The Guitar I Didn't Know I Needed...

As a lefty bass player, I am constantly angered by lack of selection when it comes to finding a new bass. So, I built my own finally. Based off my love for short scales, I pushed it as far as I could. I have done enough Teles for my wife and friends over the years that I decided I would do my own proof of concept. Mine is the one on the left. Would love to hear your thoughts. I put it next to one of my wife's T's so you get a true idea of what I did. It actually sounds fantastic and plays like butter. It is a little of a Frankenstein since some of the parts were just what I had around, but I'm happy with it. Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions.

 

Thanks, Jay.

 

25-1/2" scale. I went Tele in every dimension I could. As for tension, I would say it is similar to my 30" Rivoli. Plays very fast. The flatwounds are nearly impossible to press past the fret and down to the fingerboard, so you can tap your notes out very quick.

I picked the bridge from ebay. I didn't want to pop for anything too expensive since I wasn't sure my build would work out. It's an import of some sort, a bit funky, but functionally very serviceable. It only mattered that I used a TOM style so that I could push the tailpiece back enough on the body so that I could use standard short scale strings without having to butcher them. I built this to standard Tele scale. Break angle is perfect. Strings don't hit anywhere on the back of the bridge and is actually quite shallow. The tailpiece is nearly as beefy as the bridge, so not a lot of height drop from one to the other. Saddles are individual for intonation, but standard TOM for height. Only have adjustment on the ends, but this magically worked perfect for my neck radius, so the height drops just right from bass to treble.

 

Shouldn't everyone? Just had a bit of rehearsal with it tonight. Strings are still getting broken in, but overall I'm happy that it appears to be working. Wasn't sure the 25-1/2" scale would work, but so far so good. I'm running the Rotosound RS66 which I use on my other shorts, but might switch to RS77 or maybe a beefy tapewound. The E could use just a touch more tension maybe. Not bad, but man it's touchy!

 

Could be fun. Be sure you check tension numbers. The difference between the RS66 and RS77 on the E string is only like 1 pound. Not sure how big a difference it makes, but doesn't seem like it's enough to make a big difference. Gibson has some nice looking short flats, but I can't find numbers on them to compare. Oh well.