turning a guitar into a bass

[Flamingo21]

What kind of volume did you get from it acoustically? And how does the pickup sound?

The acoustic volume is like most acoustic bass guitars: enough to fill the room when you play by yourself, not enough for band use.

The pickup sounds really bassy. If you're a treble lover you'll hate this thing intensely. But I like it.

I don't readily remember what exact pickup I used, but there's a thread about this thing somewhere in the Luthier's Corner.

 

[Grinderman]

Ask Petey Dammit.

 

[BassFishingInAmerica]

I took a kids guitar and made my version of a Ubass. Sounds really good through an amp. Really low string tension.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

No pics but a long time ago I took a trashed Harmony archtop when they were just old, crummy guitars and filled the tuner holes, veneered the headstock, drilled and installed new bass tuners, installed a “Hofner style” tailpiece and threw on some acoustic bass strings. Not super loud acoustically but it worked ok.

 

[6Bass101]

Or you can buy a pre-made mini bass:
EDMBG Electric Bass Guitar - Blue for sale online | eBay

 

[Pdaddy1978]

Why bother?
Gibson's been doing it for years!

 

[rylie]

kinda like turning a car into a boat?

1968 Amphicar 770 | eBay

guess you could do that but wouldn't be easier to get a real bass?

 

[2groggy]

One more thought is to get a bass VI conversion neck for a tele or strat. The idea is that it fits the same neck pocket without moving the bridge. The scale is about 30" and string sets are available from a number of suppliers.

 

[Leigh Semmens]

kinda like turning a car into a boat?

1968 Amphicar 770 | eBay

guess you could do that but wouldn't be easier to get a real bass?

+1 A cheap bass would probably sound just as good (if not: better), and be a lot easier to setup. You could always re-finish it to personalise it. Sell the guitar to finance it and you probably will just about break even. If you convert the guitar, You'll be pout of pocket in, at least:
a) resale on the instrument would likely be non-existant
b) cost of components to convert

 

[Flamingo21]

But I had a ton of fun converting that old guitar.