Fender Bass Neck With a Small Head

[NoBlackTShirts]

Suppose that one day someone decided he didn't like the giant huge head on a Fender Bass and suppose he wanted a Fender guitar-size head with those little Wilkinson tuners on it.

Has anyone ever done this? Like maybe start with a paddle head and cut a guitar outline instead of a bass outline?

 

[rwkeating]

Guitar tuners may not be able to take thick bass strings. Check what their limitations are.

 

[NoBlackTShirts]

I don't mean to be rude but I don't think I said guitar tuners. I mean like the kinds of things on an Ibanez or something.

 

[pilotjones]

Are you talking about something like Gotoh gb7 tuners? They are smaller than huge Fender cloverleaf types and can be placed closer. They still require some room though.

If you do a layout, I'm guessing you'll end up with something like the smaller F headstock of the ¿1980's?, smaller than the original and current P/J but not as small as a Strat.

 

[NoBlackTShirts]

If you do a layout, I'm guessing you'll end up with something like the smaller F headstock of the ¿1980's?, smaller than the original and current P/J but not as small as a Strat.

I'm sorry, I don't know what that means. I'm looking at a Strat outline.

 

[jlh60]

Try tracing a Strat headstock and get measurements of the tuners you want to use.
Then you can see if you have enough room for the tuners.

 

[pilotjones]

Try tracing a Strat headstock and get measurements of the tuners you want to use.
Then you can see if you have enough room for the tuners.

Yes, this. What I think you'll find is that when you placing a bass tuner to the E string line, it puts the tuner off the wood, unless you move it up the head a distance that is too far to leave room for the other tuners.

 

[CosmoReverb]

Do you need to go down to Strat dimensions? Have you thought of slapping a Mustang/Musicmaster/Bronco sized headstock on a full size neck?

 

[NoBlackTShirts]

Okay, here it is with a Strat-sized head, measured by the gridlines in Paint and measuring Squier P-Bass and Strat heads here at home:

It looks like I raised the head but it is on centerline, I just filled in the top better than the bottom.
It looks funny if we're not used to it but I think it is handsome enough. Reduction is 0.8. Maybe 0.9 would suffice. Maybe I'll try that after dinner.

 

[Jazz Ad]

You mean like a Jazz Bass Plus ?

 

[NoBlackTShirts]

Okay, here it is at full size:

And here at point nine size:

I think I like it. The small tuners might look a little odd though. I don't have the chops to put them into the picture in correct scale....

 

[joseplluissans]

You have to consider that the strings won't align well anymore. If you keep the angle of the tapered side of the headstock, it will move the tuners "upwards" and the strings will have an angle after the nut. So by scaling down the headstock alone you won't solve you "problem", you'll have to redesign it a bit.

 

[pilotjones]

You have to consider that the strings won't align well anymore. If you keep the angle of the tapered side of the headstock, it will move the tuners "upwards" and the strings will have an angle after the nut. So by scaling down the headstock alone you won't solve you "problem", you'll have to redesign it a bit.

Yes, like I said, elaborating on my earlier post:

Specify some smaller-keyed tuners
Do a tuner layout, taking into account the string paths
Do a headstock layout as small as practical, using the Fender shape wrapped around the tuners in their necessary positions
You will probably end up with something smaller than a current/vintage P/J headstock, larger than a Strat headstock, and nearly identical to the 80s P/J headstocks

 

[yoshi]

Here's my first build (still didn't take proper photos!). It's not a p style, but has a sort of P/music man head, with 6 little tuners (to keep weight down). Looks fine. Main thing is to be sure that you don't put the tuners too close or they may clip eachother when turning.

 

[NoBlackTShirts]

You will probably end up with something smaller than a current/vintage P/J headstock, larger than a Strat headstock, and nearly identical to the 80s P/J headstocks

Do you have any pictures of basses with these '80s headstocks? If it's that easy then my problem goes away.

 

[Beej]

Here's one.

Google is your friend...

 

[pilotjones]

This one actually could have been made a bit shorter by spacing the keys a little closer, but that would change the angle of the line along that straight edge of the headstock as well as changing the overall aspect ratio, so I understand why they didn't do it.