DIY Wiring - help needed (making a combined "monster" guitar-bass)

[Utyoog]

Greetings everyone!
I would like to ask you for help considering wiring the guitar's guts.
I have a junk guitar that can't get any worse than it is now, so I thought: let's experiment with it and make it a combined bass and guitar in a single body, so I could play both bass and rhythm guitar with a single chord! But before I actually start buying all the spare parts I need and start doing anything I'd like to clear up something:

You see, I plan to make simple independent wirings for bass pickups and guitar pickups with separate output jacks to be hooked up to bass and guitar amps respectively, but it would be nice to have an option to temporarily mix them both into one of these jacks (preferrably bass one), this would make practicing at home easier (I have only one bass amp at home) and also it'd be more comfortable to tune it when using a tuner pedal, since I'd use only one for both channels. Any ideas how can this be made? I suspect I could throw in a 3-position selector switch into it, but it's just a guess and I'm not sure how to wire it. Or maybe there's some other and easier way with like an on/off button that would engage and disengage a duplicated signal from one jack to another? That's why I'm asking, I'm not sure how to do it, if this is at all possible.

I'll attach the schematics of the wirings to the message, if you have any ideas on how to switch the signals for them to go to one jack instead of separate two I'd ask you to both describe what you'd recommend to do in the comments and draw it on the diagram too. For this I can attach an original PSD file, so possibly that would make re-drawing it a bit easier.
And sorry that my diagram looks totally crummy! xD

Looking for your answers!

 

[Darg1911]

Re: DIY Wiring - help needed (making a combined "monster" guitar-bass)

Maybe I just don't get it ???

4 string guitar or 6 string bass (rhetorical)? How do you plan on dealing with the immense differences in scale length between the two instruments? What gauge strings you plan on using?

I've seen a couple of double neck bass/guitar but that clearly doesn't seem to be what you are talking about.

Like I stated, maybe I just don't get it but pickup wiring is the least of your problems.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: DIY Wiring - help needed (making a combined "monster" guitar-bass)

You require a Tip-Ring-Sleeve "stereo" output jack socket and, eventually, a special "Y" cable. With a TRS "stereo" jack plug inserted, the socket sends discrete signals to the two Tip-Sleeve jack plugs at the other end of the "Y" cable. These connect to your two separate amplifiers.

With a TS "mono" instrument cable, all signals are combined. They all go to one amplifier.

 

[Utyoog]

Re: DIY Wiring - help needed (making a combined "monster" guitar-bass)

Maybe I just don't get it ???

4 string guitar or 6 string bass (rhetorical)? How do you plan on dealing with the immense differences in scale length between the two instruments? What gauge strings you plan on using?

I've seen a couple of double neck bass/guitar but that clearly doesn't seem to be what you are talking about.

Like I stated, maybe I just don't get it but pickup wiring is the least of your problems.

Well, it's just a piece of junk now anyway, so it's for experimental purposes. I just plan to set two bass strings (knowing the short scale and tuning pegs I think just G and D), the rest are guitar strings.
To illustrate it better, I was inspired by these guys (photo number 6 I think), though I'm going to alter the position of bass pickup a bit.

 

[Utyoog]

Re: DIY Wiring - help needed (making a combined "monster" guitar-bass)

You require a Tip-Ring-Sleeve "stereo" output jack socket and, eventually, a special "Y" cable. With a TRS "stereo" jack plug inserted, the socket sends discrete signals to the two Tip-Sleeve jack plugs at the other end of the "Y" cable. These connect to your two separate amplifiers.

With a TS "mono" instrument cable, all signals are combined. They all go to one amplifier.

Sounds like a plausible option, but I would like to switch between "signal to 2 amps" and "signal to one amp" by having a switch on guitar. What you said would be comfortable to practice at home, but at rehearsals and gigs this means that I'd still need two tuner pedals for each one and I'd have to go to them both amps to roll the master volume down when I want to change cables, and that's not too comfortable for me.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: DIY Wiring - help needed (making a combined "monster" guitar-bass)

Photograph number six of "these guys" and your statement about having two tuners are contradictory.

If you are creating a six stringed instrument that covers the guitar and bass registers, the humbucker will always sense all of the strings. One tuner will suffice.

If you plan to have more than six strings, this ought to have been mentioned in the opening post.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: DIY Wiring - help needed (making a combined "monster" guitar-bass)

I think it's about time to expend your mental efforts toward a different project.

A guitar with a guitar scale length and guitar strings and bass pup and bass amp will sound like a guitar, not a bass.
A guitar with a guitar scale length and even with bass strings and bass pup and bass amp will sound like a deep guitar, not a bass.

A bass amp will not make a guitar sound like a bass!

A bass pup will not make a guitar sound like a bass!

Long scale length and bass strings (all of them) are necessary for your instrument to sound like a bass regardless of the amp.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: DIY Wiring - help needed (making a combined "monster" guitar-bass)

Doc has tackled the physical issues. I shall tackle the "head space" issue.

a combined bass and guitar in a single body, so I could play both bass and rhythm guitar with a single chord!

Bass is not only about low register notes. It is also a musical function. It requires an approach that has some overlap with guitar but which, at times, is completely at variance with what a guitar player would choose to do.

As a player of both instruments, it seems to me that these musical functions stem from different regions of the brain and need to connect with different parts of the listener's body.

Bass is what yo' booty wiggles to.

This is not to say that it is impossible to perform bass and "rhythm guitar" parts simultaneously. Witness - Les Claypool, Billy Sheehan and Trey Gunn. You should note, however, that all of these musicians do their stuff on what would be regarded by most as bass instruments.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: DIY Wiring - help needed (making a combined "monster" guitar-bass)

Chet Atkins Octobass

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: DIY Wiring - help needed (making a combined "monster" guitar-bass)

Ibanez makes a SRC bass as does Fender with the VI bass
Both are 30 inch scale 6 strings
Tuned E to E like a guitar
More like a baritone

But either of these can be played like a bass or a guitar

I suppose you could ABY the signal thru both your bass rig and guitar pedal board

But the scale is gonna be problem with your modification



You will have trouble with intonation on the thicker strings with the 25.5 inch scale