4 string bass neck to 5 string bass neck

guitarplayer83 · #1 05-12-2010, 06:54 PM

Hi all I am new to the forum but not to guitars or basses. I am in the process of building a bass for my cousin. He is used to playing a 5 string. He got to thinking since he has to buy a neck or use a 4 string neck that he already has. Is it possible to make a 4 string neck into a 5 string neck. It appears that the nut width is the same, but a 5th tuner hole would have to be drilled. Is there anything else that would have to be done or anything of concern trying to convert a 4 string neck to a 5 string. Thanks

kuso · #2 05-12-2010, 07:58 PM

I'm no expert, but the string spacing would be very tight, and you would probably have a hard time finding a bridge with spacing close enough to fit all five strings over the neck.

Why not build a neck? If you're not comfortable building one, Warmoth has a ready-to-go 5 string neck here: http://www.warmoth.com/Showcase/Show...=Neck&i=d5n394

They have it for $248.

Also, try looking around pawn shops/CL for a cheap five-er you can take the neck off of.

Wademeister63 · #3 05-13-2010, 03:54 AM

You can do it! It's been done a lot.
Look up TB member Ric5 and check out his website. He's done a bunch of em and could probably provide some tips to help you make the conversion.

Looking a little more at his website it looks like he explains everything pretty well =)

http://www.3dentourage.com/425/425.htm