Assembling your own basses vs buying production basses vs modding

[SactoBass]

So far, there are 50 votes for "Peel carrots to your exact specifications."

I had no idea that so many bassists were into that kind of thing! Should Talkbass start selling carrot peelers in their online Store?

 

[Yellow Bang66]

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.

View attachment 3647177

Yes!! I love modding & rebuilding basses! I've told the stories here on TB more than twice, so i'l spare you the lengthy details! i have over 10 basses in my cache. 3 of them i've hotrodded/rebuilt mostly by myself & I absolutely Love them. it all started by my despise for the traditional bent plate fender bridges. I just couldn't stomach the lack of style they had! so naturally I overcame my reluctance to "touch" a New unmarred instrument, because I just hated the oem cheap looking bridges! I quickly replaced it with a Leo Quan Badass bridge! it looked so much better, it was beefy and just a really cool looking piece of machinery! and it improved the tone as well! I was hooked I vowed never to play a a bass with a feeble cheap piece of bent metal bridge.I will always upgrade the bridge first before anything else. it later evolved into diving into more advanced refurbishing(refinishing & fret crowning work).and doing thorough Setups. I was hooked!
Its funny most of my "hobby" of Hot rodding has come from my own personal tastes, or replacing parts I loathe. for instance, replacing white & tort pickguards to those cheap bent metal bridges. I also prefer black hardware & pickguards(i don't like too much chrome or gold, for some reason.). I've had a blast and i believe it makes me a better bassist too. Just like a gunfighter who can customize his handgun to make it perform better! It's the funnest/best hobby i've had! and I've learned a lot of things too! like how to solder/electronics. Now with the internet, You can find & learn how to do almost anything! I can shop the used market more freely, I can take chances on basses with a little damage or that need a little work. its a valuable skill to develop. as I know how to fix most things. Plus most of my basses are custom (one of a kind) they get a lot of attention & compliments and they play awesome!! I love it.GL & Happy New Year!!

 

[SactoBass]

Yes!! I love modding & rebuilding basses! I've told the stories here on TB more than twice, so i'l spare you the lengthy details! i have over 10 basses in my cache. 3 of them i've hotrodded/rebuilt mostly by myself & I absolutely Love them. it all started by my despise for the traditional bent plate fender bridges. I just couldn't stomach the lack of style they had! so naturally I overcame my reluctance to "touch" a New unmarred instrument, because I just hated the oem cheap looking bridges! I quickly replaced it with a Leo Quan Badass bridge! it looked so much better, it was beefy and just a really cool looking piece of machinery! and it improved the tone as well! I was hooked I vowed never to play a a bass with a feeble cheap piece of bent metal bridge.I will always upgrade the bridge first before anything else. it later evolved into diving into more advanced refurbishing(refinishing & fret crowning work).and doing thorough Setups. I was hooked!
Its funny most of my "hobby" of Hot rodding has come from my own personal tastes, or replacing parts I loathe. for instance, replacing white & tort pickguards to those cheap bent metal bridges. I also prefer black hardware & pickguards(i don't like too much chrome or gold, for some reason.). I've had a blast and i believe it makes me a better bassist too. Just like a gunfighter who can customize his handgun to make it perform better! It's the funnest/best hobby i've had! and I've learned a lot of things too! like how to solder/electronics. Now with the internet, You can find & learn how to do almost anything! I can shop the used market more freely, I can take chances on basses with a little damage or that need a little work. its a valuable skill to develop. as I know how to fix most things. Plus most of my basses are custom (one of a kind) they get a lot of attention & compliments and they play awesome!! I love it.GL & Happy New Year!!

Most excellent!

 

[somebrains]

I'm waiting for one of you guys to build something that shocks me.
I enjoy the nuanced thought of a build.
I'm jaded by what I saw 25 years ago recycled ad nauseum.
Prevailing thought by era is constraining.

 

[Son of Wobble]

I'm waiting for one of you guys to build something that shocks me.
I enjoy the nuanced thought of a build.
I'm jaded by what I saw 25 years ago recycled ad nauseum.
Prevailing thought by era is constraining.

this guy's your man

 

[13bass]

So far, there are 50 votes for "Peel carrots to your exact specifications."

I had no idea that so many bassists were into that kind of thing! Should Talkbass start selling carrot peelers in their online Store?

Do we need a carrot peeler club?!?!

 

[JB1962]

Here is my modded bass. I bought all the parts (2019 Fender American Original 60's Jazz Bass) from Stratosphere. Then I sent the body to MJT to be stripped, refinished in aged Surf Green and I re-assembled it. It turned out great. Not a cheap way to go, but now its my #1!

 

[SactoBass]

Here is my modded bass. I bought all the parts (2019 Fender American Original 60's Jazz Bass) from Stratosphere. Then I sent the body to MJT to be stripped, refinished in aged Surf Green and I re-assembled it. It turned out great. Not a cheap way to go, but now its my #1! View attachment 3649010

Beautiful!

 

[BAG]

OK, now it makes some sense - when you removed material from the fretless fingerboard, you "unrolled" it - if you removed more matrial than the radius that was there, you would indeed have a sharp edge.

Actually, after the level he rolled the edges to a larger radius than they were stock, epoxied the board and rolled the epoxy. I liked it so much I got him to do the same radius to the fretted. These appear to be pretty old Warmoths and it's possible that they roll the edges better now. The fretted in particular didn't have much roll to the edge at all.

You shouldn't need to send pictures to determine if a neck is a Warmoth - under the heel, there's a very obvious stamp. You probably know this; this is for others reading along.

The stamp was there but not having seen a Warmoth in Australia before (or since) I wanted to confirm that I had the real thing..... particularly at the price I got them.

 

[RBrownBass]

If someone sold you a neck with sharp edges, it wasn’t a Warmoth

Every Warmoth neck I've ever bought (all fretted) had significantly "sharper" fb edges than every Fender I've ever held, and the two prefinished ones were the "sharp"est. The work to round it is your job, if you want the edges rolled. That way, you get the edges you want. It's a feature, not a bug.

 

[RBrownBass]

I think there may be some misconceptions out there about what it is Warmoth is in business to provide. They do not offer a neck that's ready to bolt onto a body and feel like it's been there a decade. All the radii ("edges") are smaller than you'd typically find on a new bass hanging on your local CG wall. That "fine tuning to your desires" is done by you or your tech, or not at all.

I also want to say that the idea of building a bass with resale in mind kind of misses the point. Warmoth done right isn't going to save any money- they exist for you to get what you want that the big companies may not offer, or may not offer on the same instrument, and it's up to the buyer to get the specs right the first time. I've built basses from Warmoth parts, and I've never had any sort of issues with any of them that would cause me to want to sell one. I have the utmost respect for Warmoth's quality, and I know many TBers share that opinion, but I don't expect just every Tom, Dick or Harry stumbling around on eBay to know who they are, so I take that into consideration when I decide to buy parts.

Basically, if I can't just take it out in the backyard and set fire to it, I probably won't buy the parts for it.

 

[retslock]

Yes, it does! As for the chapstick, my dad taught me about lubing the threads with good old bar soap. It's always worked for me!

Yep. My dad also taught me the soap trick when I was a kid and I’ve used it since. It works.

 

[BAG]

Every Warmoth neck I've ever bought (all fretted) had significantly "sharper" fb edges than every Fender I've ever held, and the two prefinished ones were the "sharp"est. The work to round it is your job, if you want the edges rolled. That way, you get the edges you want. It's a feature, not a bug.

Thanks for chiming in. I'm not the only one then. I love everything else about the necks and now they're as close to perfect as anything I've held.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

All of my basses are assembled out of parts from the TB classifieds.

I ended up buying, selling, and modifying basses from there, eBay, and parts suppliers I ended up with an entire extra bass.

 

[TheLowDown33]

Great thread. I've personally built (assembled) a few basses from scratch using Warmoth or other Fender-ish parts and have been extremely happy with them. My main player right now is a Warmoth Gecko and it's absolutely fantastic. I've also taken stock basses and made a few changes to them to better suit my needs. Almost every bass I own has had the electronics touched in some way, shape or form. Sometimes this was just a change in cap value, others it was a complete gut and rebuild.

I think that if you can get close to what you want in a production bass, it's definitely more economical to buy one off the shelf and replace what you want (pickups, tuners, etc.). Once the router comes out...well, maybe you're best served with a more custom approach.

 

[micguy]

Every Warmoth neck I've ever bought (all fretted) had significantly "sharper" fb edges than every Fender I've ever held, and the two prefinished ones were the "sharp"est. The work to round it is your job, if you want the edges rolled. That way, you get the edges you want. It's a feature, not a bug.

I've bought 9 or 10 in the last 6 or so years. All were rolled as nicely as any Custom shop Fender I've ever tried. Then again, rolling the edges of a fretboard is a 10 minute job, so this is pretty much a non-issue for me.

 

[micguy]

I think that if you can get close to what you want in a production bass, it's definitely more economical to buy one off the shelf and replace what you want (pickups, tuners, etc.). Once the router comes out...well, maybe you're best served with a more custom approach.

I'd agree, and say that, if you don't really KNOW exactly what you want, buy off the rack and mod, until you figure out exactly what you want - I did precisely that for a few basses, until I was ready to spec every detail on a bass. Then..... build a custom one if you can't get what you want off the rack with a few mods. I know what I like at this point; I can't get very close at all with an off the rack instrument. The neck is the biggest stumbling block - I've gotten used to Warmoth's necks with graphite reinforcements, roasted maple, stainless frets, their thin profile, a P width neck for a J style instrument, etc. Pretty much any add-on they have, I end up buying it, except for finishing, Which I do myself.

If I tried to buy off the rack and mod - say an American made Fender, I'd end up buying the bass, a $500 neck, new pickups, Hipshot hardware, and...if the body was too heavy, I'd eventually replace that. In the long run, I'd end up re-assembling the Fender (as I wouldn't want the body, neck or any of its parts) - the project would cost 1.5 to 2K more (the price of the Fender) than starting from scratch for me.

 

[TheLowDown33]

I'd agree, and say that, if you don't really KNOW exactly what you want, buy off the rack and mod, until you figure out exactly what you want - I did precisely that for a few basses, until I was ready to spec every detail on a bass. Then..... build a custom one if you can't get what you want off the rack with a few mods. I know what I like at this point; I can't get very close at all with an off the rack instrument. The neck is the biggest stumbling block - I've gotten used to Warmoth's necks with graphite reinforcements, roasted maple, stainless frets, their thin profile, a P width neck for a J style instrument, etc. Pretty much any add-on they have, I end up buying it, except for finishing, Which I do myself.

If I tried to buy off the rack and mod - say an American made Fender, I'd end up buying the bass, a $500 neck, new pickups, Hipshot hardware, and...if the body was too heavy, I'd eventually replace that. In the long run, I'd end up re-assembling the Fender (as I wouldn't want the body, neck or any of its parts) - the project would cost 1.5 to 2K more (the price of the Fender) than starting from scratch for me.

100%. Knowing what you want is the key to all of this in the first place. I agree with your sentiment regarding necks as well, and I love all of the options Warmoth has for theirs.

I found the most economical way to make a Fender-esque build is to buy a Fender body (assuming they make the color you like) for Stratosphere or the like and then spec out the perfect neck via Warmoth. The only exception is if you're doing some crazy pickup configuration, but if not the stock Fender bodies are usually close enough that with a few easy mods they can be made equal to Warmoth's offerings.

 

[TheLowDown33]

I ended up buying, selling, and modifying basses from there, eBay, and parts suppliers I ended up with an entire extra bass.

Lol, this has also happened to me on more than one occasion.

 

[micguy]

I found the most economical way to make a Fender-esque build is to buy a Fender body (assuming they make the color you like) for Stratosphere or the like and then spec out the perfect neck via Warmoth. The only exception is if you're doing some crazy pickup configuration, but if not the stock Fender bodies are usually close enough that with a few easy mods they can be made equal to Warmoth's offerings.

Exception 2: I like different finishes. Find me a one piece bodied Fender that looks like this (and that, incidentally weighs 6.6 pounds):