Gabbanelli solid body bajo quinto

[Bajoquintoguy]

Hi everyone I'm here to present my bajo quinto, a Mexican instrument which is typically acoustic. I found this brand new on eBay for a decent deal and bit the bullet since these are somewhat hard to find. Tonally they lie between a guitar and bass. Tuned Aa Dd GG CC FF in fourths just like a bass. 25.5 scale.

I swapped in a lr baggs m1a in the neck position just to try it because it worked well in my acoustic bajo quinto with great results. The body sensing is quite strong in this body so I wired the body sensing coil to its own (ungrounded) volume pot. The body had to be routed deeper to accommodate the body sensing coil, and the pickguard was opened up to allow the pickup cover to fit flush to the body.

The bridge pickup is a DiMarzio DP156 "humbucker from hell" it is very clean and a good match for the acoustic neck pickup. It is wired for coil cut (single coil) to the pull switch on the 1meg audio taper volume pot. 1meg pot was chosen for low load due to low output pickups and works great here.

The bridge saddles were changed out to gotoh saddles which allowed me to compensate the octave bass strings independently. The originals did not allow that thus causing intonation issues. I had to relocate the through-body ferrules by plugging and redrilling their holes, as well as the saddle compensation screws which meant drilling all kinds of new holes in the bridge. But patience, careful measurements, and sharp drill bits ensured good results. I can now play in tune anywhere along the fretboard!

With the acoustic pickup (and acoustic gauged strings) it has a convincing acoustic sound but I can make it sound very electric by flipping over to the bridge pickup or run both even. It has great action and is very fun to play. All I've ever wanted in a bajo quinto!