Les Paul back from the dead

[neonblack]

So, I play bass but have a kickass guitar. My dad passed away a long time ago and left me a Gibson Les Paul that has done nothing but sat and collected dust. I learned bass but all my attempts at guitar ended in frustration.

Long story short: I'm wondering if there is any way to turn this Les Paul into a short scale bass? I know its sacrilege to some people to modify a guitar like this, but my reasoning is that my dad would much rather see this put to good use than to sit collecting dust.

Alternatively, I could clean it up, tune it down, and try to learn how to play doom stuff with it.

[trace]

Well since you can't change the neck on a les paul, you can't change the scale length and 24.75" is reaaaallllyy short for a bass. I think there are some old teisco basses with a super short scale so it may be doable, getting usable strings would be the main hurdle. Assuming you wanted it to be a 4 string, you'd have to cut a new nut and get a new 4 string bridge and tailpiece. You could probably just use 4 of the 6 existing tuners but may have to swap them out for bass tuners depending on the string thickness.

Normally I would say go for it because I love crazy projects like this, but you should probably buy a $50 Les paul copy on craigslist to try it on first, it would be a shame to mod out the guitar and find out its unusable because of the super short scale length.

[neonblack]

I realized after I posted this that I cant change the neck. booo.

Well, time to work on my skills, I suppose. and no more brilliant 3am ideas hah

[Chankgeez]

Yeah, slap a really heavy set of flatwounds on there, tune it way down and you'll have an amazing super short scale six string "bass".

[neonblack]

I like this idea. Maybe a bass vi set?

[Chankgeez]

That may be a little too heavy, but it depends on how low you wanna tune it and what gauges the guitar can handle.

[neonblack]

Hmm. Time to experiment. Was looking at getting a bass vi at some point but I dunno what to do with those 2 extra strings. This will show me if I'm ready for some extra strings. I wonder if I can get the Les paul to stay in baritone tuning.

[Chankgeez]

... I wonder if I can get the Les paul to stay in baritone tuning.

That you could probably do.

[lefchr]

I've got mine tuned to c standard right now with 10 - 52's so I'm sure you could get there withe some thicker strings

[Mudfuzz]

I have three guitars the are gibson scale tuned bari, it's fine.
Also there have been basses with a guitar scale back in the 50's and 60's





Also also the shorter the scale the bigger the strings have to be to be at proper tension for bass pitch [a BEAD set would work for a guitar scale and sound all beefy and stuff], physics and stuff you see… or you could use lose string with the action really high and get a upright like sound
Also Also Also the real problem with doing this on a les paul is the bridge, you only at best have 1/2" of intonation adjustment on those things..
ALSO also also also! you could replace to bridge with a beatle bass bridge [like in picts above] and a new nut and you could has a 4 strang thang
or you could not mutilate a gibson les paul… but I would never say that.. I'm turning a Gibson SG bass into a 6 string

[neonblack]

I wish we could just trade, but the ghost of my dad would totally haunt one of us.

Probably not gonna turn it into a bass. Just gonna clean it up and slap some heavy-ass strings on it, tune it to baritone, and play through my bass amp, Brian Cook style. I can play simple chords and single note runs, and a lot of my baselines are sort of like leads, so I could probably get better quickly. Its been a while since I tried to play one.

The way I got this thing is really crazy. If anyone is interested. I'll post some pics too.

[Chankgeez]

Yeah, neonblack, please, post some pics.

Also, playing chords is overrated. Playing power chords is where it's at and you should already be used to that as a bass player.

[Mudfuzz]

Yeah, neonblack, please, post some pics.

Also, playing chords is overrated. Playing power chords is where it's at and you should already be used to that as a bass player.

That's all I ever do on the puny things

[neonblack]

[neonblack]

Story time!

So, as I said before, this was my dad's guitar. I remember it from my childhood. My dad died under mysterious circumstances 16 years ago (officially a suicide, but nobody believes it) and the guitar vanished. This was in Tucson, AZ. Well, fast forward to a month ago. My great grandmother passes away and while cleaning out her disgusting storage building, we find this guitar, some guns, folders full of artwork, and like 30 fake IDs with my dads picture but different names and birthdays. No idea how the stuff got there. And the guitar, which was wrapped in a rug, is in amazing condition. Strings are rusted, but all the electronics work. No mold or water damage or anything.

So, its probably haunted. Maybe my ghost dad will inspire some spooky riffs.