Telecaster guitar to Bass

[BenPlaysBass616]

Talk me into/ out of this idea.

I did some horse trading recently and acquired a Squier telecaster with a Mighty Mite neck, and a Laguna strat looking guitar. I'm leaving the Laguna on the back burner for now.

My focus is this tele. I have a 30 inch short scale bass neck looking for a project. The Squier Tele body has had some less than stellar work done to it, like a new bridge, and the bridge pickup cavity has been poorly routed post factory.

I'm considering putting the bass neck onto the Tele body and doing an entirely new pick up configuration. Either P or J neck, and humbucker at the bridge.

Pickups are easy enough to do. The problem I'm going to hit is with the neck. It's obviously too wide to fit into the pocket. Do I widen the pocket on the body, or reshape the neck heel to fit the smaller pocket?

I'm leaning towards reshaping the neck heel to fit the guitar body.

Also, if there's any interest in the Mighty Mite tele neck, I'll post it in the classifieds.

 

[HaphAsSard]

Talk me into/ out of this idea.

I did some horse trading recently and acquired a Squier telecaster with a Mighty Mite neck, and a Laguna strat looking guitar. I'm leaving the Laguna on the back burner for now.

My focus is this tele. I have a 30 inch short scale bass neck looking for a project. The Squier Tele body has had some less than stellar work done to it, like a new bridge, and the bridge pickup cavity has been poorly routed post factory.

I'm considering putting the bass neck onto the Tele body and doing an entirely new pick up configuration. Either P or J neck, and humbucker at the bridge.

Pickups are easy enough to do. The problem I'm going to hit is with the neck. It's obviously too wide to fit into the pocket. Do I widen the pocket on the body, or reshape the neck heel to fit the smaller pocket?

I'm leaning towards reshaping the neck heel to fit the guitar body.

Also, if there's any interest in the Mighty Mite tele neck, I'll post it in the classifieds.

I've seen one or two similar conversions. where the neck heel was widened as necessary, the septum between it and the neck pickup rout knocked down, and the neck stuck all the way down the entirety of the aforementioned rout. This would sacrifice last-fret access, in exchange of preventing, or reducing, neck dive.

 

[BenPlaysBass616]

That actually makes a lot of sense. I was debating whether to do that or not based on the minute chance I ever wanted to revert it back to a Tele guitar. But the odds on that are highly unlikely, as I'm more of a strat fan.

Thank you for your input, I'll be moving forward with this project. It'll change some of my pickup placement, but it'll mainly be a Stingray pickup anyway, so actually makes things easier for the moment.

Moving the bridge back to get the scale distance will leave the string through holes exposed. But now I'm thinking of sticking LED lights in those, and making the entire thing active. Oh the possibilities.

I've seen one or two similar conversions. where the neck heel was widened as necessary, the sept between it and the neck pickup rout knocked down, and the neck stuck all the way down the entirety of the aforementioned rout. This would sacrifice last-fret access, in exchange of preventing, or reducing, neck dive.

 

[HaphAsSard]

But now I'm thinking of sticking LED lights in those, and making the entire thing active.

That's a very cool idea!

 

[Bodeeni]

I did one with a Retrovibe neck that was drop into the tele guitar pocket. For your neck I think making the pocket bigger will be easier and look better.

 

[2saddleslab]

I did one with a Retrovibe neck that was drop into the tele guitar pocket. For your neck I think making the pocket bigger will be easier and look better.
View attachment 7084527

 

[bassdude51]

Retrovibe T30 Telecaster Bass 30.6″ short scale Three tone burst – Gorgeous! – Retrovibe

(Very pricey!)...............

Form Factor Audio Classic Double-T Short Scale Electric Bass Guitar 30″ Tobacco Burst – Amp Shop Bass Exchange

Vintage NOS 70's Volume/Tone pots Military grade Oil/Paper Vintage tone capacitor, for smooth, "velvety" roll off High-quality premium Form Factor Tele Bass Pickups, Double magnet poles plain enamel coil for a higher resolution and clearer sound Hipshot Premium Bass Tuning machine heads...

www.ampshopbassexchange.com

 

[ghiggin1079]

I started a post like this in early spring, haven't gotten to it yet, but what I've noticed in my mockups is the the single coil p fits easily with very little coercion. My plan was to put a humbucker to single coil adapter cover to hide the evidence and then that'll let me slide the bridge wherever it needs to be put

 

[Andy Marshman]

I did this once. I recommend widening the guitar body to fit the bass neck. I also had to remove material in the bass of that opening because the bass neck fingerboard was way to high up.

 

[HaphAsSard]

I did one with a Retrovibe neck that was drop into the tele guitar pocket. For your neck I think making the pocket bigger will be easier and look better.
View attachment 7084527

For a similar result
(a drop-in neck heel)
but with crucial differences
(24 frets -> bridge spot remains the same; 6-strings, so unless one is fine with a bass VI conversion there's work to be done at the headstock, nut has to be replaced, bridge adapted or also replaced, neck dive will have to be addressed with a bottom strap button relocation),
a DC Kunkle conversion neck is another option:

DC KUNKLE Std. T Style 30.25" Bass VI Conversion neck at a BIN $195.00 | eBay

I start with a 25.5" scale and move out from there. The specs are as fallows. Now put your 1/8" drill bit in the drill, take one of your mounting screws and put it up against the drill bit. With the drill bit that just fits the holes in the body in your drill, (RUN IT BACKWARDS IN EACH HOLE)...

www.ebay.com

DC KUNKLE Std. T Style 30.25" Bass VI Conversion neck w/fret work done BIN $220 | eBay

Peg holes are step drilled to accept Gotoh /Shaller style die-cast mini machine head tuners. Now put your 1/8" drill bit in the drill, take one of your mounting screws and put it up against the drill bit.

www.ebay.com

[One, that is, more of interest to a prospective Tele tinkerer who doesn't already have a neck lying around, which the OP does.]

 

[mikewalker]

Here is a 30 inch scale Starcaster neck installed to a generic Strat body (paulownia).

still lotsa room behind the bridge

 

[Azari]

I’d modify the body to fit the neck, so you can easily swap the neck later if you want.

 

[BenPlaysBass616]

My Telebass project, that is, not Mortal Kombat.

So here's the Tele body, mostly stripped, before i really got started.

Wall between the neck pocket and the pickup cavity routed away.

neck placed and fit. But it's cold and rainy outside, so moved the job to the basement.

Not much new to see, but the neck is bolted on, and i assure you, its not crooked (this time)

And a mock up of how it might eventually look. I'm debating on whether to drop a Jazz style single coil in the neck, or just stick with the Ray.

 

[HaphAsSard]

I'm debating on whether to drop a Jazz style single coil in the neck, or just stick with the Ray.

Or maybe a Dano-style lipstick? 'Twould be an indirect, subtle nod to the body's guitar past (its original humbucker rout notwithstanding).

 

[BenPlaysBass616]

I still have the original lipstick pick up, which would fit without modifying anything, just new screw holes to mount it. Not sure how it would sound, though.

I've also got a 51 precision pick up for another project I could potentially use