back of the Tele rhythm pickup rout, and covering it over, except for the sides.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the insight, this entire project has definitely been a learning experience. Buying a proper guitar body would definitely have been easier but the idea of this was to use the spare stuff I had lying around that I wasn't using. I actually purchased the bridge, neck, and tuners (the only parts I didn't already have) today, cost me a $100 totally shipped. I purchased the tunomatic without know a whole lot about it, I later realized that I was going to have to shim the neck angle to get the action right with a tunomatic, never had noticed that on my explorer before haha. But I love a challenge that is definitely what it is.

In regards to the neck pocket, I plan to redrill the holes and mount the neck snug against where the pickguard is in the following post. I will fill in the gaps with some scrap wood and shape it to fit. I know that heel with extend up the neck much further than on normal 6 string but I have very shall we say "rough" plans for this instrument on stage so I won't be needing to play past the 12th fret anyways haha.

These are the parts I bought:




























This whole project is kind of something to keep me busy while I wait for my Warmoth neck to be built/finished and other parts to arrive to build this:


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## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

I routed out the required wood behind the PU and wired up the electronics, just waiting for neck, bridge, and tuners to arrive. Decided to use my spare black strat pickguard instead.


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## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

Got the neck and tuners in the mail today. All that left now is to redrill the neck screw holes further back in the pocket/add some shims around the sides to make it more stable and drill the holes for/mount the bridge. I don't have a drill at home so I'll have to do it in the shop at work tomorrow. Was playing around with things and I think I got the size of the shim to get a good action figured out.


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## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

Here's something I've been mulling over, I understand that scale length is measured from the bridge saddles to the nut, but is there any limit to how far back I can place the string stop? On my explorer it's fairly close But' I kind want to put it a pit farther back just for aesthetics.


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

bussche said:


> Here's something I've been mulling over, I understand that scale length is measured from the bridge saddles to the nut, but is there any limit to how far back I can place the string stop? On my explorer it's fairly close But' I kind want to put it a pit farther back just for aesthetics.


I've heard that a sharper angle (so closer) can help with resonance, because the bridge is being pressing more firmly by the strings into the body.

That's also why some lady that as her own model of martin guitar wanted a certain type of fancy tuning machines that look more like classical guitar tuners; because it gives a sharper angle on the nut.


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## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

Damn, just discovered the old strat bridge pickup I have is dead. Looking for something cheap on ebay now.


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## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

Redrilled the neck bolt holes and mounted the bridge yesterday. Everything seems good, string alignment is ok but grooves in the saddles are actually off, I guess I'll file new ones or but buy new saddles. All I have left to do now is create and glue in a shim for around the edges of the neck pocket, screw on the pickguard, and find a pickup.


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## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

Neck pocket filling is complete, ended using some crazy wood filler stuff that dried hard as rock. Drilled the the pickguard screw holes as well. When I was trying to get the neck on tight as possible I accidentally snapped one of the screws (they were the ones that had attached the bass neck on, extremely low quality hardware.) So I did what any self respecting Canadian would do and found a nice roberston screw to replace it haha.

Won a auction for a SD JB jr pickup off ebay tonight, $55 shipped, not too shabby. I also ordered a couple push pull pots so I can switch the coils between series and paralell, or coil tap. The pots in it now came with the bass so replacing them is a good idea anyways haha.


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## bussche (Nov 21, 2009)

Finished!










There she is in all her mutilated beauty. I wired it so that the volume (push/pull) pot switches between series/paralel and the tone pot coil taps, I used this diagram:










It's seems to works pretty good , sounds really awesome, definitely better than I expected.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

Not too bad looking at all. I've got an old P-bass body that I bought to make a template out of laying around somewhere. Hmmmmm. 

I was wondering if you would have been able to use the P-bass pick guard somehow and re-cut the pickup hole or maybe go 2-layer with a strat pick guard over the P-bass one. But maybe that would ruin the whole mutant effect.


That TeleMaster looks very interesting btw.


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