OffsetGuitars.com

I bet you are, that seems like a really cool place, and there’s nothing quite like playing with other people, especially ones you’ve been playing with for a while.

I play with a friend from time to time in New Orleans, although not very regularly. I’d like to do that soon as well, but now isn’t the time because N.O. is just saturated at the moment.

I’ve been getting some stuff done as well, and playing a good bit, but not as much as I’d really like. There’s just regular shit that needs to be done.

Agreed, it’s a shame. I assume that it varies wildly by country, but here it feels like we’re all on a boat, and way too many of us want to drill thru the bottom of it. Even if it’s just because others don’t want to, they have to prove that nobody’s the boss of them.

Here’s to this all cleaning up sooner than later, wherever we are.

somanytoys wrote: ↑

Tue May 05, 2020 10:43 am

...here it feels like we’re all on a boat...

Like the Diamond Princess

Spellcaster wrote: ↑

Mon May 04, 2020 8:36 pm

Me with my first build....a 25.5" scale Telecaster bass

That looks great! love the bridge cover.

Yeah what that is insane and amazing and I love it and I need it

In the studio sometime last year. My bandmate just had a roll of film developed and surprised me with this shot!



The bass is a bit of an anomaly that my uncle left me. From what I can tell it's a 50s inspired P Bass build put together with various Fender parts from the 90s (and possibly early 2000s).

Rocking my Epiphone Les Paul Special DC

A while back with my tele
FDCA4D48-8349-44F5-BAC8-D4CC98FD7DBE by Gary Ptaszek, on Flickr
9D318E38-8C27-4D9D-AD07-0DA36C4BC7B7 by Gary Ptaszek, on Flickr

My guitars are invariably cuter than I am.

sholkham wrote: ↑

Mon May 25, 2020 1:54 pm

Spellcaster wrote: ↑

Mon May 04, 2020 8:36 pm

Me with my first build....a 25.5" scale Telecaster bass

That looks great! love the bridge cover.

Yeah — killer! Love short scales and tele basses (I have an old 30” Hohner that I love) so that’s right up my alley. Can I ask why you went that short?

Yeah — killer! Love short scales and tele basses so that’s right up my alley. Can I ask why you went that short?

Thanks. I'd decided to build my first instrument and wanted a short-scale bass that would be easy on my arthritic hands. I had a husk of an old Les Paul Junior, and went to the local music store to inquire about using a guitar as a basis for my build, but the store owner ridiculed the idea and made a point of embarrassing me in front of a store full of customers. I decided to do it, just to prove he was wrong and was just being an asshole.

In the end, I bought a cheap Telecaster on eBay and planned to build it from that. It was an education.....I bought a complete set of hardware from a Fender Jazz Bass to use but soon discovered that the Fender machine heads wouldn't even fit on the headstock. Then I realized that the guitar neck width wouldn't accommodate the Jazz Bass bridge, plus the pickup magnet spacing wasn't a good fit either.

I ended up buying all the hardware piece by piece.....I found a Schaller bridge with adjustable string spacing that would narrow sufficiently for the guitar neck, Gotoh mini bass tuners that fit the Tele headstock, violin bass pickups - two from a Jay Turser violin bass and an Artec mini-humbucker with narrower magnet spacing, and a Tusq nut designed for a JazzBass neck. One of the biggest hurdles was finding suitable strings. I searched out a Fernandes Travel Bass that was a 25.5" scale, contacted Fernandes and they agreed to sell me a set of the Pie-Zo ZO-3 strings. Although it's a short scale, it's definitely got the biggest voice of any of my basses.

Great story — except the asshole part. Fuck that guy, your bass is cool as hell. I love working out different/interesting/weird projects like that. Excellent work!

I mean, it's not unheard off, as it has been done in the 1960's, even going shorter than 25.5" with 24".

Yup! I used to have one of these vintage 24" scale basses:



I mean, I still do -- but it's a guitar now.

I just made a short scale bass VI from a standard guitar, I'm honestly surprised it's not more common given how easy it is to achieve sufficient tension if you use big enough strings !

Spellcaster wrote: ↑

Mon May 04, 2020 8:36 pm

Me with my first build....a 25.5" scale Telecaster bass

I found a post you made about this bass on another forum while googling about very short scale basses, this was one of the convincing evidence of my project's feasibility!

This has to count. Me, and my Non-Offest Guitar. (Pedal Steel.)