A Bass VI for $200?

[MattK]

Here's my new draft. I am considering a closed-cover alnico 5 Strat pickup set from eBay - should be close to the original 1962 VI pickups, right?
I have lengthened the upper horn (like they did to the Jag, to make the VI); fixed the pickguard a bit, and restored the neck heel to where it should be, thus moving the pickups as well.
I am liking this one.

[MattK]

Update - work on the headstock. This neck came from a Rondo SX shortscale J bass, so it had 4 large tuner holes, no good to me. Some might have dowelled those holes but I was concerned the headstock would be weak since I needed to cut it narrower. My method was pretty different - instead I decided to "cut and shut" the strip with the tuner holes in it.
So first, I cut lines either edge of the holes (top edge marked here):

Taped it together, figured out where the tuners would go (measurements from Jag relative to neck lines and nut):

Marked dowel lines half way between the tuner holes:

Drilled them (a world of pain and difficulty separates this image from the last one!):

(note holes from old tuner fixing screws in top piece)
Then put dowels in - about 8mm into the top strip, about 24mm into the main part of the headstock:

Then bashed, squeezed, pounded, swore, etc. trying to get the edges together:


The back is a bit rougher but it will be concealed by the backs of the Kluson type tuners. On the front you can see the small holes I made to locate the tuner holes when the thing is dry. I'm going to give it 24 hours.
On the difficulty scale I rate it an 8, it would probably be quicker to grow the trees to make the neck. Anyone who wants to try this should find an undrilled headstock which can be cut to shape easily!
Note that the round end piece is still to be attached of course. I just wanted to make sure the tuners were going to sit right.

[Orang Goreng]

I have lengthened the upper horn (like they did to the Jag, to make the VI);

Just to nit-pick: the VI was released before the jag, actually. But yeah.

[MattK]

Huh. I had no idea!
I guess I should have said, like they did to the JM, to make the VI.

[ohm-men]

Wow, nice. I hope to build a simelar cheap alternative to the Bass VI one day.
Donors would include a Squier Bronco Bass neck (correct 30" scale) CIJ Jm trem, Roller bridge of some kind and various pu's from the spares box.
I have some Phillipine Maghony for a body and a friend of mine owns a Japanese Ri Bass VI which I can use to copy the body.
I won't be a vintage correct Bass VI, but I'm sure it will work.
I'll also be looking at doweling the existing Bass tuner holes at the headstock, but the Bronco headstock seams pretty sturdy.

[hotrodperlmutter]

did you decide if you're going to do the jazz bass style pg or make it a mustang one (curved at the top)?

still lovin it.

[MattK]

Wow, nice. I hope to build a simelar cheap alternative to the Bass VI one day.
Donors would include a Squier Bronco Bass neck (correct 30" scale) CIJ Jm trem, Roller bridge of some kind and various pu's from the spares box.
I have some Phillipine Maghony for a body and a friend of mine owns a Japanese Ri Bass VI which I can use to copy the body.
I won't be a vintage correct Bass VI, but I'm sure it will work.
I'll also be looking at doweling the existing Bass tuner holes at the headstock, but the Bronco headstock seams pretty sturdy.

Just a heads-up on some of the issues I faced - the 30" scale length is correct, but the Bronco Bass neck, VI neck and my SX neck are all different lengths because they have different numbers of frets, so that will affect the bridge placement and hence your ability to use the JM trem.
I planned to use a Jag/JM trem, but it only fits on the VI body because the neck is 21 frets. My SX neck is 20 frets, which means more of the scale length is on the body, so I only had room to use a Mustang trem - the JM trem would hang off the end of the body because of where the bridge needs to be. The Squier Bronco bass only has a 19 fret neck, meaning that the bridge will need to be an inch further back again - you will have to build a longer body for a Mustang trem, or a mega-long, Bass V style body to fit a JM trem on it.
With the headstock you will also run into the issue that you need to trim the top half-inch off it because the tuners will sit too high and every string would be bent at the nut - see my first headstock comparison above - so if you dowel the holes you will need to cut the top edge through the section you have plugged, so the top edge will be part headstock, part dowel - not the strongest base for installing tuners. Hence my solution.
I don't want to sound negative because I think this is a cool idea, I just want to make sure you don't get part way down the track and get stuck. If I was doing this again, I would beg Kurt at Rondo to sell me a neck from one of his Agile Argus guitars, in fact it might be worth getting the whole guitar and throwing away the body, and using the trem and other bits. He only charged me $30 for the shortscale Jazz neck and it's very good quality, frets are well dressed.
And Rod - I had thought of doing the guard line like in the drawing because the VI changed (a) the upper horn and (b) the upper guard on the JM. I will try a Mustang curve and see how it looks.

[MattK]

So I completed my headstock plan - partly good, partly crap ...

I can see where to go in order to fix the shape, although it will still be a bit small:

[MattK]

Tried a few experiments, but ended up spending some quality time with a sanding block (ouch):

[nwordjim]

Good work on that headstock! Looks fab.

Question: can it hold up to the tension of the strings ya think?

[MattK]

It's the million dollar question - all six tuners will be in the strip up top. The strip has seven dowels into the headstock, either side of each tuner, and it's glued along the join surface. There's no play or movement in the joint at all, of course, but with six holes drilled, it will be weakened.
On the positive side, the tension will be nearly parallel to the strip, not bending across the join. That means it would break by sliding along the joint, which seems really unlikely, or by splitting the joint apart, who knows. If it copped a hit on the back of the tuners, maybe not good, but I'm pretty confident it will hold - and if not, it's a $30 neck.

[nwordjim]

It's the million dollar question - all six tuners will be in the strip up top. The strip has seven dowels into the headstock, either side of each tuner, and it's glued along the join surface. There's no play or movement in the joint at all, of course, but with six holes drilled, it will be weakened.
On the positive side, the tension will be nearly parallel to the strip, not bending across the join. That means it would break by sliding along the joint, which seems really unlikely, or by splitting the joint apart, who knows. If it copped a hit on the back of the tuners, maybe not good, but I'm pretty confident it will hold - and if not, it's a $30 neck.

Totally, and if it does fail you gained the experience reforming a head stock. Your work looks clean... I was just thinking, if you had it in a vice for a few days versus a few hours would that have any impact?

Anyway, I think what you're doing is really cool and I am following this thread very closely. A Bass VI is on my list, so much so I've started a campaign asking BaCH guitars to come out with a model here: http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... =6&t=34072" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You're pioneering here!

[MattK]

Thanks!
Another option may be to commission a factory to do a run of 30" scale, 21 fret necks, and then stick them on J bass bodies - might be relatively easy to do, and cheaper.

[nwordjim]

Thanks!
Another option may be to commission a factory to do a run of 30" scale, 21 fret necks, and then stick them on J bass bodies - might be relatively easy to do, and cheaper.

Yeah, but then I'd have to sort the body out myself. I don't have any tools and I live in an apartment... not to mention I have no wood workign skills whatsoever.

[MattK]

True - although in the first round of planning for this, I looked at a top-loading Schaller 6-string bridge, so I guess it might be possible to take a loaded J bass body, remove the bridge, put on the 6-string bridge and swap the pickups for something 6-pole ...
... anyway, I think I will finish this one first ... !