Anyone use a Chinese-made Tagima as a mod platform?

[CTBassGuy]

I have the TW-65 in sunburst with the maple neck. I bought it from Reverb new (though I think the seller had it set up and sitting out on his shop floor before he sold it to me). It felt nice and played great. The quality reminded me a bit of the Squier CV line.

I will mod it down the line (so far only swapped out the strings for my preferred brand). I will change out the tuners and the bridge (have some Fender tuners I will put it). One thing is that the bridge has a non standard screw pattern (four screws, one in each corner - as opposed to the five aligned at the bottom). So I'd have to drill in extra holes to swap it out. I'm also looking at the Hipshot Transtone bridge which has a similar screw pattern, but I have to measure the dimensions of the Tagima first to see if a swap would work.

Thanks trtlepwr_88, if you do decide to mod it, go ahead and use this threat to capture what parts fit.

From what I have read of the Tagimas, I thought that they might be on par with the Squier CVs, and if so, would make a really nice budget platform on which to tinker. I think the biggest hurdle here is what parts will/won't fit. Squires have the benefit of being mostly a Fender and parts are everywhere for them...

 

[mlvswoll]

I mentioned in a prior post that I had to swap to a fender control panel cover for the larger diameter pots in the Obsidian harness and how it left a small gap between the cover and the pick guard. I reached out to Tagima and ordered another cover. The intention was to drill out the new cover and keep the original control panel intact should I decide to revert the bass to factory parts. I got the new cover and to my dismay it was shaped just like the Fender part. In the end I caved and drilled out the factory cover so the fit and finish with the pick guard was proper and met my OCD standards Lol. I did notice that the bridge and chrome cover on the tjb-4 bass appears to differ from the tw-73. The cover resembles more closely the Fender cover and the bridge has a different mounting screw configuration. Just FYI.

 

[Frndmoretti]

Tagima TW-66 with EMMG GZR pickups. I've also spray-painted the pickguard black.

Sounding good.

Vocaroo | Online voice recorder

 

[trtlepwr_88]

View attachment 4578005 View attachment 4578005

Tagima TW-66 with EMMG GZR pickups. I've also spray-painted the pickguard black.

Sounding good.

Vocaroo | Online voice recorder

Very nice. How is the neck dive on it? I've heard some people were having issues. I was debating on getting this or the 65. I was fixated on this because of the 51 P look. I ultimately wound up going with the 65 cause I wanted a PJ.

 

[Frndmoretti]

Very nice. How is the neck dive on it? I've heard some people were having issues. I was debating on getting this or the 65. I was fixated on this because of the 51 P look. I ultimately wound up going with the 65 cause I wanted a PJ.

No problem at all. I use basically the cheapest strap available and it's well balanced. No problems whatsoever no matter the height I wear it.

 

[Frndmoretti]

And it sounds amazing with the GZR. The vocaroo link is it recorded straight to an interface and has an svt-like plugin added to it for a little grit.

 

[jpaulo]

Got a PJ TW-65 with the idea of adding an EMG GZR.
Stock, it’s playing well so now I’m not sure if I will make the change.

The bass is well built, I sanded the glossy neck and shielded the cavities as there was some noise. Frets are jumbo and came perfectly adjusted and polished (better than my MIM Jazz).
Tuners are ok.

Bridge saddles are cheap, but work - one of the saddle’s screw was broken, it was a quick fix.
I play with low action so I had screw my E saddle all the way down, but could get to the height I needed. Not sure if I will change the bridge, though.

I am curious to know about other mods around - but for about USD 250 in Brazil (basses usually cost here 2x the price in the US), this turned out to be much better than I expected - some basic adjustments and shielding and it is good to gig.

 

[trtlepwr_88]

Got a PJ TW-65 with the idea of adding an EMG GZR.
Stock, it’s playing well so now I’m not sure if I will make the change.

The bass is well built, I sanded the glossy neck and shielded the cavities as there was some noise. Frets are jumbo and came perfectly adjusted and polished (better than my MIM Jazz).
Tuners are ok.

Bridge saddles are cheap, but work - one of the saddle’s screw was broken, it was a quick fix.
I play with low action so I had screw my E saddle all the way down, but could get to the height I needed. Not sure if I will change the bridge, though.

I am curious to know about other mods around - but for about USD 250 in Brazil (basses usually cost here 2x the price in the US), this turned out to be much better than I expected - some basic adjustments and shielding and it is good to gig.

I got the 65 in the sunburst finish. I ended up swapping out the bridge for a Hipshot Transtone (took a bit of maneuvering but I was able to get it aligned to the pickups and fretboard). Swapped out strings. Changed tuners for some Fender Highway Ones (required a bit of drilling, since the screws didn't match the original Tagima ones but the screw spacing between those and the Fenders were minuscule). I shielded the inner cavity and installed a Tone Monster 2-band preamp. The preamp and battery definitely added a pound to the weight of the instrument but it still feels light. In all, I probably spent less than $200 on upgrades.