Mod project: Short scale fretless

[giacomini]

Remember our little "competition" from a couple months ago?

This one: 1st Annual (maybe) TB (unofficial) bass build Competition

OK. The bass I'll be butchering now is the one I built.

It is here: Giacomini's 1st Annual (maybe) TB (unofficial) bass build Competition entry



This poor guy will be a short scale fretless in a few days (weeks?).



TO BE CONTINUED.

[devo_stevo]

Should be fun. Looking forward to it.

[giacomini]

SCARY SHOT:

From this:


To this, in a few saw passes:


I'm going to -try- to fix some issues that are bothering me in this bass:

1- Neck dive. The singlecut body is the one to blame here, but the neck is a bit heavy, too. I'll route the neck pocket further in the bridge direction to try to tame the bad dive.

2- My fretwork in that bass was really poor, so that's why I'll make it fretless.

3- As you can see in the picture in the post #1, the strings don't line up at the headstock, so I'll be plugging the tuner holes and the headstock is cut like that now because I'll add wings and maybe make it a 2+2. Any opinions in headstock shape are welcome.

4- Too much humming/noise from the pickups. They're old SX jazz pickups, have a great sound but they're very microphonic, so I'll pot them and shield the cavities.

5- The body is HEAVY, but I guess there's little to do to it, unless I chamber it or change the shape. Right now I'm thinking about re-shaping it so any opinion is welcome.

[Beej]

Making the headstock shorter and 2+2 will help with the neck dive. Are you planning to modify the body much? I ask because if you are, you could likely graft a piece of wood up near where the upper bout is to extend its reach beyond the 12th fret. This will really help with the neck dive issue. If the body is heavy, you could plane a 1/4" off the top and the route out cavities before gluing down a nice figured top.

The possibilities are endless...

[giacomini]

Originally Posted by Beej

Making the headstock shorter and 2+2 will help with the neck dive. Are you planning to modify the body much? I ask because if you are, you could likely graft a piece of wood up near where the upper bout is to extend its reach beyond the 12th fret. This will really help with the neck dive issue. If the body is heavy, you could plane a 1/4" off the top and the route out cavities before gluing down a nice figured top.

The possibilities are endless...

I'll look into that. Since I'm reshaping the hadstock (you just sold me the idea of the 2+2, now I'm sure I'll do it) I don't think the body will need that Fender-ish look, so I might add wood to make a longer horn and maybe reshape it too.

Is there a best method to add a piece of wood to an already done body? My question is, when I do it will I have to add a different top so it doesn't show up in the front?

[giacomini]

Just came up with a drawing of the body re-shape:



What do you think?

[ehque]

Isn't carving so much wood out of your bass going to worsen the neckdive?

[giacomini]

Originally Posted by ehque

Isn't carving so much wood out of your bass going to worsen the neckdive?

Good point... Don't know how much it'll affect neck dive, because the body is really heavy now, and I always thought that the main factor for neck dive was the distance from the strap peg in the upper horn to the 12th fret (is it true??).

OTOH I'm shortening the neck, making a 2+2 headstock and maybe switching the vintage tuners for the smaller gotoh style...