Recommendations on upgrading bridge and pups

[GG-Thunderbird]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight on a good bridge and pups to upgrade my squier vm jazz bass. I'm looking for pups that will give me that fender sound and as far as the bridge goes, one of my friends swears by the BadAss II bridge. Is it any good?

Thanks,

G

[Zooberwerx]

Originally Posted by GG-Thunderbird

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight on a good bridge and pups to upgrade my squier vm jazz bass. I'm looking for pups that will give me that fender sound and as far as the bridge goes, one of my friends swears by the BadAss II bridge. Is it any good?

Thanks,

G

Define "that Fender sound". What's wrong with the stock bridge?

Riis

[GG-Thunderbird]

Stock bridge is fine for the most part. Same guy who recommended the new bridge said that it would help with tone but I've been doing a lot of reading and it doesn't really seem to make that much of a difference.

As far as the fender sound goes, I'm looking to get something that cancels the hum from using single coil and also gives me the tone that Geddy Lee has.

[silvapain]

Well, the Geddy Lee signature Fender Jazz bass comes with a BA II bridge. I have a BA II on my MIM P and I'm VERY pleased with it. Great sustain.

[Chasarms]

There are lots of nice replacement PUs out there, and yes, the Leo Quan hardware is very nice.

I dont have any specific recomendations on what to buy, but I do suggest something like the BAII because it requires no modification of the bass. Same for the pickups. Whatever you buy, make sure it is direct replacement and requires no modification of the bass.

Why? Because when you decide to part with the bass, which happens, you really want to remove your "upgrade" parts and sell the bass as stock. You can sell the parts seperately or keep them for something else. No matter you do to your Squier, it is still an entry level bass. You'll never get the extra money you are spending out of the bass if you try to sell it as a "modded" bass.

[GG-Thunderbird]

Thanks for the input! I was really debating whether I should just save up and buy a better jazz bass (either an MIM or by some miracle I get money, an MIA) or upgrade this one. I figure upgrading this for now and then waiting a few years to get a better bass should hold me over for now.

[Scottgun]

BAII's are wonderful. A cheaper bridge that is still good is Gotoh.

I don't know about finding that Fender sound, but my replacement pup of choice is Bartolini. The passives are not too pricey last I checked.

I'm a firm believer in the Fender logo mojo, so I'm always going to encourge upgrading to the Fender, but I can't really see the stuff on the Squire being all that bad. However, if you are going to install the stuff yourself, go for it.

[mulchor]

Messing around with your Squier is a good opportunity to try stuff. It's a good base (heh) to work with free of guilt that you're modifying something unique or rare.

There's a bunch of examples of different pups here on talkbass. Reading the reviews tells me there's not a consistent winner that everyone likes the sound of. It's pretty cheap to try one out -- if it works for you, great; if not, sell/trade for something else.

[GG-Thunderbird]

I really appreciate the input from everyone. I just ordered a BA II off ebay and some fender noiseless j pups. I'm really looking forward to working on my bass when these parts get in.

Does anyone have any advice on when filing the grooves in the BA II saddles?