would this work?

  • Thread starter Thread starter random.hero
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random.hero

random.hero

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mmmkay, my friends and i are going for an acoustic style setup for a little bit. Djembe for drums, acoustic guitar, no mic for vocals, but we dont want to spend a gazillion on an acoustic bass...
could i get a cheap acoustic guitar and replace the stings with bass strings? would they even fit? would the knobs be able to hold?
sorry this is kinda retarded
 
I'm not seeing this working at all. The strings are going to be to big for the holes and to big for the tuning pegs.
 
i feared that...
do you think it would be easy to mod that at all? i could see a custom project comin up
 
The bracing in the body and the neck itself are not up to the tension bass strings would exert on it..I see no future in even making an attempt in this experiment. :rolleyes:
 
Don't bother trying. The scale on a guitar is FAR too short for bass strings, and the body is too small to reproduce the notes. There are plenty of cheap acoustic basses on the market, any of which would work better.


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"Cowards can never be moral."
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alright thanks for the help. i wont waste the money.without ur help i woulda fucked some shit up
 
Hey, if you're looking for the jug band solution, then consider an appalachian option. Bass strings are too big for a number of reasons, but you could probably use heavier guitar strings and experiment with the tuning. that is, get something like a .060 or better on the low string, tune down to E like a bass, and it sounds like dookie. But if you tune down to C, it's more in the physical range of the guitar. they call it a baritone, but if you're experimenting you can call it what you want.

Of course, the other compromise is that you can't really get the strings spaced right going from 6 slots to 4.

I had a bass-player friend who had a crap ibanez acoustic that had 3 big strings on it that he carried around in his car for jamming. I know it wasn't tuned an octave lower, but it still kinda held down the bottom end better than just acoustic guitars. I think he tuned it like the 3 highest strings on a bass A D G. He was a great musician. He could make music on anything.
 
I would just track one of the guitars a little bass heavy and forget about it. I do it all the time. Just put more emphasis on the instruments you have. Dont ruin a guitar putting bass strings on it.

Another suggestion if you absolutely had to have a bass instrument would be to use synth/keyboard/piano.
 
random.hero said:
mmmkay, my friends and i are going for an acoustic style setup for a little bit. Djembe for drums, acoustic guitar, no mic for vocals, but we dont want to spend a gazillion on an acoustic bass...
could i get a cheap acoustic guitar and replace the stings with bass strings? would they even fit? would the knobs be able to hold?
sorry this is kinda retarded
Click to expand...

If this were possible, somebody woulda done it a long time ago and you wouldn't even be asking a question like this....

so, when are you going to tell us all who you REALLY are?? Nobody who knows jack squat about music enough to play anything at all worth recording would ever seriously ask the kind of questions you are asking.....

I'm usually very tolerant, but this is beyond the limits of even my teflon coating. For one thing, I cant believe that people who know better are wasting forum resoruces even responding to questions like this (like I am wasting my own time and resources right now typing this). For another thing, I cant believe you dont have anything better to do than make up these silly questions, and start pillow fights with anybody who suspects your veracity.

I commend some of the folks here for wanting to believe that you are sincere, but there comes a point where there are only two possibilities:

1- you are trying to be funny with your phony ignorance.....

OR

2- you are so far out of your league that even the polite folks on this forum should not be bothered with your questions until you have paid enough dues to know a valid question from a purely asinine joke....

You are better off asking your questions on the phone or jiving with local bar musicians between sets....
 
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