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How far off base (pun intended) am I?

OK, I freely admit that I've had a couple of beers and therefore may have gone a bit left field here, but hear me out and then tell me how and why I've clearly lost it.

I was just putting my bass back where it lives next to my g*itar and I noticed that I still have that crap, old les paul gu*tar copy gathering dust. I only have this thing because a guy that I lived with at uni was going to chuck it simply because it had a broken nut (ouch!!!). I took possession of it, finally got around to fixing the nut, and discovered that the frets are so worn that it's basically unplayable. That was a few years ago.

Now, I look at it tonight and I think 'what the hell am I going to do with that?'. I could chuck it, but I don't like the idea of getting rid of an instrument, however rubbish. I could stick on a new neck, but a) I already have a two humbucker gui*ar, b) the pups on this one are not great either, and c) I'm mostly playing BASS these days anyway.

Then it hits me: What I've got here is a body with volume and tone knobs already wired in, an output jack, and a four bolt neck fitting. Surely, my slightly drunken mind reasons, all I need to do is swap out the neck for a bass neck, sick in a new bass bridge further back (a quick measure up tells me that there is space) and we're away. But no, says another part of my mind. The pups are wrong and even if you changed them the routing is in the wrong place. Ah, counters the first voice, but the space for the neck pup is just where a mudbucker would go, and you've fancied that for a while. Aye, says voice two, that's a point.

So, can this be done? Have I come up with an interesting personal project or have I gone a little too far down the garden path?

I should possibly point out the following two facts: 1) I'm pretty good at the electronics/wiring side of things, 2) I am really NOT good at the woodwork, routing side.

All comments welcome, and thanks for reading this far.

Cheers
 
I guess if you had some free time and it would be a decent project... But then the money spent on the necessary parts could just go towards a new (real) bass.

So yes, sober up and think it through... :)
 
Have another beer. ;^)

I think that this path will take you to an unplayable pile of junk. Even if you could find a bass neck to fit the pocket, the bridge will almost certainly be in the wrong place, and the pickup pole pieces and bridge are set up for six strings instead of four.

If you want to get rid of it, sell it on ebay.
 
you "could" do whatever you want... ive thought about this, too. unless it was a fretless bass neck that could actually fit the pocket and you ignored the side inlays, the scale would be all messed up. interesting idea having a guitar body for a bass, but would take some careful planning to execute it properly. as far as the pickups go, i once put a SD invader right at the neck of a p/j bass copy... wow, very "thunky", it was awesome.
 
bad nut, huh? i say custom slot a 4 string nut, rip out the frets, and voila! fretless piccolo bass! or just rip out the frets, replace the nut, and you've got a fretless guitar. Those can be interesting with an ebow. good luck and have fun, whatever you do.

andy
 
hm.. I kinda like the fretless guitar idea. I mean, If you're not using it anyway, why not make something kewl and wacky out of it?



and if ya don't want to, ya could always just make it into a wall decorations.. or barstool.. or coffee table.. or nordic warhammer of les-paul doom...