Sorry , just got this . Appreciate that it is not a minor mod , but it was only minor work to the body . Few holes to fill and a few to drill . Sand and rewax .
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Nova guitar parts headless P bass conversion
- Thread starter johnh89
- Start date
The hipshot headless bridges don't have thrust bearings are bulkier and heavier in comparison and I don't believe they use brass either I could be wrong tho. I ended up getting the Abm string retainers as you didn't have them available for multiscale and I didn't want to have a large space behind my nut to accommodate the large fan but I was still tempted to get one of your design because the build quality is so good.
Passini
Commercial User
- Dec 11, 2018
- 66
- 164
- Disclosures
- Guitar and bass bridge manufacturer, called NOVA Guitar Parts
Thank you so much for the feedback and compliment. I just received the first prototypes, take a look.
Sweet. I can see some MS projects coming from these, as well as custom headstock layouts.
After a bit of research on here , and a hankering for something a little different , I purchased a headless bridge and headpiece from Andre Passini ( I believe he is a member here ) . Firstly to say the man is a gent and from first contact via email , to getting bridge delivered to UK from Brazil was less than a week . If you are after a headless bridge at a more than reasonable price , The Nova guitar parts one takes some beating .
So , a parts P bass of mine was butchered into the following..
View attachment 4407419
The conversion was very straightforward . I laminated the cut down headstock with 2mm carbon fibre sheet to strengthen it after filling the machine head hole with maple dowel , and screwed the bridge on as a guide for where to rout out the body to get the string height down , and also to machine the heel to clear the tuners . By one of those lucky quirks of fate , neither needed to be done ! so it was strung up and finished .(sort of ) . I did consider remaking the control plate and pickup surround out of carbon fibre but after doing the headstock with it , I realised what a messy , difficult pain in the arse it is to work with so the tort remains .
View attachment 4407421
View attachment 4407423 The bass itself is a white ash slab P bass body with EMG geezer pickups with a tone cap mod detailed here
EMG Geezer Butler tone cap change
. The neck was a cheapish score from ebay and after a bit of work is a great player . The body and neck are both waxed with black bison wax which I love as a finish , and is easy to refinish after such minor mods as this one .
View attachment 4407425
Currently strung with roto 77 flats and it sounds a beast .
I know this is not going to be everyones cup of tea but I am open to all comments as to its existence . It fits in a guitar gig bag and takes a bit of getting used to not seeing the top 8 inches that have always been there . The bridge and headpiece are lovely pieces of engineering and get my recommendation .If anyone has any questions I will do my best to answer them .
And before anyone asks , yes its heavy
Excellent, thanks for sharing! Digging the tort too.
Yes @Passini seems to be a great guy. I ordered a set from him last year and received the hardware from Brazil quicker then some other parts I ordered from Arizona. I believe he also has individual bridges now for custom spacing and fanned fret shenanigans.
Also, that logo on the back looks like it could be several other phrases until you "see it."
View attachment 4407527
I just realized I don't have a picture of the whole bass but here's the body anyway. Yes, the bridge and pickups are straight, it's just the angle of the picture.
Love this a lot too, the green machine! Did you already share details somewhere?
And yet another stunning piece of work! Details anywhere??
As soon as you get some in black I may need a set
the Abm ones are ok but I like the look of these better
It was done by a local luthier (if you are interested I can PM you his details - he's pretty popular especially as of late so I imagine his wait time is getting pretty long). Spec wise it's Spanish cedar body, curly maple top, flamed Canadian rock maple neck and osage orange fretboard. Using Nova hardware (of course!) and pickups are active EMG Js wired VVT. It was designed by the two of us and basically takes all the feature of my favourite basses and then he combined them using his incredible artistry. Super bright, very lightweight and ultra aggressive sounding by design. I haven't been able to put it down since I got it haha.
Thank you! Not in need of another bass at the moment, but yours appears to be a real piece of art, timeless and elegant!
A quick update after 10 days or so . Loving playing the sawnoff P bass . After the first week or so the neck settled and left the action a bit high . I did not really want to file the saddles down so I thought that maybe it was time to remove the bridge and rout a recess into the body for the bridge . I was reluctant to do this for one reason . I loved the idea that the wonderful bridge being mounted on an unaltered body might encourage more people , who would be more reluctant than me to make sawdust , to attempt a conversion .
I have just shimmed the neck with the perfect thickness of one of Andre's business cards that he included in the package with the bridge . Loosen strings but leave attached to headpiece and bridge . Unscrew 4 neck bolts , remove neck , draw round base of neck onto card . Cut card to shape . insert card into bridge end of neck pocket , reattach neck , tune . 20 minutes in total and now has perfect relief of neck and action of 2mm or so .
The action is at the low end of my preference but can now be adjusted to suit .
And still has a standard body . Happy man .
I have just shimmed the neck with the perfect thickness of one of Andre's business cards that he included in the package with the bridge . Loosen strings but leave attached to headpiece and bridge . Unscrew 4 neck bolts , remove neck , draw round base of neck onto card . Cut card to shape . insert card into bridge end of neck pocket , reattach neck , tune . 20 minutes in total and now has perfect relief of neck and action of 2mm or so .
The action is at the low end of my preference but can now be adjusted to suit .
And still has a standard body . Happy man .
Thanks for keeping us updated - this is solid info to have!
Ok, i took the inspiration coming from you, and mounted my NOVA tuners without any routing. Meant as something just very provisoric.
It helps to settle on my other ideas since i allready can play the Bass now.
Action is high. Guess i would have to lift the Neck 3mm if not 4mm, with a shim.
I have now a router coming in anyway. but not shure if i want to use such thing. I´ll see next week.
The Headpiece is btw. cut that way, that the Bass can fit into a wall mount hanger,
AND to create some nice flush "form-something" around the Nova headpiece to make it look round/rounder.
The Bass feels so so completly different without that ugly neckdive it had.
Disclaimer: i play only headless basses. Both my basses are headless. I´m NOT used to common neckdive ! and anyway NOT to "ugly strong" headdive.
Nevertheless, the change in feel on that Bass, 30", 4 string, ...a 90.-$ Bass ( new), is still kind of mindblowing. I mean, you´d never expect a Bass to feel so completly difefrent just cause the neckdive was gonne !
Btw.: per tuner on that cheap Bass: ~80 Gramms / Nova 4 string headpiece: ~30Gramms
Edit: i decided to mount the baseplate of the single tuners the other way around. The bas body is too short. would have been risky otherwise.
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ahh, and question:
need to retune.
in 12th fret, is my D and G string too high.
I need to move the tuner to the tail, right ? making the string longer
need to retune.
in 12th fret, is my D and G string too high.
I need to move the tuner to the tail, right ? making the string longer
ahh, i see.
so i´ll first have to shim the Neck to make it sit higher,
and then check again for the intonation.
thank you
the Bass is now 2.8kg ! it lost probably 350-400Gr, wow. ( some inacouracy possible in my weight measurement)
Very cheap Bass, Very heavy tuners were installed !
Edit: it means that even the 4 headless tuners ( NOVA) are lighter than the orgiginal bridge was. surprise !
My also brand new 30" Ibanez Talman 5 string is now waiting......thats the next one to go
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I must remember to write these folks and suggest they come up with an 8-string bridge + linear string tree package that works as a zero-mod, 8-string conversion for any Fender bass: the bridge would work conventionally (...head-ful) for the low string saddles, but Steinberger-style for the treble string elements (the ball-ends of the high strings would anchor at the headstock end, through the purpose-made string tree).
You read it first here!
You read it first here!
