Upgrading a Washburn - Is it worth it?

[Cary713]

I just bought a T14 (nice wood grain/but a gloss finish) and I love the way it plays. I'm just wondering if it's worth it to upgrade the pickups (these are passive)?
...and possibly the bridge....?

Will the sound improve enough to justify the money spent?

Will it raise the resale value much?

[JazzMarius]

yes on the both sides. about the value tough....not much!

i am heavely mod my Squier Precision Special 5. i put fender vintage harness, i shield it, and i am waiting for a pair of Sadowsky Hum Canceling pickups and Hipshot tuners.

if it's for u, it sure worth it.

but if u have enough money, just buy a better bass

[stflbn]

Do you not like the current sound?

If not, do you know precisely what you are looking to improve?

Do you love how the bass plays?

Do you intend to keep the bass?

If you know the above things, then it could be worth it 'to you'. That doesn't mean it will make it worth it to others. IMHO you're lucky if you get half the costs back from improvements in a bass. Do it 'for you' and know what you're looking to accomplish before throwing money at a bass.

As you can see in my signature, my current basses are both heavily modded Schecters. One is dual humbuckers and the other is a Jazz/Musicman prototype. I LOVE how they play and feel, so they were worth the upgrade investment. However, if I sold them I would not get anywhere near all of the investment dollars out of them, but I wouldn't expect to. The upgrades were made based on my needs and preferences and most times others have different preferences. Same reason custom basses don't resell for near the dollars they cost new. The custom bass is built based on the initial buyers preference and the initial buyer takes the hit on resale value.


Really it's no different than some kid putting $10,000 in rims, tires and body enhancements on a $2,000 car then expecting to get $12,000 out of the car.
.

[Cary713]

Originally Posted by stflbn

Do you not like the current sound?

If not, do you know precisely what you are looking to improve?

Do you love how the bass plays?

Do you intend to keep the bass?

If you know the above things, then it could be worth it 'to you'. That doesn't mean it will make it worth it to others. IMHO you're lucky if you get half the costs back from improvements in a bass. Do it 'for you' and know what you're looking to accomplish before throwing money at a bass.

As you can see in my signature, my current basses are both heavily modded Schecters. One is dual humbuckers and the other is a Jazz/Musicman prototype. I LOVE how they play and feel, so they were worth the upgrade investment. However, if I sold them I would not get anywhere near all of the investment dollars out of them, but I wouldn't expect to. The upgrades were made based on my needs and preferences and most times others have different preferences. Same reason custom basses don't resell for near the dollars they cost new. The custom bass is built based on the initial buyers preference and the initial buyer takes the hit on resale value.


Really it's no different than some kid putting $10,000 in rims, tires and body enhancements on a $2,000 car then expecting to get $12,000 out of the car.
.

I'm pretty new at this, and this is only my second bass. (first is an Ibanez gsr200)
Actually I'm not sure what I'm looking for as far as sound goes. The J pup seems a little week to me. I did the setup myself, and got the intonation really close, but the action still seems a little high above the 12th fret (It'll slap, but won't pop). The neck is very straight (credit card width of relief).

When I try to raise the pickups, the screw just loosens, but doesn't raise the box....

Maybe I just need to play some other basses, or one with active pups to see what the difference is.

[Gopher Bob]

I am doing a very similar thing. I love... I mean LOVe my Ibanez GSR 205 I got back in 2000 or 2001... or 2002? Anyway I love it so much I've fallen down stairs with it etc so it is pretty beat it. I do try to take care of it though.


Anway recently I found one on ebay for 150 and I love how the bass feels... the neck. The body weight seems perfect. I pick up 1000 dollar basses and I think meh... my gsr could take it.


Anyway, I got a mirror twin. I scored a beautiful Hipshot Gold 5 string A-style bridge of ebay($34 booya!). I bought some replacement tuners wilkinson open gear gold (please tell me if these are garbage). And some other random gold hardware, knobs etc. I've used a heat gun on it to remove some paint and plan on removing all the paint soon. I expect the wood to look like vomit underneath and at the point I'll use some kind of solid green paint or something. If the wood looks nice I'll probably stain or oil or something to give it that woody look. I've even scalloped the frets from the 12th down to the 20th or whatever it has(don't worry about telling me if this was a mistake or not I'd like to find out on my own). )


So to make a long story short. If you like how the bass feels, weighs etc then you can always change how it looks, sounds etc. I'm having more fun doing all this to the bass than playing it. I think for most people though it is better/cheaper to just save up and buy a nice instrument. Electronics seem to be very tough to gauge though... you really need to know what you want because a 100-200 bucks down the drain really sucks. At least buying hardware its easier not to mess up.