Best bass mod ever for you?

[Renty]

Where'd you get that pickguard? That looks so cool... I want one.

ertmermusic.com
She also works in copper and brass and you can choose the background color

 

[Renty]

ertmermusic.com
She also works in copper and brass and you can choose the background color

These are handmade in Germany

 

[Daniel Kohn]

I'm a new player but travel and wanted a travel bass. I got a gt microbass but was frustrated with the shrunken neck. I'm currently working on reducing down a gio 200 which I picked up on craigslist for 70 dollars.
Cut down the sides and moved the knobs and electronics to the top side. Kept the horn shaped thing to keep the balance on the strap. Moved the bridge up as far as the readjustment made it possible to keep overall string length the same. Planning to redrill and move the tuners down so I can shrink the length further. Not sure if I have room to move all 4 and keep the integrity of the heqadstock, or just the top two.
And will put flatwounds as I really prefer the sound and feel.
Suggestions welcome.

 

[bass hoe]

Fretless conversion. I encountered an "OLP" ("Officially Licensed Product"...cracks me up) copy of a MusicMan in a pawn shop for one bill ($100). Some dude had gotten WAY aggressive and absolutely raped the bass by cold-yanking the frets from the rosewood fingerboard. So I bought it, researched all the different coatings, and applied the cyanoacrylate (aka "CA"). This is, of course, the hugely simplified version. I love the hard-as-nails CA finish and resulting growl it gives when paired with rounds. It's a great gigging bass. One day I will replace/rewire the V/V/T which IMHO make absolutely no sense on a humbucker. (If the V/V aren't at even levels, the "bad lighting buzz" comes out.) Sorry for the not-so-great lighting but a pic of the fretless conversion is attached.

 

[BillyCrashed]

Changed out all the chrome hardware to black and added black nylon wrapped strings

 

[rocklee]

For me, taking the electronics and pickup from a Ray35ca and placing them into my Classic Series Stingray5 worked for me. Now my bass sounds more organic with a warm wood tone and not too much like hitting bright metal!!

 

[Chaz]

Bought 1980s Japanese Squire jazz bass for very little and put on a very nice P bass neck.

 

[bigtone23]

Oh boy, best bass mod... there are so many depending on the instrument... Obviously, pickups and hardware have been covered, but sometimes some little tweaks go a long way. Some of my favorite mods are fully reversible and undetectable. Using push/pull pots and such keeps it clean.
--Always pragmatic: Switchcraft jack on cheaper basses. A mod would technically be changing out the barrel jack to a regular jack with jack plate. Barrel jacks tend to fail sooner or more often, no matter how nice they are.
--Swapping audio taper volumes for linear, especially on dual volume instruments.
--Adding series/parallel mode switch to split-coil P pickups (or any humbucker, really) and series/parallel operation to Jazz setups. Instant flexibility.
--Changing out VVT for V Blend T or VT with 3-way switch. (I really like the ungrounded blend wiring)
--Playing with cap values on the tone control, though a mod would be replacing a master tone control with a Duncan STC-2C-BO 2 band preamp. Expanded tones!
--Adding a treble bleed to the volume control. If it's a parallel cap/resistor version, you can fine tune your volume's taper with the resistor.
--Adding pickups. Did this to my Peavey Patriot by adding a matching neck pickup. Now it's a killer Ric tone clone vs a simple, single pickup bass.

 

[Pep]

Hi,

I've never altered my instruments, although I've thought about it often. Switch pickups, add a knob, having the body redone completely in a different wood, etc.

For those who have modded stock instruments, I'd love to hear what was the best improvement that you've ever made to a bass.

The best I’ve ever done (and still do) is installing a Stellartone-10 position tone control. What I like about is repeatability. I can recall an exact tone whenever needed. The soundman loves it as well because of the consistency it provides.
I have it in all of my Basses.

 

[Kiwi_Rik]

After converting a Squire Jaguar with full on Fender electronics and switches, I decided to have a go at merging a Jazz and Jaquar to see how it looked. Replaced the neck at the same time, along with all electrics and custom made a new pick guard.

 

[reelbigspikey]

I love the mod I did to the control layout on my Fender Hot Rod PJ. Stacked volume/standard tone knob in place of the volume 1. Tonestyler in place of the volume 2. And blend pot with center detent in place of the original tone. Ultimate flexibility for a passive bass. I can get any tone imaginable with having to mess with my amp’s EQ.

 

[Aceonbass]

I did an 8-string conversion on my BC Rich Mockingbird last year. The beefy neck handles the tension just fine, and the action is nice and low.

 

[Jeremy Richards]

Hi,

I've never altered my instruments, although I've thought about it often. Switch pickups, add a knob, having the body redone completely in a different wood, etc.

For those who have modded stock instruments, I'd love to hear what was the best improvement that you've ever made to a bass.

Here’s a picture of my 2 MIJ Fender Jazz Specials. On the left, mostly stock fretless version with Seymour Duncan Active EQ PUPS. On the right...:

about 7 layers of different colors of paint, relic’d and lacquered for protection
Custom pickguard, complete with my logo
Aguilar PJ humcancelling pickups
Stacked volume/tone for each pup
Babicz bridge

I’ll probably do something completely different on the other one, eventually...

 

[lfmn16]

I'm not a big mod person. I've changed pickups a couple of times, but that's about it. Just my 2 cents, but I wouldn't change anything until I could really articulate what I thought was wrong with my current components and what I thought my new components were going to add.

I see so many threads, "I just got a [insert name] bass and I'm going to swap out the tuners, the bridge and the pickups" before they even get the bass. Well, are the tuners not working? What is a new bridge going to get you? If you don't even have the bass, how do you know you don't like the pickups?

I'm not anti-mod, I just think it should be done with some forethought.

 

[Jason42]

I've done many, but my hands down fave is stripping gloss poly from the back of a neck and treating it with Tru-Oil

I've thought about this a lot. Can you point me to a guide on how or give some advice?

 

[JoeWPgh]

I've thought about this a lot. Can you point me to a guide on how or give some advice?

Stripping poly is a toxic pain. Assume you will do more sanding than stripping. I prefer to leave the flat parts of the neck alone. Tru-Oil needs to be re-applied every so often to maintain the integrity of it's seal. Leaving the head and heel in poly means you will not have to retreat these areas. Mask these off well , and remask as needed. Scuff the poly with a heavy grit paper and apply the stripper. After the recomended time, scrape the mess off and repeat this process with increasingly fine sand paper. When you are through to the wood, sand with 120, 220, 320 grit paper.
Edited because I posted prematurely on a mis click

 

[brianc91764]

I did an 8-string conversion on my BC Rich Mockingbird last year. The beefy neck handles the tension just fine, and the action is nice and low.

Nice. Here's mine.

 

[joellay]

In order of importance:
1) put a peavey J neck on a squier P body.
Tie for 2:
2) new pots, jack and knobs.
2) copper sheild tape
3) strap lock buttons
4) replace rusty bridge
5) pearl PG (so not that important)

*the gotoh 201 in the photo has been replaced with a standard fender bridge due to set up issues.

Tons o' fun!

EDIT: if i had to break the tie, advantage copper tape. I had RFI problems, but only anticipated problems with other electronics .
View attachment 3233691

Did you have to route the pocket?

 

[joellay]

Graphite neck upgrade = perfectly stable tuning with no more seasonal setup adjustments and (IMO) massively improved tone.

What kind of bass and where did you source the neck?

 

[CallMeAl]

Did you have to route the pocket?

On the contrary, i had to shim it a little. Well maybe i didnt have too, but wanted it to be snug.