Tail piece change

[tomhanzo]

I have a question. Can i take my P-bass knock off and put one of these free floating tail pieces on it?

[62bass]

Originally Posted by tomhanzo

I have a question. Can i take my P-bass knock off and put one of these free floating tail pieces on it?

I imagine you could with a bit of ingenuity and the right tools. I don't know why you'd want to though.

[tomhanzo]

Well i have always liked the tail pieces that are floating. I dont plan on using this exact one but would like to find a cool one.

I am not a guitar pro so i didnt know if it would hurt to change it.

As long as the strings are still the same length from the nut it will be fine right?

[WarriorJoe7]

Ummm you probably don't have rrom on a regular bass for a floating tailpiece... or atleast the way they are normally used (in conjunction with a saddlepiece that sits in front of it.

What would you do? Put this over the bridge for decoration. Surely the part that holds the strings would be on the wrong side of the saddles in order to be useful.

Perhaps there is a solidbody electric bass that exists where you could use this, but not a fender copy.

[tomhanzo]

yeah. well i dont know. i just thought it would be cool to try and work a floating piece onto a fender. i have never seen one and want to try and figure it out

[WarriorJoe7]

Unless you have an EXTREMELY short tailpiece, the only way to work it onto a fender is if you extend the body with a block of wood... If you can do that tastefully then you are set.

Or if you have an unlined fretless with no dots or fret markings at all you could just make it into a shorter scale bass.

Or if you put a longer neck on the bass and have to relocate the bridge away from the edge of the bass. But that neck would have to be a few inches longer (perhaps 36 frets, atleast 30)

[Pilgrim]

Consequences:

1) Screw holes in the body where the P bridge comes off
2) Tailpiece needs to be added
3) You need a separate floating bridge to be placed about where the P saddles were, BUT it probably won't cover the screw holes.

Result: Probable ugliness. Likely raising the strings too high for decent action, as there's no way the bridge will be as low as the original P bridge.

And as noted above, the tailpiece needs to be short enough that you can install it AND the bridge, and maintain scale length...but the bridge is gonna jack those strings way up. At the minimum, you'd need a substantial shim in the neck pocket to tilt the neck and compensate for that - and I'm not sure it will work.

[tomhanzo]

I think i am giving up on this idea