Assembling your own basses vs buying production basses vs modding

[Cuzzie]

Why do you want to modify? I read of too many people here who talk about modding a bass before I is even in their hands.

Unless you are doing a build from scratch, buy something as close to what you want as possible. Then play it. Determine what (if anything) you think need a improvng. That will put you in a better position to ask a better (and more specific) question.

for example the Nate Mendel Fender Precision is a really good well made bass, but I know for example the Creamery 58 P pick up is way better than the stock one.

Just an example....

 

[Tom Gallo]

For the most part, I prefer to buy parts and build my own. But I'm a mainly a Fender player, so it's pretty easy. The exceptions are the Rickenbackers.

 

[gip111]

Any advice you'd give to someone planning on modding their bass? Ive been thinking about doing some heavy modding to one of my basses, but its kinda scary

What are you modding?

 

[13bass]

Yes, if resale value is an important aspect to the owner, then other options may be more prudent. As stated in my OP, resale value happens to be of zero importance to me at this point in my life.

I would say Warmoth, and build your own, as I feel the same way. Built 2 Warmoth teles and love them. Get compliments on them all the time, and even had a few offers. Should resale ever come, you just disassemble and sell the parts, but like you said, resale is not an issue, nor is it for me. And assembly is easier than I thought it would be, especially if you already have soldering skills, which I didn't, but learned and practiced, and it came out great. Also check out 920D if you want a pre-wired harness/controls/pots etc. unless you want to do those all separately as well. Their quality in parts and soldering/assembly is top notch as well.
I'll be slowly accumulating parts for a Warmoth 30" short scale P bass, with a roasted maple neck (won't ever use anything but those from now on) that I will assemble this year, and very happy with the quality of Warmoth parts. You can get cheaper, but as they say, you get what you pay for. In fact, just ordered 2+2 tuners for the build, the first parts

 

[fhm555]

When my long time friend who was also my ace bass tech passed, i tried a couple other techs in the area. They both did OK but neither one really hit the sweet spot, and they charged me what i thought was way too much for what used to take my friend a little more than five minutes to do. I decided to learn to do my own setups and since it was a Fender J bass i started with their setup instructions. Following those instructions to the letter gave me a better feel than either of the recent paid jobs but still not what i was used to, so i delved deeper and found out i had all kinds of leeway on action/string height so i started experimenting and it didn’t take long to find my happy place. After tackling that I decided to upgrade the pickups in my little MIM J. That went well so i next replaced the bridge then the pickguard, and before you know it i’m building control plate variations to try and buying aftermarket pickups to see what all the fuss was about. One day i’m unpacking my first raw wood aftermarket J body when i realize my terminal tinkeritus has once again taken control and i’m doomed to no longer thinking in terms of going to the store and just buying a bass.
As with every episode of my fatal malady i plunged into the rabbit hole with abandon and was soon talking to a guy cutting bodies on a CNC machine about custom work. After several conversations like that i realized the only way i would ever get exactly what i wanted would be to do it myself so i set about looking for a machine to cut my own bodies and was already thinking about getting set up for necks when wifey held an intervention and talked me into sticking to modding and assembling rather than trying to start up a one man bass making operation. After several disappointments with serious fitment issues in bodies sold as only needing final sanding i decided to stick to buying fender bodies and necks, then having fun from there. After a couple years of that i finally exhausted my desire to become an instrument builder and sold my dozen or so project basses until i was down to my five favorites. It’s taking much longer to whittle that down to just one but i’m working in it. The primary problem is i keep running across killer deals on MIM J basses and bringing them home to tinker with. At present this is my favorite project bass and the body is for a project i’ve been on and off of for a few years now but will one day get around to finishing.

 

[ClassicJazz]

Last year I built / put together my first bass. Was very rewarding and fun. Had Warmoth make the body and neck to my specs and do the finishing. I did everything else from drilling all the required holes, install the shielding, tuners, electronics and bridge. It came out better then I expected and ended up with what I think is the best sounding P-Bass I have ever played. I modeled it off of a ‘72 Tele bass.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

If you changed all those parts isn't it essentially a parts bass?

I did not buy each part, except the pots & jack (indirectly). The rest were pilfered from other production basses:

GSR100EXMOL - best bang for buck I know

It's an amalgamation of 3 basses:

GSR100EXMOL #1 (original body with new pots & jack)
SRX2EX2 (machine-heads & bridge)
GSR100EXMOL #2 (neck)

I ended up using the B100 bridge (that I bought as a separate part) on an Ibanez Mikro-bass.

FWIW, here's an exploded machine-head from a GSR100:

I did get it working again, but didn't want to trust it. I've had a lot of issues with Ibanez machine-heads:

Ibanez machine-heads, am I unlucky or doing something wrong?

How's that thing sound stock Death?

It sounds really good, high-output & brighter than expected, but with plenty of lows by just rolling back the treble-cut knob.
On my amp it's twice as loud as the Nordstrand Big-Singles in my Premium Soundgear Ibanez.
I would say its output (volume-wise) rivals a G&L MFD.

I tried a 5-string version at Sam Ash & thought it sounded very good & it was super-lightweight. I even owned a 5-string version later that was under 6 lbs., lowest-mass 5-string, solid-body bass I've ever encountered.
I did not get on with 5 strings however, & sold it after only a couple of days & went looking to build the one I have now.

 

[pbassnut]

I like to put together Fender P and J basses from component parts only I buy the parts used 99 44/100% of the time ... particularly the bodies and necks which will typically be Warmoth, USACG, AllParts or Fender (USA, MIJ, or MIM). I've bought new bridges, tuners and pickups on occasion but try to do my projects "on the cheap" as that's part of the challenge with my hobby as I see it. Given my component parts acquisition model, I am not able to engineer any individual bass I put together to any exact specification. The end products depend on what high quality inexpensive parts happen to come down the pike for me. While I do have several stock from the factory (just as Lord God Leo intended) basses that are great instruments for me, I love my FrankenFender basses, too.

 

[13bass]

Last year I built / put together my first bass. Was very rewarding and fun. Had Warmoth make the body and neck to my specs and do the finishing. I did everything else from drilling all the required holes, install the shielding, tuners, electronics and bridge. It came out better then I expected and ended up with what I think is the best sounding P-Bass I have ever played. I modeled it off of a ‘72 Tele bass.

View attachment 3648156

Just curious, what PU did you go with? Great looking bass by the way! I'll be building a P bass, though 30" scale soon.

 

[ELG60]

Most of my basses are stock Fender pieces, but I have a few custom Devons and a Sadowsky as well as a couple of others. I had my tech finish and assemble a Jazz bass from specifically chosen components with exact tonal goals in mind, and luckily, those were achieved. It really captures the pre-CBS snarl and growl I wanted, in a slightly more refined package.

As a guy who, back in the day, refinished a 64 Jazz, I can categorically say that I now prefer to play them stock, or mebbe with some easily reversible mods.

The parts bass as referenced above, and the build thread: NBD redux

 

[gt96g]

I've been considering this a lot lately and I usually get the best results from modding existing instruments. This approach gives me the opportunity to try before I buy, see if I like the voice of the instrument, weight, ergos etc. And if all that is good from the start, my mods, which usually consist of an electronics overhaul usually deliver a great bass when its all said and done. I've done parts builds and have yet to get the same results from a tone perspective. I've also had a few custom builds and my biggest hesitation there is really no way to be absolutely certain what the end product will sound like. We can have an idea but it usually always wait and see. So for me I like to Mod.

 

[chris_b]

I modded a bass once. After that I realised I'm a player and not interested in the jigsaw that makes up a bass. I prefer to buy the instruments that already do what I want.

 

[ClassicJazz]

Just curious, what PU did you go with? Great looking bass by the way! I'll be building a P bass, though 30" scale soon.

Nordstrand NP4a. Awesome pickups!

 

[mambo4]

In my time I have done all 4, including cutting my own body (used a Fender neck).

These days, I pay money to those with more time and skill. No way I'm competing with a good Luthier

 

[andruca]

Until I started playing 5 strings, a passive Precision was all I ever needed or wanted. Mine served me well for around 30 years. Playing 5 started me on a quest to find “the one”. It turned out that an American Deluxe was not the answer. I didn’t like the string spacing so now I play a bits bass with an Allparts neck and a custom made body based on a P but with a deeper cutaway. It suits me very well and the Nordstrand Big Splits have a P type sound so I’m happy.
I have another 5 string neck based on a Stingray design and a MM style pickup so my next project is to build a P/Stingray style hybrid with the pickup in the Precision location. I’ve always thought the standard MM pickup location is too close to the bridge and sounds too hard.

That's why I modded both my SR5s to be able to solo the neck side coil (only bridge side coil could be soloed on 3 coil pickup equipped SR5s and Sterlings). P meets Ray, 4th sample in this vid.

 

[Minimalist]

Minimalist: you bring up a very interesting question that I had not thought about until reading your post. And that question is, where is the boundary between a modded production bass and an assembled bass? I'm not sure I know the answer to that question. Perhaps some TB'ers will chime in with their opinions on that. My opinion, for what it's worth, is if the body and neck came from the factory attached, then as long as those two components remain together, then other mods are just mods, and it falls into the "modded production bass" category. And if the owner bought the body and neck separately and attached them, it's an "assembled" bass. But again, that's just my own opinion and doesn't necessarily represent fact. What is *your* opinion on where the boundary is?

Sometimes we are thinking about those things too much. Fender buys parts for their production instruments and assembles these parts. If I change the pickups do I have now a modded production bass or did I change something on my assembled bass?

 

[Huw Phillips]

I have built 1 bass from scratch and done 2 parts basses, I think the process of building is an education in itself, it made me better understand the way things are put together and why, I saw a bass I liked from the custom shop and built a similar one I could never afford, so the process of building has been good to me, most of my parts come from TB.

 

[Minimalist]

I did not buy each part, except the pots & jack (indirectly).

How you acquired the parts doesn't really matter IMO. That being said, I very much like your approach. I'm about to put some Fender decals on my parts basses just so nobody will ever question they are legit (sounding).

 

[JES]

I’m a serial modder, unless I get lucky or customize before buying.

My main player is a custom body (P-bass style but longer horn), USA Custom Guitars neck, G&L pickups, Tonestyler. I never want anything it can’t do. I also have a G&L L2000 that’s bone stock, and a Mike Lull that I’ve replaced the pickups on more than once....

 

[Brother Goose]

I've had great fortune with fully assembled used Warmoth basses.

There is no regret in making changes as the depreciation has already happened!

I've modded stock instruments in the past with varying degrees of success.

Here are my current Geckos- recently refinished and reverted to passive wiring

My next Gecko project will be building a body for a wide fretless 5 neck and wiring a Bartolini soapbar straight to the output jack (a la Anthony Jackson)