Doing Things Wrong

Stratocaster Micro Bass 1 (1/3)

Eden paddle-head guitar neck converted to bass. Strings are lower four of 5-string set, unwound to fit 25" scale.

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A few build details:

On the left:

  • Probably a Squier body, buffed and polished
  • Eden paddlehead Strat neck, cut to a slightly enlarged guitar headstock profile
  • laser-printed decals, poly finish
  • Chinese zinc-cast bridge, 18mm string spacing to match the neck - eBay
  • GFS Jazz neck pickup
  • Fender Japan P pickup, mounted narrow to match the neck
  • 4-way blade switch - series/parallel
  • passive electronics - bass & treble cut
  • Chinese fake Fender 125-50 roundwound strings ( pretty bad )

I haven't decided what I want to do about the strings yet, but other than that I am quite happy with it. Really fun to play, nice tone - anywhere from P to J, and crazy roar in series mode. Weighs around seven pounds. To mount the bridge and pickups, I filled the tremolo hole and spring cavity with plywood. The bass pickups required some routing. The pickguard is obviously totally custom, and pretty crowded.

To make these strings, start with a 5-string set, and unwind the B down to the necessary length to fit the tuner. That becomes your E. You may also have to do the same for the E/A, the rest should fit.

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This is the initial layout. The material is 24" x 18" x 0.22" acrylic from Home Depot, about $25. I cut it in thirds lengthwise on the bandsaw, enough for three generously wide neck templates. The bandsaw cut this stuff well, the big blade makes a good heat sink, and as long as you keep moving along in a straight line at the right speed, no melting.

Printed from luthierylabs.com