Telecaster Bass?

[darwinphilosophy]

I was interested in maybe ordering a telecaster body and fixing it to make it a bass. I was wondering if anyone knows any bass pickups that would fit in the telecasters pickup cavities? Also if possible would fit the chrome cover that goes on the neck pickup. Thanks

[low end fuzz]

there is a tele stlye neck pickup ; my buddy has one (ive never seen one before) it is like a single coil i guess;

and is very high pitch tone;

it mght be a bartolini but couldnt say for sure;

what i would do is buuy the body and inlay or make a pickgaurd w/ w/e pu's you wanted and route a swimming pool (ala fender) so everything fits; cause your already gonna have to change the neck pocket

[aidlook]

Why not just route the cavities for the pickups you want?

[low end fuzz]

thats what i was saying; but i could see running into definate position problems; espcially with that first pickup sooo close to the (undersized) neck pocket

[MiKro]

So why not make the body yourself? Then it's for the application you propose?

mk

[darwinphilosophy]

I dont have all the equipment to make my own. The money problem . I will figure something out. It usually works out for me that way, and if it doesn't then I will just have to problem solve.

[j. pierce]

Have you done out the drawings/plans for this? Are you certain you can actually fit a bass scale length you want onto the Tele body?

I did a guitar and bass with the same size/shape body, and it was a tight squeeze to fit the bass scale length onto the body without moving too much of the neck off of the body, or having the bridge plate hanging off the end of the body.

[Mickguard]

Have you done out the drawings/plans for this? Are you certain you can actually fit a bass scale length you want onto the Tele body?

I did a guitar and bass with the same size/shape body, and it was a tight squeeze to fit the bass scale length onto the body without moving too much of the neck off of the body, or having the bridge plate hanging off the end of the body.

It might work with a short scale neck, but you'll likely have to move the bridge in any event. But as long as you use a pickguard, the existing holes won't matter.

Is there a reason why you can't use an ordinary guitar pickup --or, say, a lipstick or blade style pickup (since both exist as tele-styled pickups)-- with bass strings?

I'm tempted to try something similar with a baritone neck.

Edit: I measured the neck of my old Univox Hi-flyer bass--it's a short-scale, believe it's 30" (not sure...it's like 770 mm from nut to saddle). It will definitely fit on a telecaster body --there's plenty of room for the bridge. And it looks like if you use a Precision pickguard, the pickup hole on that will pretty much fall exactly where the existing tele bridge pickup is (I have both the telecaster and the pickup here). And I think the control plate on the pickguard even covers most of the tele control plate--you could fill the screw holes and route a swimming pool cavity for precision-style pups (perhaps with a Jazz pickguard + control plate, you'd be able to cover everything?). Or, you could just go with lipstick style bridge pickup like GFS sells, modify a tele plate (cut off the saddle end)...etc. etc.

So it's definitely doable, with a short-scale neck, any rate. I'd worry about balance though--it'd probably be awfully neck heavy. But it could be a fun mod.

[darwinphilosophy]

Hmm good points. So you can use any pickup as a bass pickup, or are there certain models that you know of that would work, maybe some examples? I would want it to look as close as possible to a telecaster...and I would be painting it so I can fill any holes that may be unsightly before I paint it... I am really exited about this one and want to look more inot the pickups. Thanks

[Mickguard]

Hmm good points. So you can use any pickup as a bass pickup, or are there certain models that you know of that would work, maybe some examples? I would want it to look as close as possible to a telecaster...and I would be painting it so I can fill any holes that may be unsightly before I paint it... I am really exited about this one and want to look more inot the pickups. Thanks

Hold on, I was just asking a question because I don't know if it'll work --seems to me that Danelectro used the same pickups for their guitars and basses, but I don't know for sure if that's true. Maybe someone else knows why a guitar pickup won't work for a bass.

Here's the tele style lipstick I was talking about. Of course it doesn't look exactly like a tele pickup. There are also blade type pickups. The idea being that without the poles, you don't have to worry about matching them to the bass strings.

You could also go with a bass humbucker--they should fit a tele humbucker plate.

[j. pierce]

Any guitar pickup should "work" with a bass - just wire a jack up to a guitar p'up and hold it over a bass while you thump on the strings - it picks up the strings and you get sound. Whether or not that sound is "good", and weather it does a decent job picking up the full string spread and reproducing each string at a similar volume is another matter.

You could also go with a bass humbucker--they should fit a tele humbucker plate.

The only bass humbucker I know that fits a regular guitar humbucker size cavity is the Rio Grande "Pitbull", and I had a heck of time actually getting one - no one that carried the Rio Grande line could actually sell me one. I eventually gave up and reworked my design for something else. (Which is a shame, because I love the look of a smooth chrome 'bucker w/o pole pieces)

Unless you're talking of modding a tele plate to fit another p'up which is certainly an option.

As far as unbalanced, that's another thing to remember - I'd recommend the Hipshot Ultra Lite tuners, or something similar, for this build.

[PTU 7's.]

You can build the body and use a fanned jazz bass pickup on the bridge. That would be a nice idea.

[Mickguard]

Whether or not that sound is "good"

Ah yeah, that's the word I was looking for