Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I saw a post from someone looking for a 480 guitar on the wanted forum and was just wondering if a practical "conversion" could be done for someone wanting a "short-scale" 4000 series bass? Body shape being bassed on the 4000, why not???

Thoughts? Comments? Derisive laughter?

..or has this been covered previously in the archives?

Derisive laughter.....rotflmao....the neck would have to be changed at the very least and since those are bolt on....


You get the idea.

I THINK THERE IS LESS TENSION ON A BASS NECK THEN ON A SIX STRINGER,AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT MARK ARNQ. USED TO SAY! IT SOUNDS LIKE A MESSY CONVERSION THOUGH...

There's been a couple of 330/360 bass conversions done and some pics were posted here a while back...it seems feasible, use a dano short scale neck or maybe a warmouth paddleheadstock neck, but, I don't think that warmouth makes a short scale neck....still, a lot of work for a mongrel 480 bass.

I just remember someone here a good while back asking if RIC ever made one....oh well....

There WAS a mention somewhere here on the RRF that there were a few short scale basses made in the early 70's?? If I recall correctly.....

and you guys thought I was crazy ...

For you Jeff it would have to be a 5 stringer!

or an 8 ... or a 10 ... or a ...

Want a short scale Ric 4001? Try this. Use the low 4 strings from a 5-string set, tune to BEAD, capo at 5th fret. You now have a short scale 4001.

I have ALWAYS wondered about that, Ilan.

Try it, it's easy. Personally I don't like short scale basses, some of them sound good but my left hand feels cramped.

Actually you can use a medium gauge set and capo at 3rd fret. Or if you are really lazy you can just detune the bass by 1½ steps and decide to never go below 4th fret and never use open strings...

Chris Ballew from "The Presidents Of The United States Of America" used to use a standard guitar, fitted with only two bass strings tuned to C# and G#, and he called it a "basitar". I'm not actually sure which C# or G# they were, but in photos, you can see he removed the other four tuners, and placed the two strings in position 3 and 4 on the neck. I'd say more of a gimmic than a practical instrument!

OR....you could move the bridge back a few inches to improve the low end. Of course this would require a new fret board and re-fret along with filling some holes on the face of the body and coming up with a bigger pickguard to cover the mess. The bolt on neck is NOT an issue as all of my 3000's are bolt on necks. Just do what I did and customize a 3000 into a4000 series style bass. Look in the end of the Archives under"Pictures of Your Rickenbacker Bass" to see pics of my basses.