When I started this frenzied covid build project using leftover bass and ukulele parts, I figured the odds of it ending up a bass or a wall hanging were 50/50.

I was probably an optometrist, this never had a chance.

The mismatch between the low structural strength of a common pine wine crate and mighty electric bass strings was an obvious problem.

So I braced the neck with wood blocks and hefty wood screws I found in the garage every place I could.

But as you can see by the one inch tall action-wall art it is. Any further attempt at tuning it might have cracked the wine box so I gave up on sound. I’m convinced this could work with gusset bracing and much smaller strings.

Since is not tunable or functional I never bothered hooking up the piezo pickup I took from a $15USD charity shop uke project. I’ll save it for another covid make-work, stay busy project to pass my dull days here in Dystopiaville, USA.

On the plus side the modified ukulele headstock (tailstock?) actually seemed to work pretty well in tuning the beast.

Though I feared for the tiny machine heads with each turn of the miniature knobs, they stood up to the meaty bass strings very well.

So, successful wall art but not playable. Post-mortem analysis shows the idea to be workable but component choices questionable.

Chopping off the Behringer neck’s headstock and neck base allowed me to re-slot the truss rod nut on the otherwise defunct neck. This could work if attached to a solid block instead of a weak, unbraced pine box.

Alternatively, installing a small guitar or ukulele headless neck on a beefed up wine crate would also work, I think. But not as a bass.

So, it looks cool in my unfinished new-old-stock batchelor bass-themed living room .

Plus it cost me next to nothing and I didn’t even need to break quarantine in these terrible days.

If you can’t make music then make art.

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