Stagg EUB 5-string Conversion Finished

[Mateybass]

Finally got my Stagg 3/4EDB back from my friendly luthier, sporting its fancy new low B string addition





Excuse the workshop dust

Edited August 7, 2009 by Mateybass

[RayFW]

Great stuff! A couple of questions:
How much?
Who did it?
How long did it take?
Thanks in advance.

Mine has a broken nut so it would be the ideal time to get something like this done.

[Mateybass]

Ok, parts were:

Original cost of new Stagg £285
Hipshot HB6Y 1/2" tuners, set of 5, for £85 incl. VAT and shipping.
Spirocore Low B £46

The luthier was John LeVoi, he's a friend and so I am in the extremely fortunate position of acquiring his services in return for looking after his computers.

The work he did was to remove the old tuners, plug the holes and glue mahogany sides to the headstock to increase the thickness to accept the Hipshot tuners, drilled for five tuners, sanded and sprayed with matt black paint to match the original finish. New nut fitted. He actually did more to the bridge than was required to make it look like it was meant to be a 5 string (filling the old string grooves), but basically the old bridge is just re-grooved for 5 strings. The tailpiece had the two middle string holes plugged and re-drilled for three between the existing outer two. As it is only a lump of wood, a new tailpiece could easily be made, but mine retains the original.

The bulk of the work is at the headstock end. It's a little tight for room to fit three tuners on one side, but they fit without any problem. I chose the Hipshots because they had a small footprint and a 1/2" string post so pretty close to the original post size. They were also reversible which was important because I didn't know beforehand which side would be best for three tuners. If anyone else attempts this in the same tuner configuration, because of the orientation of the tuners you'll need to order a set of 5 for a 3-bass side and 2-treble side layout... or just buy Hipshots so you can make your mind up later.

The Spirocore string was bought in advance and is a 3/4 size so I'm not sure why the silk winding is sat on the nut but as the string stretches it's moving further north. It doesn't cause any problems even as it is, the string has a lovely sustain.

One bonus I wasn't expecting is that it's still bowable. As I'm a complete novice at bowing and haven't any need to bow, it wasn't a priority for it to be bowable. However, having tried it, there is no problem bowing, even I can do it without catching adjacent strings so the radius seems fine. Sounds good too

John had the bass for two weeks, but he was only working on it while the glue dried on his new builds. I gather it took him about a day all told, but he also spent time replacing the OEM jack-socket which didn't always make proper contact with the jack-plug, and curing the rattling endpin too, with a tent-pole spring! He said the conversion could be done by anyone competent in woodworking skills and wouldn't necessarily require a luthier.

I'm as chuffed as a very chuffed thing and can't wait to gig it.

I'm going to keep a look out for a used Stagg and have it converted to high-C too

[velvetkevorkian]

Awesome. Are the Hipshots bass guitar tuners or are they "proper" DB tuners? Very cool none the less.

[wotnwhy]

fantastic. some sound clips of it would be super fun swell :brow:

[Mateybass]

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='562176' date='Aug 6 2009, 07:21 PM']Awesome. Are the Hipshots bass guitar tuners or are they "proper" DB tuners? Very cool none the less.[/quote]

They're standard bass guitar tuners, Hipshot Ultralite HB6Y 1/2".

[quote name='wotnwhy' post='562186' date='Aug 6 2009, 07:41 PM']fantastic. some sound clips of it would be super fun swell :brow:[/quote]

I'll get around to it very soon.

Edited August 6, 2009 by Mateybass

[lemmywinks]

[quote name='Mateybass' post='562054' date='Aug 6 2009, 04:09 PM'].............. and curing the rattling endpin too, with a tent-pole spring!

I'm going to keep a look out for a used Stagg and have it converted to high-C too [/quote]


How did he get the endpin out? Mine has just started to rattle a bit so could do with fixing it but can't get the bolldy thing out!
Also someone off here was selling a black Stagg for £240 if you're interested? Pm me if so and i'll have a look through my pms


Ta
Steve

[Mateybass]

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='562545' date='Aug 7 2009, 09:04 AM']How did he get the endpin out? Mine has just started to rattle a bit so could do with fixing it but can't get the bolldy thing out!
Also someone off here was selling a black Stagg for £240 if you're interested? Pm me if so and i'll have a look through my pms


Ta
Steve[/quote]

Remove the strings, unscrew the tailpiece which is secured by 4 long screws, then you will gain access to the screws which secure the endpin into the body. Removing these will allow you to withdraw the endpin assembly.

It seems the hole that the endpin travels up isn't particularly wide. You may be able to drill a bigger hole up the body to allow more clearance for the flexing pin. This wasn't really an option for mine because the hole wasn't drilled square with the body so the pin is at a slight angle as it travels up. Hence the rather clever solution that John came up with.

Edited August 7, 2009 by Mateybass

[EdwardHimself]

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='562176' date='Aug 6 2009, 06:21 PM']Awesome. Are the Hipshots bass guitar tuners or are they "proper" DB tuners? Very cool none the less.[/quote]

It's quite interesting really, the vintage style electric bass tuners are basically standard double bass tuners but in reverse. In fact they're pretty easy to get hold of, i got some myself because they were cheaper than the ones that go the right way round for electric bass.

[dlloyd]

[quote name='Mateybass' post='562054' date='Aug 6 2009, 04:09 PM']The luthier was John LeVoi, he's a friend and so I am in the extremely fortunate position of acquiring his services in return for looking after his computers.[/quote]

I used to have a LeVoi guitar... it was the finest instrument I've ever played, and I bitterly regret selling it.

[TheRinser]

Hello,

my housemate james is selling a stagg for £230, he's got it advertised on here [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=55033"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=55033[/url]. I can vouch for him and it. Give him a shout if you're after one for a high C conversion, he's got bills to pay!

[6feet7]

I know this is an ancient post but I've just converted a Stagg EUB to 5 strings and thought I'd just add it here rather than start a new post.

Luckily it is one of the newer versions, so I didn't need to add anything to the head end. I just plugged the holes on the treble side. Re-drilled three 18mm holes and also routed a little extra space so that I could fit the original two tuners plus one new one. I cut a new nut from a piece of ebony and also plugged the middle two bridge holes and re-drilled 3 holes. It's not perfect but It looks and plays like it was designed to be a 5 string all along.

Edited August 24, 2022 by 6feet7

[Bloopdad1]

Nice one. 

Great job done - plus it's nice to see that the 3 tuners have been fitted to the correct side of the peg box leaving the other 2 on the "bass" side. 

Bowing - buy a pot of "Pops" or "Nymans" put loads on and take it slowly with lots of bow weight. 

Enjoy