jazzmaster body long enough?

[etherealme]

Hi. I've searched all over TB and didn't really turn up much info regarding guitar bodies used for bass projects. I'm aware there's quite a bit involved. I'm prepared to move the bridge back for appropriate scale length and route the neck pocket to fit, etc.

I suppose I'm curious if anyone has had any experience with what bodies work well for such an endeavor.

I'm really interested in a jazzmaster body and have been for a while. (I like the shape of the horns of both it and the jaguar.) It seems with the large amount of negative space the jazzmaster has at the tail that a 32" scale neck might work. That's what I'm after is this body shape with a 32" jazz neck.

So.. Would 16" from the 12th fret fit on a jazzmaster guitar body?

Secondly, is this body typically more shallow and not able to accommodate the deeper bass neck route?

My next step will be to inquire with a warmoth rep on the phone. Though I'm pretty sure they don't do shorter scale length customs, right? Also the jaguar style body doesn't seem to be a bass body option.

Thanks a bunch!

This thread is relevant as is that guy that did the tele guitar beast short scale bass, but they're using 30" scale. Also, not sure how this was accomplshed.

Also, here is another thread of interest which is once again, a 30".

See! I searched!

 

[Serek_Basses]

I am making a jazzmaster guitar body for a friend right now, and i know the body is deep enough. I made his 1.5" but they are usually 1 3/4" thick, which is the same as and P or J bass out there.

As far as the length, I have a pdf that shows the jazzmaster body being 19 3/16 from the back edge to the end of the top horn. Subtract a few inches to get to the back of the neck pocket, you will still have around 15" to work with.

I think even a 34" scale neck would fit, because from 12th to 21st fret is approx. 7 inches, which means you need 10" more to get you to the saddles, and another 2" or so to the back of the bridge. Should be plenty of room..

Can anyone double check my thinking here?

 

[Serek_Basses]

Also, have you looked into just getting a Jaguar bass? It would be a lot easier to get a 32" neck and move the bridge on that bass than a guitar.

 

[etherealme]

I am making a jazzmaster guitar body for a friend right now, and i know the body is deep enough. I made his 1.5" but they are usually 1 3/4" thick, which is the same as and P or J bass out there.

As far as the length, I have a pdf that shows the jazzmaster body being 19 3/16 from the back edge to the end of the top horn. Subtract a few inches to get to the back of the neck pocket, you will still have around 15" to work with.

I think even a 34" scale neck would fit, because from 12th to 21st fret is approx. 7 inches, which means you need 10" more to get you to the saddles, and another 2" or so to the back of the bridge. Should be plenty of room..

Can anyone double check my thinking here?

That's exactly the rationale I was driving at! Thanks a bunch for giving me a rough idea.

Yes. A jaguar body for bass would be acceptable if I could find one blank, with maybe only a neck pocket and rear route. No pickguard would be preferable too.

 

[ponticat]

I finished a 34" scale bass with a homemade Jazzmaster body yesterday. I'll try to get a picture up tomorrow. In the meantime here's a pic of my 30" scale bass with a narrowed Jazzmaster body, also homemade.

 

[Serek_Basses]

Looks cool ponticat. How does the 34" balance??

 

[ponticat]

Looks cool ponticat. How does the 34" balance??

Thank you! A very acceptable (to me) amount of neck heaviness -- the whole thing only weighs 6lbs., 1oz. Light weight was one of the goals with this bass. I'm going to do a thread on it when I've got the construction pix organized. The body's outline is a full-scale Jazzmaster guitar derived from a PDF developed at tdpri.com. This illustrates that you can use that body with a 34" scale neck with room to spare.