Minibass/Bronco baritone v HB Guitarbass

[Lieutenant030]

I think this goes here? I'd seen a couple of things recently where people have converted short scale Dano basses to 6 string baritones, so I started looking around for short scale basses that would be suitable and came across the Squier mini P-bass. These have something like a 28" scale, so even more suitable for a Baritone conversion. Has anyone on here done that? I've never been able to find anything with searches. I then came across the Bronco bass, which for some reason, I'd never been aware of and people have done bass vi conversions of those. That THEN led me on to look at the Harley Benton Guitarbass. So now I'm all a-fluster and don't know what to do. I think I'd prefer a baritone as opposed to bassvi tuning to play with, but could definitely go with either.
Not sure where I'm going with any of this, just does anyone have any experience with any of these options?

[UlricvonCatalyst]

If you're not absolutely determined to get embroiled in a project, it strikes me that there probably isn't a massive price differential between the Squier Bronco bass and their two current baritone Tele offerings, especially once you factor in a new bridge, tuners and a set of baritone strings.

[javier-san]

Are you opposed to a 30" scale?

I converted my Bass Vi to baritone by using strings from "Stringjoy" and I have been really enjoying it.

[Lieutenant030]

Thanks for the replies;
I know just buying a baritone would be the reasonable and logical thing to do, but......c'mon.....we all know reason and logic don't always have much bearing on our decisions, the tinkering part is really what has set things off.
30" scale isn't a deal-breaker, just wondering about string availability for A or B tuning.

[javier-san]

Thanks for the replies;
I know just buying a baritone would be the reasonable and logical thing to do, but......c'mon.....we all know reason and logic don't always have much bearing on our decisions, the tinkering part is really what has set things off.
30" scale isn't a deal-breaker, just wondering about string availability for A or B tuning.

Using the strings that Stringjoy suggested, I can tune my bass vi A-A or B-B. I currently have mine tuned A#-A# because I am weird.

[del]

Modding a Squier Bronco Bass into a six string instrument is possible and there are some tutorials on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2wP1F2qMhk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8iaXJlEoac

This instrument's 30" scale can be easily used for baritone or bass tunings, just like a Fender Bass VI can be, with the proper gauge strings. Most major string manufacturers (e.g. Stringjoy and Ernie Ball) make six string sets intended for this, and there's lots of other information online about what sorts of sets work best with what tunings on what scale lengths. As an example, just off the top of my head, I can think of production basses, intended for E-G bass tuning, with scale lengths between 24.75" (the Airline Pocket Bass) and 34" (Fender Precision or Jazz) - so every scale length inbetween is possible for bass tunings with the right gauge strings. The same sort of situation is true for standard (E-G) and "baritone" (A-A) tuning.

And, FWIW, even a regular 12- or 13-gauge string set is sufficiently heavy to enable baritone tunings on typical 24"-25.5" scale-length guitars. I'm sure lots of folks here on OSG use relatively thin 11-gauge sets and tune to open-G or drop-D or other weird, low tunings with no problems at all.

I hope this is helpful.

~del

[Lieutenant030]

Sweet, thanks for the string info.
I found a Bronco last night for a good price. Got a bridge knocking about somewhere, couple of pickup options too. I'll size it up when it arrives.....then probably let it sit under my bed for a couple of months while I eff about with other stuff, get enthusiastic about something else, then sell it again!

[CVBassVI]

You know the Bronco comes standard with a Stratocaster 6 pole pickup, right? There won't be a need to change the pickup switching to a 6 string. I even bought a rails pickup when I ordered my Bronco foolishly and discovered the stock pickup was great, so I stuck with it.

[Horsefeather]

A baritone conversion neck on the guitar body of your choice really is the better way to go.

I considered the Bronco conversion myself and then after playing one in a pawn shop, realized it isn't a very good option. Having the bridge that far back on a bass is one thing but on a guitar it simply feels wrong.

[Lieutenant030]

CVBassVI I had heard that the pickup was a six-pole and thought that couldn't be right? Obviously, I'll play it first and see what it suggests to me.
Another option, which'll be waaaay more work, but not out of the bounds of reality or ability, might be to remove the fretboard, move the bridge further up by two inches and fit a new fretboard, scaled to 28". That's obviously a lot more ambitious, but doing the work is half the fun for me, otherwise I'd just go and buy one new and have done with it.

[Horsefeather]

I toyed with the idea of Bronco fretboard replacement and conversion to 28" scale as well.

The issues I saw were that even the 2" move of the bridge put it a little farter south than I wanted and also that the Bronco neck sits fairly deep in the body as compared to a guitar so upper fret access would be compromised. Granted, probably not a lot of upper fret work going on with a baritone.

As I had acquired a bare Bronco body to work with, I continued scheming and thought well, if I'm going to replace a fretboard, start with a regular strat type neck, convert it to 28", AND mount it at the tope of the much larger Bronco heel pocket, thereby shifting the bridge another inch or so. This would also require filling in the neck pocket but that's a easy one compared to making a new fretboard.

And...

Take a look and you'll notice that a Bronco neck doesn't actually have a separate fretboard so that's actually kind of the only way to do it. Aside from simply buying a 28" scale neck.

In the end, I decided that even after all that hassle, the new neck mounted on the Bronco body just looks weird. With how long the body shape is and my own desire to have the bridge pickup placed close to the bridge, things looked weirdly stretched. I decided to switch the project to a Jazzmaster body.

[fever606]

In a similar vein, I stuck a Squier Bass VI neck (30” scale) on a Squier Short Scale Jaguar Bass body (30” scale). Top loader bridge because I didn’t feel like drilling for ferrules, currently B-b because all I had were baritone strings.

I’ll probably put VI strings on it for E-e at some point, but I’ve been having so much fun playing it as-is that I’m not pressed…

[Lieutenant030]

Horsefeather I don't know if it's the format or the angle, but I honestly think that looks pretty good!
I haven't looked at the neck yet ( it's with Evri to be delivered, so it's a bit of a lottery as to if it'll turn up at all!).
Tele-style bridge is a nice option too- I hadn't considered that.

[Horsefeather]

The issue for me is that when you want to get a pickup down close to the bridge (gotta be able to get that really twangy baritone sound, right?) it ends up stretching the pickguard assembly to a point that looks awkward to me. The Mustang/Bronco body is really meant to have the pickguard centered up at the waist, not stretching way down into the big belly.




In the lower image, you have a Mustang body with a Strat neck refretted to 28" scale length on the left and a regular 28" baritone conversion neck on the right. The latter places the nut much farther north, which in turn pulls the bridge farther up into the body and looks much more balanced to my eye.