1960s Fujigen-made Premier Extra-Short-Scale Electric Bass

A buddy planted the idea of the need for an extra-short-scale electric bass in my head. When a short-scale Japanese electric was traded-in to me, however, now we finally had the bones to do it with. Ironically, this same body shape/neck style was available from the factory as a bass, but few of them are actually out there and the pickups and bridge are questionable anyway -- so it made sense to mod what was over here as it's fairly clean, has a great sunburst, and the fact that I tend to have several sets of the old Japanese-style bass tuners hanging around at any given time.

While I'd already given this a fret level/dress and proper setup in the past, the new work required to swap it over to bass included (quickly) filling the tuner holes, installing bass tuners, making a new bone nut, installing a bass pickup, and fitting a bass bridge. This all turned-out to be a much longer process than I thought it would be, but the results are worth it -- this has a round, fat, thumpy, warm sound to it. Except for the accentuated mids, the attack and chunky boom of this bass' sound is pretty comparable to the thump of an upright.

Don't issue demerits for the tuner-holes fill job, please. I was leaning into this instrument pretty heavily to have it done and behind me.

While using the original tailpiece may not be the most realistic for bass stringing, the string spread works well-enough that it shouldn't be an issue in the future.