rescue!

hi all

I've just finished my second cbg.  I wanted a 6 string short scale bass. Plays and sounds great, but I cut the hole for the pickup too big - you can see holes in the photo. Any advice as to best way to fill the gaps and still look ok most welcome! I stained the wood.

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  • HI all!  Thanks for advice, all very useful tips - it all adds to my currently limited knowledge!

    As an update, I had made what we call round here two "school boy errors", and damaged the pick up as I hadn't allowed room between lid and brace I'd screwed neck to. And even more daft, I'd forgotten to secure the other end of the neck brace (if that is the right word) so it was all a bit on the wobbly side.

    However!  It all ended well as I took the opportunity to disassemble my bodged job, and this time fitted a much larger humbucker pickup, which obviously meant there was no more holes in the top, and secured the whole thing with glue and wood screws.  I am happy to report it now looks and plays rather well.  I will attempt to post a photo and perhaps some video of me playing it when I get the chance.  Thank you Sean!

    So what have I learned?  Not to be too hasty with putting my guitars together, and that you folk on here are a mine of solid information.

    Thanks for your support guys :)

  • If you need to cover it, some cigar boxes have sheets of cedar thin enough to cut with an blade, you could make a plate to put under the pickup.  Or just say "I meant to do that".

  • Don't futz with them. Those are acoustic sound ports, man! Call it a feature and have done. Or, just paint a 1/4" black line around the pup, including the hole edges. Or, give it a 'burst paint job, just around the pup (inverse of a standard 'burst effect). Or, leave it alone, but endlessly tell people about how you effed up installing the pickup, so that you can fish for more compliments on a great-looking git :-)
    • What Ron said!!
  • Unrelated to the holes, you said you were going for a six string short scale bass. It looks like you have a regular guitar scale neck. What is the scale of the neck you have? Does the overall guitar's scale match the neck? What gauge strings are you using?

    Just in case you didn't know, a short scale bass is 28" to 30". Baritone Guitar is 26" to 28" and can be convincing as a Bass with heavy gauge strings.

    • Hi Paul,  it is just an ordinary lead guitar neck.  I fancied a six string that was easy to play and this has done the trick - I sing and play bass in my band so I wanted something like this but couldn't really find anything ready made (perhaps a Bass VI, but a decent one isn't cheap).  The scale matches the neck - its about 25", so I guess its more like a baritone with bass notes as you have described.

      I  used ultra light bass strings. - Ernie Ball Nickel Roundwound Slinky 6 String 20-30-42-54-74-90 Bass String, from Amazon.  

      The guitar is so easy to play, but there is no compromise in bass sound - I use an Ashdown 30w and got to say it sounds great (sorry - sounds like bragging!).  I'm surprised more people don't try it but each to their own!

      • Squier has a Vintage BassVI for decent money, but your probably getting convincing bass sounds on it. I saw a video recently of a guitar with a bass pickup running to a bass amp. with medium gauge strings, he gets guitar and bass at the same time. A octave pedal could also help out with deep bass sounds.

        Learn something new each day if you can. LOL

        • I saw  some "baytars" which had bottom strings bass and top lead.  That's what I was going to originally make, but when I put the light 6 bass strings on I liked it as it was.  I'll make a baytar as one of my next projects!

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hh9eQDLTWg

          • Nice video, like the tone he gets with the wood bridge and tailpiece.

            Here's a link to the video I was talking about. Uses a 2 pole pickup from Delta Groove. www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-5L3iRxyIo

  • widen the hole to an oval shape so it looks like an acoustic with the pickup spanning the sound-hole...

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