Six string to four ~ bass conversion?

Andyjr1515

ICBM said:

It will work if you use the bottom four strings from a 5-string set - it’s the same as if you capo’d a 5-string bass at the 5th fret.

I did exactly this with a cheap 70s 24”-scale bass when I’d broken my arm and couldn’t play a normal bass for a couple of months. I did a few band practices with it - it was fine, it sounded good enough and the intonation was acceptable, if not quite perfect. Not sure I would have gigged it, but my arm was OK enough to swap to a Mustang Bass by the time it mattered.

What you want to do will be a huge amount of work to both the headstock and bridge end though. Strangely, guitar pickups will work without any issues - Rickenbacker ‘toaster’ and Fender Musicmaster/Bronco Bass pickups have six polepieces, identical to the guitar ones .

^^^This^^^

Also, ref the strings, Newtone at Matlock will do you custom lengths at very reasonable price in any core or windings you prefer!

flyingv

prowla said:

On a slightly more serious note, I have a Vox CLubman 202 project; I bought it for a few quid at a car boot and had some "creative" overpainting done, which I've stripped off (back to bare wood) pending re-painting.