Acoustic Guitar to Acoustic Bass Conversion

http://www.instructables.com/id/Acoustic-Guitar-to-Acoustic-Bass-Conversion/

Acoustic Guitar to Acoustic Bass Conversionby kosins95 on November 23, 2010

Table of Contents

Acoustic Guitar to Acoustic Bass Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro: Acoustic Guitar to Acoustic Bass Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1: What You Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 2: Take the Guitar Apart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 3: Nut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 4: The Tailpeice Part 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 5: The Tailpeice Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Step 6: Put it Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Step 7: Stringing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Step 8: Adjusting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Step 9: Future Improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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Intro: Acoustic Guitar to Acoustic Bass ConversionThis instructable was made to convert an acoustic Guitar to Acoustic Bass.

You may be asking yourself why anybody would ever want to turn an acoustic guitar into an acoustic bass. Well I can’t answer for anybody else but for me it wasbecause I had an old acoustic guitar lying around. So why not turn a guitar into a bass.

Sorry my camera has horrible audio. It sounds really good in person.

Image Notes1. old boring 6 string guitar2. 4 string acoustic bass Yeah!!!!

Step 1: What You NeedThis is a fairly simple conversion and you do not need many tools. What you will need however is:Grinder or dremalDrillScrewdriverWelderThese tools may vary depending on your guitar

You will also need:Scrap MetalHingeGuitar (of course)bass stringstuner

For me I had an old guitar that was given to my dad a many years ago. It looked like a cheap guitar and had been sitting in storage with the strings on so the top waspeeling away from the body. If you are lucky you may find an old guitar lying around or i am sure you can find an inexpensive one on eBay. I have seen them go for verylittle. But if you are going to go through that to buy one, you might as well just buy a bass.


Image Notes1. 1...2...3...4...Yup its a bass

Step 2: Take the Guitar ApartYou will now need to take your guitar apart. First, take the strings off. Then you will have to take the tuners off. Then the guitar strap holder .Depends on what type oftuners you have but hopefully you can take two of them off. For me I unscrewed a screw and it pulled right out. The Tuner peg you use for your low E string will alsoprobably need to be drilled out, mine did.

Image Notes1. Screwdriver!2. Multi-tool!3. No Strings4. Strings off5. ONLY 4 TUNERS

Image Notes1. This tuning peg popped right out2. and so did his twin brother

Step 3: NutThe string spacing on a guitar and bass are completely different. You can buy a new nut if you want but all i did was file a new slot for the two middle strings A and D. Ialso used the same groove for the Low E string and the G string, the low E string may have to be filed a bit bigger but it should not have to move.


Image Notes1. Nut

Image Notes1. Old groove but filed bigger for E2. New Groove for A3. New groove for D4. Old groove for G

Image Notes1. Groove for E2. Saddle

Step 4: The Tailpeice Part 1The hardest part of this build is definitely the tailpeice. I recommend that you start with a template. I used a piece of construction paper to sketch it on.To find the correct place to put the holes place a straight edged yardstick from the E string groove on the nut to the place where the old E string hit the saddle thereshould be a slight mark. Place a piece of paper on the guitar where you want your tail piece to be. Then follow your edge to the paper and mark it. Do the same for the Dstring.Now with your two marks you are going to measure between the marks and divide by three. Then you found the places for the string holes. I then measured 3/8" from theedge and thats where the holes need to be.The Holes to hold the strings were made by drilling a 1/4" hole and the connecting it with an 1/8" hole. the hole on the side is 1/8" also.


Image Notes1. lined up again2. and here

Image Notes1. Nice dark markes

Image Notes1. 2 inches

Image Notes1. Measured

Image Notes1. 2/32. 2/33. 2/3


4. 1/4" holes5. 1/8" holes6. 2"7. 2"8. 3/89. 1/4

Image Notes1. Should have made it longer2. 3/8"3. 1/4

Step 5: The Tailpeice Part 2The tailpeice I made is of 2 pieces of eighth inch stainless steel and a steel hinge. I used a grinder to cut the shapes out for these, you could also use a dremal tool, thenuse a MIG welder to secure them together.I drilled a hole in the hinge and then welded on top of it together.

Image Notes1. shiny2. dog hair3. hinge4. Holes for strings

Image Notes1. I know you cant tell but there are holes here2. weld3. hole to mount to the side of guitar


Image Notes1. welds ground down

Image Notes1. Grind it down

Image Notes1. Punch

Image Notes1. drill2. Step bit

Image Notes1. MIG welder

Image Notes1. All punched ready to be drilled


Step 6: Put it TogetherNow that you have made all of the pieces it is time to put it all together. First,put the tailpeice on. I recommend that you place a piece of cloth or other soft piece inbetween to protect the guitar. Then tighten it up. Four of the six tuners will need to be put on. You can put all of them on if you want, but for mine I put the top two andbottom two tuners on. This will mean that there will be two holes in the middle. I did not do anything with these holes but it you really wanted to you could fill them in withwood filler or whatever else.

Image Notes1. The hole that i screwed into was originally for the strap button but i did not need that so i placed a spacer there. If you wanted to keep the strap button you willhave to get a longer screw.2. Material that needs trimmed down3. Yet another dog hair4. In this picture i have the strings going over the front but later i found it was better to go under.

Step 7: StringingNow simple put the strings on. It's pretty straight forward.The strings need to be tightened up all at the same time to keep the tail piece from pulling too hard on one side.

Image Notes1. All strung though the tailpeice

Image Notes1. I know its on the wrong groove


Image Notes1. 2 on 2, 2 go

Image Notes1. wait your turn

Image Notes1. holes2. loose strings

Image Notes1. Low E string needs to be barely snugged up first, not too tight.

Image Notes1. Next is the G string, again not to tight

Image Notes1. And the A string


Image Notes1. Last but not least, the D string... then do it all over again starting with the Estring, till snug then tune.

Step 8: AdjustingI had to do a lot of adjusting to make this bass work well enough to be called a bass. The first thing i had to do was raise the bridge up about an eighth of an inch. Thiswas done by placing 3 zip ties cut to the right size and placed in the slot for saddle. I also had to file a groove for each on the strings to sit in on the saddle. This kept thestrings from buzzing.

Image Notes1. This was raised and slotted.2. Under not over

Image Notes1. 3 zip ties placed under saddle

Step 9: Future ImprovementsFuture ImprovementsMake the tailpeice go closer to the saddlePut nylon string onPull the fretsclose up the two empty hole on the headstockput something over the six holes on the bridge

If you have any improvements that you can think of add it in the comment, please.That would be great.


Image Notes1. old boring 6 string guitar2. 4 string acoustic bass Yeah!!!!

Image Notes1. 1...2...3...4...Yup its a bass


Image Notes1. That damage was there before my time

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Acoustic Guitar to Acoustic Bass Conversion