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Longscale Stratobass

#22
awilkie84 said:
Except then the neck is useless on a standard body.
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Not necessarily. The hardest part will be matching the curvatures of the neck butt and pocket terminus; but if Gorn Captain can achieve that, the rest is pretty simple. All he has to do is remove some
wood from each side of the heel to the length and depth of the pocket. And if he wants to mate the neck to a standard body later all he has to do is glue filler shims to replace the wood removed.

Your objection applies as equally to the body as to the neck, and any of the work that must be done is more easily done on the neck than the body. Also, altering the neck allows you to avoid messing with the finish on the body and possibly doing damage there.
 
#23
GretschWretch said:
Not necessarily. The hardest part will be matching the curvatures of the neck butt and pocket terminus; but if Gorn Captain can achieve that, the rest is pretty simple. All he has to do is remove some
wood from each side of the heel to the length and depth of the pocket. And if he wants to mate the neck to a standard body later all he has to do is glue filler shims to replace the wood removed.

Your objection applies as equally to the body as to the neck, and any of the work that must be done is more easily done on the neck than the body. Also, altering the neck allows you to avoid messing with the finish on the body and possibly doing damage there.
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There's a pickguard that covers the body, and bodies will generally be easier & cheaper to come by. I'd also rather have to deal with routing a neck pocket wider than cutting a neck on both sides and cutting/trimming the fret wire, too.
 
#25
awilkie84 said:
There's a pickguard that covers the body, and bodies will generally be easier & cheaper to come by. I'd also rather have to deal with routing a neck pocket wider than cutting a neck on both sides and cutting/trimming the fret wire, too.
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Agreed about the bodies being easier and cheaper to come by, but khutch's post on the preceding page suggests that unless it is a custom pickguard it will not cover all the area that has to be routed. And while one would have to trim the heel on both sides (which is my personal preference), nothing would have to be done to the frets since you don't trim the heel sides to the fretboard join -- only to the depth that fits in the pocket. The fretboard and frets would not be affected.
 
#26
GretschWretch said:
Agreed about the bodies being easier and cheaper to come by, but khutch's post on the preceding page suggests that unless it is a custom pickguard it will not cover all the area that has to be routed. And while one would have to trim the heel on both sides (which is my personal preference), nothing would have to be done to the frets since you don't trim the heel sides to the fretboard join -- only to the depth that fits in the pocket. The fretboard and frets would not be affected.
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The only way the pickguard won't cover the area being routed is if you're moving the neck further from the body. Given the measurements of the body, I don't think this will happen. And, depending on the depth the neck would be sitting at, you might need to trim the frets, too.
 
#27
awilkie84 said:
The only way the pickguard won't cover the area being routed is if you're moving the neck further from the body. Given the measurements of the body, I don't think this will happen. And, depending on the depth the neck would be sitting at, you might need to trim the frets, too.
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Agreed one need not, and should not, move the neck further from the body. But look at the four instruments depicted in post number 12. All are stock, and all reveal areas which would have to be routed that would not be covered by the pickguard even in stock form. Without a custom pickguard, the routing would be exposed if one wanted to repurpose the body; or else, like the neck as you suggest, the body would be useless. If you move the neck further from the body you will both create a gap at the closed end of the pocket and weaken the join by having less contact between neck heel and pocket.

And if you seat the neck so deep you have to trim the frets (almost flush to the top) you are going to create some serious set-up issues. Better have some shims on hand. I have never seen an electric guitar or bass with a neck set that deep toward the instrument's back. Bad design.

But I have no more to add to this thread. At least Gorn Captain has some food for thought.
 
#28
I'm not seeing it. The only thing resembling needing a custom guard is to take the notch out of the bottom. A stock guard could easily be modified for the neck.
The only place that would need filling or covering would be the tremelo route...but just use a hardtail strat body.
 
#32
GretschWretch said:
Agreed about the bodies being easier and cheaper to come by, but khutch's post on the preceding page suggests that unless it is a custom pickguard it will not cover all the area that has to be routed. And while one would have to trim the heel on both sides (which is my personal preference), nothing would have to be done to the frets since you don't trim the heel sides to the fretboard join -- only to the depth that fits in the pocket. The fretboard and frets would not be affected.
Click to expand...

I agree that it is possible to modify the neck to fit a standard pocket without needing to touch the fretboard and frets. Builder's choice really. Are you more likely to want to reuse the body or the neck if you tire of your Stratobass down the road? With a bit of work either modification could be reversed by gluing wood back in and refinishing. Link Removedthat might make an interesting body to use for this project since it will have a wider neck pocket from the git go.

As far as the tailpiece hole goes, there could be something interesting/useful to put in there:

StratBass.png


I kinda like the Rascal Bass myself but I am thinking about getting short scale so it would appeal more to me. I'd forgotten about it which is easy to do since Fender appears to be selling them but never has put them up on their website or announced them in any way as far as I can tell! I already have a Squier VI which is vaguely Stratocaster-ish, close enough for me anyway. It's not a solution for the OP however since it too is short scale.
 
#34
Is there no model of Strat without a trem to do this with. Would it be too much coin to get a Warmoth strat body, with no pickup, or trem routs?

I've done this with a Jackson Kelly, and it worked beautifully, but I had the advantages of no trem, and a lot of tail end real estate.
 
#36
TheEmptyCell said:
It would take some doing, but it seems possible. Like I said in the Subshortscale thread, if a regular 21 fret neck doesn't work, something with 22 frets or 24 frets that extends right to the heel of the neck (not just an overhanging fretboard) could get you where you need to be. It's just a matter of finagling the neck pocket (and finding a hard tail Strat body).
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If you are looking for a 22 fret Fender neck- 90s Precision/ Jazz Pluses and Precision Specials (Cowpokwes) have 22 frets. These necks sometimes come up on eBay
 
#39
Putting a standard strat body with a standard 34" neck is just never going to look right. I mean look at the final photoshop above, it seems weird and distorted looking, right? There's a reason they made the "Les Paul Oversized" bass, because a regular-sized Les Paul body looks wrong with a bass neck so they "oversized" it to compensate for proportion. Industrial designers think hard to keep the lines sexy.
 
#40
JimmyThunder said:
Putting a standard strat body with a standard 34" neck is just never going to look right. I mean look at the final photoshop above, it seems weird and distorted looking, right? There's a reason they made the "Les Paul Oversized" bass, because a regular-sized Les Paul body looks wrong with a bass neck so they "oversized" it to compensate for proportion. Industrial designers think hard to keep the lines sexy.
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I think it looks awesome. That photoshopped picture is exactly what I was thinking of, just not in that color.
 

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