Prince Inspired Bass Guitar

by D.A.N

2.6K247

Intro: Prince Inspired Bass Guitar

Creating a new body for a bass guitar inspired by the guitars and style of Prince.

STEP 1: The Base of the Bass

This project was for all intents and purposes a body swap of a cheap bass guitar I got off ebay like the one pictured. It contained standard electronic components for an electric PJ bass guitar with the addition of a three way toggle switch. The electrics, neck, bridge and various fitting were all salvaged and the body discarded.

STEP 2: Making the New Body

I don't own a router so I opted for a layer construction of the body. Using two layers of MDF and one of plywood I could get the thickness I need and cut out channels for the wires and other electronics.

STEP 3: Paint and Fitting the Parts

The body was primed sand painted its base colour just using rattle cans. The salvaged electronics, bridge, neck and strings from the old bass were then installed to check the fit.

STEP 4: Finishing Touches

Having removed all the components, the final paint was added to make the bass stand out even more. Finally the components were reinstalled and wired up as per the stock guitar.

The weight of the body gave the bass a nice sustain and the super low action made it a dream to play despite its ragged looks.

7 Comments

zencuke 7 years ago

Why does it have super low action?

D.A.N 7 years ago

The well for the neck was maybe 1 or 2 mm shallower than the original body so even with the truss rod cranked up it stayed low.

zencuke 7 years ago

How did that happen? Was it planned? I'm having a hard time visualizing. Was it the thickness of the plywood. Does that define pocket depth. I know plywood comes in many thicknesses depending on the manufacturer. How do we be sure the action is right? You give so little information I feel like someone who tries to follow your instructable is doomed. This doesn't see like an instructable so much as it is showing off the results of what you did. That is really cool but there is not much "instruction".

D.A.N 7 years ago

I tend to make things out of recycled scrap from around the shed so given what came to hand I got this result. The only way I could tell the action was right was through trial and error. This instructable was made for the purple challenge, it was a project I did a year or two ago and the result is from what few pictures I could find of it as I wasn't documenting the build process at the time. So yes this is more showing off what I built (similar to my most recent instructables). I seem to remember a number of years ago you could just post projects without the need for instructions but I can't seem to find that functionality any more (perhaps I missed it) so I just uploaded it as an instructable.

mlawing 8 years ago

I'd love to see more on the construction and cabling of the electronics. Beautiful work!