Hey there TB'ers! 
I've been playing bass since 1972, and for most of those years, I always bought production basses and left them stock for the most part. I've mostly owned Fenders and Rickenbackers over the years, including a few Fender Custom Shops.
For most of those years, it never dawned on me to assemble my own basses. For some reason, my brain was programmed to think that buying production basses was the only viable option (for me, anyway).
A few years ago, I reached a point where I wasn't quite satisfied with production basses, primarily because none of them had the exact components that I wanted. Since resale value is of zero interest or concern to me at this point in my life (a 63 year old retired civil engineer), and because I love to tinker at home putting things together, I made the decision a couple of years ago to start assembling my own basses using the exact components that I wanted. (Btw, I'm not talented enough to cut my own wood for bass bodies and necks, so I bought bass bodies and necks.) What I ended up with is a set of basses that I absolutely love! I am so pleased with the decision that I made to assemble my own basses because I now have exactly what I want.
Now, I realize that assembling basses is not what everyone wants to do. We all like different things, which is the way it should be. But for me (and I'm only talking about *ME* here), the preference that I held for decades of buying production basses changed to a preference for assembling my own basses using the exact components that I wanted. Since I experienced this "shift" in preference (which honestly caught me by surprise), and the end result was a very high level of happiness and satisfaction (for me), I was wondering, do any of my fellow and/or fellowette TB'ers have a preference of buying production basses vs assembling them to achieve satisfaction? (That is the original reason I started this thread....to ask TB'ers that question.)
Of course, in between those two options would be to take a production bass, and perform whatever mods you wish. That is indeed what I did with my Ric 4003S shown in the middle of the pic below. That is the only production bass that I own. All I did there is swap out the stock neck pickup for a Nordenbacker. The other four Fender basses shown in the pic (two J's on the left and two P's on the right) were assembled by me using high end components of my choice (eg, USA Fender necks with 1.5" nut width, Lollar pickups, Hipshot Kickass bridges, Fender Deluxe Schaller Lite tuners, either USACG or Warmoth bodies, top shelf wiring harnesses/pots including a series/parallel switch on one of the J's, and in the case of the bass on the right, custom paint by Guitarpaintguys). Each of the Fender basses ended up costing me around $1400 to $1500 in components. IMO, they are better (for me) than the $3000 Custom Shop Fenders that I owned in the past because these basses have the exact components that I want (plus they were assembled by a really nice guy!
)
Now that I think about it as I'm typing this, I think I will create a poll to gauge what TB'ers prefer!
Please vote, and also please post explaining why you voted the way you did. Bass pics are also encouraged!
EDIT1: see my post #29 for parts sourcing info!
EDIT2: see my post #46 for info on the 5-space rack.
I've been playing bass since 1972, and for most of those years, I always bought production basses and left them stock for the most part. I've mostly owned Fenders and Rickenbackers over the years, including a few Fender Custom Shops.
For most of those years, it never dawned on me to assemble my own basses. For some reason, my brain was programmed to think that buying production basses was the only viable option (for me, anyway).
A few years ago, I reached a point where I wasn't quite satisfied with production basses, primarily because none of them had the exact components that I wanted. Since resale value is of zero interest or concern to me at this point in my life (a 63 year old retired civil engineer), and because I love to tinker at home putting things together, I made the decision a couple of years ago to start assembling my own basses using the exact components that I wanted. (Btw, I'm not talented enough to cut my own wood for bass bodies and necks, so I bought bass bodies and necks.) What I ended up with is a set of basses that I absolutely love! I am so pleased with the decision that I made to assemble my own basses because I now have exactly what I want.
Now, I realize that assembling basses is not what everyone wants to do. We all like different things, which is the way it should be. But for me (and I'm only talking about *ME* here), the preference that I held for decades of buying production basses changed to a preference for assembling my own basses using the exact components that I wanted. Since I experienced this "shift" in preference (which honestly caught me by surprise), and the end result was a very high level of happiness and satisfaction (for me), I was wondering, do any of my fellow and/or fellowette TB'ers have a preference of buying production basses vs assembling them to achieve satisfaction? (That is the original reason I started this thread....to ask TB'ers that question.)
Of course, in between those two options would be to take a production bass, and perform whatever mods you wish. That is indeed what I did with my Ric 4003S shown in the middle of the pic below. That is the only production bass that I own. All I did there is swap out the stock neck pickup for a Nordenbacker. The other four Fender basses shown in the pic (two J's on the left and two P's on the right) were assembled by me using high end components of my choice (eg, USA Fender necks with 1.5" nut width, Lollar pickups, Hipshot Kickass bridges, Fender Deluxe Schaller Lite tuners, either USACG or Warmoth bodies, top shelf wiring harnesses/pots including a series/parallel switch on one of the J's, and in the case of the bass on the right, custom paint by Guitarpaintguys). Each of the Fender basses ended up costing me around $1400 to $1500 in components. IMO, they are better (for me) than the $3000 Custom Shop Fenders that I owned in the past because these basses have the exact components that I want (plus they were assembled by a really nice guy!
)Now that I think about it as I'm typing this, I think I will create a poll to gauge what TB'ers prefer!
Please vote, and also please post explaining why you voted the way you did. Bass pics are also encouraged!
EDIT1: see my post #29 for parts sourcing info!
EDIT2: see my post #46 for info on the 5-space rack.
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