1960s Silvertone (Harmony-made) 000-Size Rubber-Bridge Bass Guitar Conversion

I've been making a ton of rubber-bridge basses for customers out of tenor guitars so it was only natural that when my friend Tom sold me this old Silvertone (with a cracked bridge) and I had a spare Cool Rails pickup on hand that I should convert this 6-string into one of the same. It's simply a fun, engaging, bouncy, exciting tone for a bassist to have on hand as it gets one pretty close to the upright "bump" sort of sound.

With this particular bass, I think the "wide open" sound is sort-of similar to those reduced-scale electric upright "Baby Basses" but with a little more "tunk" in the attack. With the tone rolled-off it sounds an awful lot like a Hofner Beatle Bass with a hair less sustain. It's fun and, in the video, you can clearly tell that having the guitar-scale fretboard means all sorts of interesting, marimba-like, chorded patterns are right there for use all over the neck.

Repairs included: a neck reset, fret level/dress, wiring and pickup install, rubber bridge install, tailpiece add, nut and tuners mod, etc.

Body wood: solid spruce top (ladder-braced) with solid birch back/sides

Bridge: rubber

Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck wood: poplar

Pickups: 1x Duncan Cool Rails

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 105w-45w

Neck shape: medium-big C

Board radius: 10"

Truss rod: non-adjustable steel rod

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-lower

Scale length: 25 1/8"

Nut width: 1 3/4"

Body width: 15 1/8"

Body depth: 3 3/4"

Weight: 5 lbs 1 oz

Condition notes: it's actually in good health for an old acoustic (no cracks, decently-clean finish with minor scratching here and there throughout), but of course I've modified it! The bridge is replaced with rubber, I've sanded-down and reslotted the nut, the headstock has filled tuner holes, it's been tailpieced, there's a wiring harness mounted -- all that sort-of stuff.

It comes with: no official case but I might have an old chip case available.