2005/2022 Partscaster Solidbody Acoustic/Electric Upright-Sounding Bass Guitar

The idea of this bass is simple -- to get a plugged-in, acoustic, upright-like, fat sound out of a portable, solidbody-style electric bass while also keeping it fretted so laziness is assured and passive so no clunky, fussy preamps or fancy technology is required. It succeeds better than I thought it would and this is only a "prototype" example of my actual idea for this sort-of instrument. I have a refined version planned for a scratch build but this is my testbed and it's been making folks grin in-shop ever since I finished it.

The parts involved in this have been kicking-around my workshop for ages. I finally got sick of them in my way and resolved to finish this build plan for them after-hours one day. Aside from the tuners, strings, and the K&K acoustic pickups used, everything else on this was salvage or gifted.

The body is an ash J-style aftermarket thing that had been cut a little "off" and the neck is a 2005 Fender Mexican J-style maple/rosewood thing that was a pull-off from another instrument because it's simply warped like crazy "at rest" and even worse when used with normal (steel) strings. I managed to correct the "at rest" warp out through some tricky back-clamping and excavation of the truss cavity (plus spacers) so I could get it to "play right" with the very low-tension strings that are on it. The bit that looks like a pickguard is actually a scrap piece of spruce soundboard material that I'd had stashed from someone's abandoned guitar project.

While this instrument handles like a solidbody, it's actually more of a "semihollow" build -- if you can even say that. I've routed-out the inside of the body about 1" down and installed my soundboard/pickguard on top of that hole. Three K&K mini-size pickup sensors are glued-up underneath it below the rosewood bridge in a slightly-unusual pattern, are run to the single volume pot, and then to a jack in the side. It's dirt-simple, passive, high-output, feedback-resistant, and sounds great. It's hard to go wrong with K&Ks!

It has upright-style set of Slap Happy Weed Wacker strings in the usual kevlar/nylon variety. These are  super low-tension on an upright and even lower-tension on the shorter 34" scale of this bass. Unlike the weird strings found on ukulele-bass-style instruments, they don't feel wiggly or gummy and are a lot harder to put out of tune with finger wobble when fretting. They also have the sound we're looking for -- thumpy, wide, and mostly fundamental in tone.

Slap Happy also sells a steel-core set of the same thick nylon-encased strings that would probably work beautifully in a "hybrid" version of this type of instrument -- blending the K&K acoustic pickups with traditional magnetic ones.

So -- I'm happy with the instrument, for sure, and it's been addicting to step into the shop and plug it into my Aguilar for 15 or so minutes each day. If you attack it with an upright-like right-hand technique it definitely sounds the part and is more or less indistinguishable (or sounds far better) from a lot of uprights-with-pickups that I've played over the years. If you play it in more of an "electric bass" style, it quickly veers towards a Motown, old blues, or or rootsy sound. I like that it's as adaptable as all that because it means it's the sort of instrument you wouldn't be afraid to use for most applications.

Full specifications and details coming soon...