That sounds really cool.
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I hope that @Al1885 and @howard doesn’t read this - but @Wombat-metal should 
THESE ARE JUST THOUGHTS FOR NOW - don’t read this if I have driven you crazy before!
Still there? Prepare to be flabbergasted!
So, this night I dreamed about short scale basses and came up with some crazy ideas. Lately, I always seem to solve stuff in my dreams…
Why not ignore everything I learned about existing short scale basses in the last few months and just return to my original idea: getting a cheap but good short scale bass and mod the hell out of it.
As my budget increased somehow, I can even mod two basses of the same model and create two very different basses:
- either a fretted P/J and a fretless P/J
- or a fretted P/J and a fretted 2 humbuckers.
FRETLESS
I know that making a fretted bass fretless needs some effort, but it can be done. It’s not rocket science - just need to be patient and focussed.
TWO HUMBUCKERS
I am not looking forward to routing a bass body to change P/J to two humbuckers. But I am volunteer in a social project where we “fix” stuff for the poor or environmentally minded.
I am the computer guy, but we have some wood workers in that group. And access to all kind of machinery…
So, with some help and the right tools this should be doable!
Does it make sense? Who knows? Will it be fun and exciting? You bet! Is there a risk? Yep - but no risk, no fun!
When I woke up I quickly created an Excel sheet with the options, to reflect my dream.
This is what it looks like:
Again, it’s just a brainstorming with myself (and you) thing. But it feels kind of exciting, especially the Humbucker option…
In terms of colour I would get the purple-ish one for P/J fretted and the green or blue one for fretless or humbucker
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Interesting
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“Interesting” as in “WTF are you doing??!”
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More like it’s 1:00 AM and i’m falling asleep lol
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Dream time!
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Because then you will end up with an expensive cheap bass with no resale value, and the only reason it seems cheap in the first place is you place no value on your time, or consider the cost of components?
Of course I can’t really cast stones here as I am doingg exactly this with a guitar right now, and its not my first rodeo there either.
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Yeah, I really don’t care about the resale value, as I will keep this until I die. It’s my signature model
And then my nieces and nephews will have something to remember me by…
Tell me more!
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I’ll post a full description when it is done, but I bought an $80 Yamaha Pacifica 012 HSS (a really excellent beginner SuperStrat) and am remodeling it as a beast mode H/H with super high quality parts, rolled fretboard, the works.
In other words, I will have the most bitchin’ $500 beginner $80 guitar in the land.
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And of course in reality it would have made more sense to just buy a new Revstar Element. What can I say, GAS struck.
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And it’s not the first time I have done this, amusingly. I didn’t learn last time.
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Things that make sense have no place here
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The new tuning machines cost almost as much as the rest of the guitar. The pickups (admittedly great ones) cost more than double used than the original guitar did.
This was dumb but funny. It’s going to be a little punk machine.
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That’s actually my family motto
“muta sed ridiculam”
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lol @howard that’s the very definition of my project bass.
However I look at is an experiment in teaching myself how to strip a bass and paint with nitro rather than a money pit.
But really it’s a money pit with a bass I hardly play at the end 
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This makes the most sense to me. Obviously you like modding stuff. So, do what brings you the most joy.
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The other view is if you enjoy doing the modding, then you’re getting value out of the time you spend.
I do a lot of things that don’t create any monetary value because I enjoy doing them, like learning to play bass. I never expect to cover what I spent on gear and my assumption is I’ll never have any revenue period, but I enjoy it!
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I’m positive that I’ll end up doing this with my Gretsch short scale some day. The idea started with, I should rip out the electronics and put down some copper tape, because I can pick up local AM radio stations with this thing. That evolved to, While I’m at it I should just replace that non humbucking pickup to teach myself how to do it. Then, While I’m doing that, I should just sand it down and refinish it. Since I’ll be refinishing it, I might as well put better tuners on. I’m now wondering how much work it would be to replace the non humbucking humbucker with 2 P pickups.
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I tried to be very subtle about my passion for modding - how did you notice?
I know that many BassBuzzers might question my approach. It would make no sense, if the base … eh, the bass … is not good.
But again, the Harley Benton MV-4MSB punches very much above its weight, and all owners I chatted with are so convinced of that bass that they did not want to sell it to me. One of them preferred the (modded) MV-4MSB over his 2000€ bass!
That tells me everything.
In the end, most basses come from the same factories, and even if not: with many non-bass products I don’t see any difference - in terms of quality - with “Made in Germany” or USA-made stuff.
It’s like cars: a friend of mine has a very high position at Audi and - a few years ago - told me that Chinese cars will never ever be as good as German cars.
I met him recently, and now the story is different: Audi is very much worried about the very good quality of current generation Chinese cars, as well as their pricing.
So, if Fender etc. is like Audi, then Harley Benton might be the Chinese brand nobody took seriously until recently. Look at the reviews that their products got in the last few years…
So all discussions about brand/non-brand stuff makes no sense to me. It’s kind of like product racism…
Following my logic, enhancing my bass with the best stuff I can get (and can afford) and changing the design to my liking, I can have exactly the bass I want. And a second Frankenstein bass that makes no sense at all too…
Could it be better?
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Or get some real humbuckers. I was shortly looking at the Gretsch too, and this is the first thing I would change!
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