# Convert bass gtrs into 6/7/8 str-baritones!



## amkishk (Jun 19, 2009)

Just wanted to share an idea i had about a project i was doing at home for a custom baritone guitar. Like everyone, I was feed up with the lack of variety of baritones and 7/8-strings on the market (not to mention thier high prices) and i decided to make my own, went to warmoth's web site and although they had alot of cool choices and customs i was still frustrated over the price range. Who wants to pay 1000's for that? may be worth it to some people, but then one night i found myself playing around with photoshop trying to put 6 strings on a black beatle bass (sounds funny i know, but u should check it out at the bottom) and was wondering if anyone has ever done a conversion like this before? 

This also goes deeper too, lately i found out that 6-string basses can have the strings taken off, bridge replaced and nut and just drill in two new hole for the additional machine heads and then you've got yourself a 8 string guitar. Oh, and i know what your thinking....what about the pickups? Well, did you know if you look up the specs on the emg bass humbuckers and compare then side to side with thier new 8-string pickups, they look practically identical ? even their length and width are the same and can be changed out easily. i don't know if anyone knows this. but as long as you choose a bass with humbuckers , they can be easily coverted to baritones and other stringed guitars. ( not to mention the 34 inch scale which would sound sick!)


----------



## Setnakt (Jun 20, 2009)

Haha, you may want to stick with 30" basses. But whatever works.

I was thinking about doing this kind of thing as a project to see how I would like the feel/sound of a 30" guitar, because it would feel totally different even if it was made from the same neck/body as a bass. However I don't have any plans to try it, though I might do it if I run into a cheapo bass and some hardware for it along the way.


----------



## Tom Drinkwater (Jun 20, 2009)

We had a thread like this over on Tappistry.org a couple of years ago. A 6 string bass has the same nut width as your average 8 string guitar. The problem has been that most 6 string basses have a long scale and off the shelf guitar strings won't even come close to the tuners. No big deal because you can get octave4plus string in any length you need. The deal with the EMG pickups is that they use the same covers for the DC40 series bass pickups and the 808's. Same dimensions. I actually prefer EMG's bass pickups over the 808 for use on an 8 string. You can get the bass pickups with a split coil mode. I don't know why more people don't use bass pickups on their 8 strings. Warmoths Gecko bass stuff is the right size for an 8 string and there 7 string baritone set up would be sweet. 
I don't see why everyone says that Warmoth is expensive. For what they do I think that their prices are a bargain. Heck, the limited selection that Allparts has for run of the mill Strat and Tele replacements is more expensive and boring.


----------

