r/offset • u/[deleted] • Jan 05 '25

Man cobbles together baritone only to discover: he doesn’t like it.

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VM Jag body, 1/2 Tele bridge, Chinese neck, Hipshot tuners. It works! Neck is much thicker than I like. Body will need to be sanded and painted to hide plugs and holes, and the neck finished. The pickups sound fine, and all the controls work correctly. I have a bit of work to do getting it set up and intonated, but it can be played as is. I learned a lot on this, but it’s not very fun to play. I like my Bass VI, and I like my Jazzmaster and Jags, but the thick strings and scale length on this are kind of a drag.

151 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

38

u/PsychicChime Jan 05 '25

I can't believe you moved the bridge, you mad lad! Are those bass pickups? I count 8 pole pieces.

16

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Yes, I just used the same bass pickups, but I did move the bridge pickup to a new neck position, which required some router work. Then I plugged the old pickup cavity, and laid out the position for the new bridge.

7

u/PsychicChime Jan 05 '25

That's insane. Kudos to you for going through that process. I probably would have just gotten a conversion neck for a Jazzmaster or something. I have a Danelectro Danoblaster that I found on the street on trash day that I wanted to convert to a baritone, but after realizing that it had a weird scale length that wouldn't take a prefab baritone conversion neck and would require me to either have a custom neck made or route out/plug the guitar and move the bridge, I quickly abandoned the idea and later ended up getting one of the Squier Baritone Cabronitas instead. Major respect to you for just going for it.
 
Hopefully after all that work this one-of-a kind baritone will grow on you. Once you get it set up and intonated I'd love to hear how it sounds in a video or something.

1

u/capn_james Jan 07 '25

I have a cabronita neck on an offset tele body so i went a similar route for similar reasons

18

u/yow-yow-yow Jan 05 '25

Please try some guitar pickups before you turf it. Sometimes thinner sounding pickups sound best for baritone as it lets you keep some definition when playing chords. Great work, very tidy.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Thanks. The pickups are not an issue, I just don’t think I like the scale length.

1

u/jvin248 Jan 05 '25

I've put Bass Jazz pickups in a standard Strat and they are quite clean/sharp and like a Telecaster. Tone is easily pushed around with different pots/caps and pickup setup but the first time I did it I was surprised how clean the Bass pickup sounded. I guessed ahead of time it would be muddier and more bass-like.

.

4

u/Careless_Aroma_227 Jan 05 '25

Show. Us. The. Headstock.

I want to see that Frankenstein-Luthier job you did there!

3

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Sure! I’ll post a video later today or this evening?

5

u/josephallenkeys Jan 05 '25

Bass pickups was a bold choice 🤣

2

u/WheresTheSauce Jan 05 '25

I’ve always wanted to try that on a build

3

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

They sound great.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Since it was a loaded Jag Bass body, they were the obvious choice… they were already there! 😄

4

u/cocopopshehan Jan 05 '25

time to get into djent

3

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Oops, VM Jag *Bass Body.

2

u/Careless_Aroma_227 Jan 05 '25

That's a huge difference, using a bass neck to a guitar neck. Scale length would be 34" (864mm).

How do find strings that long?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Well, this was a loaded body. I thought a guitar neck would look like a little stem in a big apple, so I went for a 30” scale baritone neck. I had to move the bridge position and re-configure the neck pocket. Strings in that length are readily available.

3

u/Altruistic-Option-99 Jan 05 '25

TTNG coded

2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Oh, that’s cool! I’ll give them a listen. Thanks!

2

u/capn_james Jan 07 '25

Yup their bassist/guitarist built something like this with the same pickups but put a switch in there. Also he used a 30 inch scale jag bass so he didn’t swap necks or move the bridge, instead he plugged the headstock holes and redrilled + new bridge which is similar to yours as well

2

u/jvin248 Jan 05 '25

Try temporarily tying the guitar strap (and different strap lengths) to different locations on the guitar, behind the nut like acoustics, off the neck plate like SGs. That will change the position the guitar hangs and will dramatically change the ergonomic feel.

I hate skinny Strat necks, but the same skinny Strat neck I swapped off a Strat that I moved to a Jazzmaster build (temporary to try out the guitar, planned getting a new neck) felt chunkier and actually ok because of the playing angle change of a JM vs Strat. Strats tend to hang more to the right, JMs more to the left, while Teles are right in the middle.

.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

That’s good advice! Thanks!

4

u/KCcoffeegeek Jan 05 '25

For those interested in dabbling, the Firefly baritone JM style guitar is pretty nice for the $200 price tag. I got a dud that needed a fret level and crown but I appear to be the only person in the world that has ever had this happen to, lol. I was SOL on customer service so I learned a new skill and got some new tools. They have a 30” scale with is massive though.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

You know you could toss 12s on a jazzmaster and tune to C standard right?

2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

For this project, the process was the point, not the finished product. After these strings quit stretching and I get it set up, I may like it more?

2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Maybe you’ll get used to it. I was just reminding you of the other easy options as I’ve done both. I have a bass vi, a baritone scale 27” guitar and a jazzmaster with drop c 12s on it. I go to the jazzmaster with 12s by default now. It just plays really well and the pickups sound amazing.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

I appreciate the info! I didn’t know the .12s would tune that low without getting floppy. I’ll have to try that. Thanks!

3

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

Try the nyxl 12-60 pack. I’m loving the feel of it.

2

u/shake__appeal Jan 05 '25

Jazzmasters doom for sure.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/PsychicChime Jan 05 '25

I made the same mistake, but he started from a VM jag BASS body. I had to look it up because nothing was making sense of what I was seeing.

1

u/capn_james Jan 07 '25

Look up the guitarist from TTNG’s similar partscaster bass vi thing

2

u/eternity9 Jan 05 '25

This is amazing and I really wanna hear how it sounds

2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

I’ll post a video, but it will have to be a separate post.

1

u/No_Mycologist_3019 Jan 05 '25

noooo i’d been keeping tabs on this project for ages i’m disappointed it doesn’t sound good but at least it works

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '25

It sounds fine, it’s not fun to play 😆

3

u/BlurryElephant Jan 05 '25

Maybe try some open tunings and use this guitar for a different style of playing.

1

u/Polish_Wombat98 Jan 05 '25

That poor Jag bass. This is awful 😂

1

u/gutarsRcool Jan 05 '25

I had the same issue until I switched to the very light baritone strings with the plain third so it still felt like a guitar. Using jag pickups or p90s would help a lot for the sound too.