Fitting A Short Scale Neck To A P Bass - Nooo!

[ezbass]

So I've been playing a friend's short scale bass and enjoying it muchly and I'm wondering how hard it would be to fit a short scale neck to one of my P basses. What would be involved? Any advice, pointers, etc, gratefully received.

Edited May 30, 2010 by ezbass

[Ou7shined]

I imagine you would have to reposition the bridge so that the effective intonation range is there. The dynamics of the pup's "sweet spot" would be changed by changing the scale too. It might work in your favour, it might not.

[ezbass]

The hardest part might be finding a neck! A quick trawl through the usual suspects (Allparts, Warmoth) did not reveal any short scale replacement necks, so I guess I'd have to buy a whole short scale Fender bass. If I'm doing that I might as well get one and upgrade the components on that. The best laid plans, etc. Oh well GAS is GAS and it's all good

[~tl]

Sure, it would be possible to adapt a full-size bass, but it's going to involve some major modifications. Since the scale length is not going to be the same, you're going to have to either move the bridge towards the neck or move the neck towards the bridge... or a combination of the two. This is probably going to throw the balance off, and change the tone (as the pickup will be in a different position), and the result will probably look a little odd. The easiest way would be to buy a short-scale bass

[henry norton]

Why don't you buy a capo, put it on the second fret and tune the P down a tone? Job done!

[ezbass]

On reflection it's a stupid idea, I should just get a short scale bass and make my collection bigger

[Kirky]

Didn't Lakland announce recently that they'd be producing short scale necks that could be fitted to their existing models? I wondered about scale etc when I read it.

[BigRedX]

Easily enough done. The short-scale neck will have fewer frets to compensate.

[mrcrow]

you would need to set the bridge in the correct position...in your case it may have to go forward a bit so tightening up the tone from the P
i thought the standard P position at scale/6 was a bit bassy...
could be you will hit a good compromise

string up and play..

your pocket may need adjusting or packing out

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='Kirky' post='851948' date='May 30 2010, 05:30 PM']Didn't Lakland announce recently that they'd be producing short scale necks that could be fitted to their existing models? I wondered about scale etc when I read it.[/quote]
There's a Lakland short-scale (30") Decade but US only (not Skyline at the moment) which I think uses a standard Decade body with an 18 fret neck. I guess the short-scale neck will have been designed to achieve the correct scale length without moving the bridge. If you're just going to pop on any old short scale neck it ain't going to work without repositioning the bridge - unless you just happen to get lucky, which I doubt.

Edited June 1, 2010 by EssentialTension