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What exactly is the difference between a guitar and a bass?

#21
Mezzo said:
So then if there really isn't a difference, since I really dig the look of the Telecaster guitar, I could take a telecaster body, change some crap around, and wind up with a bass?
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Bassically, yes. But you may not like the results.

Much depends on your skill level at "moving things around" and specifically what you move and how you do it.

It's a really big can of worms you are talking about here.
 
#27
A guitar plays happy sweet melodies and chords with 3rd, 5ths, 7ths, and 9ths. A bass plays nasty growlly notes that shake the ground. We keep our basses chained up in basements to keep women and children safe from them. Our instrument is so profound we play single notes. We dare not play chords for fear of knocking the planets out of alignment.
 
#28
Phalex said:
Scale length and string diameter. Constuction wise they are pretty much the same darn thing.
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Even the scale length certainly isn't necessary- you can get a deeper rumble out of a Rob Allen Mouse or a Kala U-Bass than a lot of full-scale Ibanez basses. Both of those have scales at/around the scale of a guitar. Haven't played an Ashbory bass yet, but I imagine those have a deep tone as well from what I've heard.
 
#31
Mezzo said:
So then if there really isn't a difference, since I really dig the look of the Telecaster guitar, I could take a telecaster body, change some crap around, and wind up with a bass?
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The biggest obstacle would be figuring out how to get the deeper pitched bass sounds. One way would be to use electric bass guitar strings, but they are designed to work with a different "scale length". I don't know the exact definition of scale length but it is at least closely approximated by the distance between nut and the bridge. So that would probably mean you'd need a new neck, and also probably that the guitar tele body might not be long enough. You'd have to replace the bridge. The guitar's pickups' pole pieces would not be at the proper location to pick up bass strings unless you strung them with a very close string spacing, so you'd probably have to replace the pickups too.

SO if that falls under "change some crap" for you, then yes, you just change some crap around and wind up with a bass.

Or you could just buy one of those Fender P basses that basically have a Tele body shape.
 
#33
Mezzo said:
Change the pickups, neck, bridge, and strings was what I had in mind.
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That would probably do it. You'd have to route out the neck pocket for the wider neck and route new pickup holes. You've also have to move the bridge back a few inches to account for the longer scale length. But I think your biggest issue would be that the small tele body would look funny with the big bass neck. It would be out of proportion.
 
#34
Mezzo said:
Change the pickups, neck, bridge, and strings was what I had in mind.
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Yes, that will work, but if you are modding a guitar body, you have a lot of aesthetics to work out if you don't want an ugly bass.

If it were me, I would do it by ordering a custom-T body from Warmoth and building it from there. The biggest problem with the tele style body will be neck balance as the strap hangs nowhere near the 12th fret. So to counter this, you will want to select a very heavy wood and probably a high mass bridge and lightweight tuners.
 
#35
Mezzo said:
So then if there really isn't a difference, since I really dig the look of the Telecaster guitar, I could take a telecaster body, change some crap around, and wind up with a bass?
Click to expand...

I can't tell if you're kidding or not. You're here. I can't imagine you'd be here if you really didn't know the difference. Harley Davidson has a bumper sticker that reads: "If I have to explain, you wouldn't understand". I believe that says it all.
 
#38
I can remember when I played in my first band, junior high school, mid 60s, the guy that ended up playing bass, started out playing a regular guitar, toning it to an all bass sound, playing just on the 5th (A) and 6th (E) strings until his parents could afford to get him a real bass guitar.
 

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