How much would it cost to put Precision pups on a mustang bass?

[michaelstrand]

I would only want to replace the 'stang pups with p bass pups because i like to rest my thumb on the top of the pup and i find this hard to do on a mustang. Yes, i know i could adopt the floating thumb technique, and i still might. I'm just wondering what it would cost to put in P bass pickups instead.

thanks.

[line6man]

Why not add a thumbrest? Changing the pickup is going to change the entire tone of the bass, unless you are careful to select a pickup that is voiced the same as the original. Or maybe try to fit the original pickup in a split coil cover, if it fits.

The most inexpensive way to do this would be to find a friend with a drill press and make a crude swimming pool route with a forstner bit. Then you can trace your pickguard (or mail off the real thing), and have someone cut you an identical one with a split coil route.

[Flabass]

Thumbrest

[Salamenster]

Thumbrest i.c.w. floating thumb.

[SGD Lutherie]

Thumbrest

[michaelstrand]

Originally Posted by Flabass

Thumbrest

I'm having a hard time finding what it would look like to have the thumb rest above the strings..

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by michaelstrand

I'm having a hard time finding what it would look like to have the thumb rest above the strings..

Really? I Googled for a Mustang bass and found this photo. This is how they were in the 70s. You can move the thumb rest if you want to pluck closer to the pickup.



Another.

[line6man]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

Really? I Googled for a Mustang bass and found this photo. This is how they were in the 70s. You can move the thumb rest if you want to pluck closer to the pickup.



Another.

Or something more like this.

[SGD Lutherie]

Of course back in the 50s the finger rest was here:



That's because electric basses were designed to be played with a pick (by guitarists).

[Signs]

[quote=SGD Lutherie;13494388]Really? I Googled for a Mustang bass and found this photo. This is how they were in the 70s. You can move the thumb rest if you want to pluck closer to the pickup.

I had an all black Fender Mustang bass in around 1975. It had the split humbucker pickups like the picture you posted, and a thumb rest. It was maybe 1 to 2 years old when I got it. A nice bass for a young person with a short scale and only 1-1/2" wide. (Looked like this picture)

[SGD Lutherie]

They are cool little basses, and get a unique tone. I own a '72 Mustang guitar. It used to be my favorite guitar, but the celluloid pickguard warped, but it's disassembled while I restore it.

[michaelstrand]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

They are cool little basses, and get a unique tone. I own a '72 Mustang guitar. It used to be my favorite guitar, but the celluloid pickguard warped, but it's disassembled while I restore it.

yeah I'm really excited to get one. kinda waiting for the right one at the right price I guess

[StrangerDanger]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

Of course back in the 50s the finger rest was here:



That's because electric basses were designed to be played with a pick (by guitarists).

Actually I thought it was there to "tug" with your fingers while playing with your thumb.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by StrangerDanger

Actually I thought it was there to "tug" with your fingers while playing with your thumb.

You can do that, but who ever played with their thumb? (besides Monk Montgomery, and he had to switch to a rubber coated pick later on). Upright players wouldn't be using their thumb to play pizzicato on an electric. They would use the technique they already had. And upright players wouldn't need frets.

When I first started playing, I got an instruction book and it showed to use a felt pick, which I actually tried. Those picks are nasty!

Rather than use the more difficult to play fretless design of an upright bass, the design that Leo Fender and employee George Fullerton created featured a fretted neck, so that notes could be played "with precision" -- giving even guitarists the ability to "double" on bass and still play with accurate intonation, and giving Fender's bass its name - the Precision Bass.

Most of the sessions back then still had upright basses, and a guitarist doubling on tic-tack bass, which was often a Danelectro 6 string bass.

And then look at the two famous guitarist that switched to bass and played with a pick; Carol Kaye and Joe Osborn.

[michaelstrand]

Originally Posted by StrangerDanger

Actually I thought it was there to "tug" with your fingers while playing with your thumb.

that's what I thought as well.

[Arvin]

Thumbrest, stuck down with double-sided tape (the spongy kind). That way, you can experiment with it for a while and decide if you really want one, and if so, where you want it.

[michaelstrand]

Originally Posted by Arvin

Thumbrest, stuck down with double-sided tape (the spongy kind). That way, you can experiment with it for a while and decide if you really want one, and if so, where you want it.

good idea, I'd hate to drill holes for a thumb rest only to find I don't like it or it's too high up or something

[lowfreq33]

Since it's a Fender there's probably a much larger route under the pickguard than is needed, so you could probably try this without any permanent mods to the bass.

[michaelstrand]

Originally Posted by lowfreq33

Since it's a Fender there's probably a much larger route under the pickguard than is needed, so you could probably try this without any permanent mods to the bass.

good to know