Pulled the frets, replaced with white auto filler, massacred the body till I liked it. Started life 30 years ago as a Saga kit p-bass. Pickups by dimarzio.
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Best bass mod ever for you?
- Thread starter Raman
- Start date
Pulled the frets, replaced with white auto filler, massacred the body till I liked it. Started life 30 years ago as a Saga kit p-bass. Pickups by dimarzio.
I have modded many basses in many ways. But the best mod was adding Duncan Classic stacks and a Sadowsky Pre-amp to a MIM Jazz Bass (also changed the pickguard and had the neck shaved down, neither of which I believe effected the sound of the bass).
This started out as a brand new Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar.
The neck is a custom Moses Graphite fanned fret J neck. 35/34" Scale. One of MANY mods on this bass.
Fact is, the original bass cost $200. It is wearing $1000 worth of aftermarket parts. lol
Unfortunately Moses stopped building necks recently. AFAIK the only maker of aftermarket graphite necks right now is Status.
Another shout for the Hipshot Bass Xtender. My 1992 Musicman Stingray which I have owned from new is irreplaceable (to me) and is part of my sound and look. I've never got on with 5 strings and people I play with expect me to have my Musicman.
One band the songs are written by a pianist an another the singer isn't a natural lead - there's some interesting keys which limit what I can do with an ordinary E A D G. Before I got the Hipshot, I experimented tuning down to a low B losing the G, and C and D with the G. I ended up buying the 2 stop Hipshot and it's given me loads more flexibility.
One band the songs are written by a pianist an another the singer isn't a natural lead - there's some interesting keys which limit what I can do with an ordinary E A D G. Before I got the Hipshot, I experimented tuning down to a low B losing the G, and C and D with the G. I ended up buying the 2 stop Hipshot and it's given me loads more flexibility.
Modding doesn’t have to be to fix something that’s not working. It’s to personalize to your taste.
For instance if you buy a car, the old wheels a round and work fine,
But you’ve got your eye on a set of oversize chrome wheels you’ve just got to have.
You might have even seen the wheels before the car.
I’ve done major mods on Bronco’s, I converted one into a mustang.
So was there anything wrong with the Bronco bridge? No. The Bronco tuners? No.
But I wanted a Mustang bridge and Lolipop tuners.
I modded Epi EB0, added a bridge PUP and Gibby SG style wiring. Then I added a Paisley PG.
Why change the PG, didn’t the black work? Yes, but everybody else has black.
I thought I added my Bronco to 1979 Competition Mustang Copy to this post but I guess not, so here it is:
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Is new strings a "mod"? Biggest improvement was a good set of flat wounds. Strap locks a must. Here is a weird one, the ground connection on the 1/4" jack was getting intermittent. So I replaced the T-S jack with a TRS jack and connected ring to shield. No the ground connection is rock solid.
My Squire is fully passive. The exact balance between the P and J pickup is very critical to get the sound I like. If somebody makes a preamp so one knob would be "master" volume and the other knob would be a P / J balance control with limited range to make it much easier to get my preferred P / J balance and not loose it changing the "master" volume, let me know. That is what I would want. I always run the little tone control knob wide open.
My Squire is fully passive. The exact balance between the P and J pickup is very critical to get the sound I like. If somebody makes a preamp so one knob would be "master" volume and the other knob would be a P / J balance control with limited range to make it much easier to get my preferred P / J balance and not loose it changing the "master" volume, let me know. That is what I would want. I always run the little tone control knob wide open.
Straplocks. I don't really mod instruments, though 2 of my basses and 2 guitars are Warmoths that I spec'ed out, so I suppose that would be sort of the same thing
Having the pickups in my new Jazz Bass wired in series with a push/pull tone pot to switch between series and parallel is by far the best one I've ever done.
Over many years I have modded many basses, some cheap, some expensive. Pickups, preamps, necks etc. I have come to the conclusion that a set of TI Jazz Flats strings and a chunk of foam under the strings is the best mod I ever made.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
I have Bass Xtenders on three bass guitars now. When I'm playing one without a Bass Xtender, I miss having it. I only use the one stop version, but it's enough. They are a little fiddly for tuning and you have to check tuning if you go back and forth with them much, but they are worth the small amount of tuning effort.
So many mods that made big differences in their own way...
1) Getting the nerve up to sand down the extreme D shaped neck on an expensive bass. The result was an easy to play instrument that had been causing my fretting hand/ forearm to cramp.
2) Replacing a 2 band preamp w/ a 3 band, selectable mid Aguilar pre.
3) Applying a CA (thin super glue) high gloss finish to a fretless Jazz fingerboard.
4) Rewiring & shielding a MIJ Marcus Miller Jazz to silence the noisiest bass I ever owned!
5) Adding Dunlop strap locks to every bass I own.
6) Refinishing a bass and numerous bass necks with True-oil and or wipe on satin polyurethane.
7) Installing many a Hipshot A style bridge.
8) stripping & sanding original finish build up out of a bolt on neck pocket in order to correct an otherwise unadjustable neck angle. This was hand built by a well known American builder.
1) Getting the nerve up to sand down the extreme D shaped neck on an expensive bass. The result was an easy to play instrument that had been causing my fretting hand/ forearm to cramp.
2) Replacing a 2 band preamp w/ a 3 band, selectable mid Aguilar pre.
3) Applying a CA (thin super glue) high gloss finish to a fretless Jazz fingerboard.
4) Rewiring & shielding a MIJ Marcus Miller Jazz to silence the noisiest bass I ever owned!
5) Adding Dunlop strap locks to every bass I own.
6) Refinishing a bass and numerous bass necks with True-oil and or wipe on satin polyurethane.
7) Installing many a Hipshot A style bridge.
8) stripping & sanding original finish build up out of a bolt on neck pocket in order to correct an otherwise unadjustable neck angle. This was hand built by a well known American builder.
Best and easiest mod is a Hipshot Drop-D tuner. I've installed several and it takes less than 10 minutes and no mechanical ability.
I'd be hard pressed to think of a single bass I haven't modded. Some minor, some extensive. Notably, my Fenderbird. Of course it started as two basses but I also switched out the bridge, shimmed the neck, installed an an Audere 4 band 3 knob preamp. Plays and sounds great. Quite versatile. Play it a lot.
In order of mod:
MIM Fender Jazz Bass - Put on a Babicz bridge on, added strap locks, replaced the pickups with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders. The QPs got annoyingly loud, so I shielded the cavity. Still too loud, so I swapped them out with a set of Delanos.
MIJ P-Bass - Changed out the pickups for Delanos, then swapped out the bridge for a Babicz bridge
SBMM Ray 4 - replaced the stock pickup with a Nordstrand MM 4.2 and then put on a custom pickguard instead of the boring old stock plain black one
MIJ Jazz Bass Special - swapped the bridge out for a Babicz, then decided to sell the bass, so I put it back on, then put the bridge on a MIJ Power Jazz Bass special
I am a fan of the Babicz bridges and the sustain that you get from them.
The only bass I have that is still stock is a MIJ Jazz Bass Special Fretless. It is in pristine condition, and I don't play it all that often, so I don't feel like messing with it.
MIM Fender Jazz Bass - Put on a Babicz bridge on, added strap locks, replaced the pickups with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders. The QPs got annoyingly loud, so I shielded the cavity. Still too loud, so I swapped them out with a set of Delanos.
MIJ P-Bass - Changed out the pickups for Delanos, then swapped out the bridge for a Babicz bridge
SBMM Ray 4 - replaced the stock pickup with a Nordstrand MM 4.2 and then put on a custom pickguard instead of the boring old stock plain black one
MIJ Jazz Bass Special - swapped the bridge out for a Babicz, then decided to sell the bass, so I put it back on, then put the bridge on a MIJ Power Jazz Bass special
I am a fan of the Babicz bridges and the sustain that you get from them.
The only bass I have that is still stock is a MIJ Jazz Bass Special Fretless. It is in pristine condition, and I don't play it all that often, so I don't feel like messing with it.
I've got my wife getting me two more double stop Xtenders for my 09 and 76 P's for Christmas! Got one on my Hammersmith, but I miss it when I don't have it on my other two main basses, too. I find them a little fiddly when I first put on a set of strings, but once they're in place and I tune it according to the directions, I can usually have my way with them without having to retune very often at all. Especially now that I leave a set on for a good long time. I love being able to tune my E string to drop D or B...on B it gets a tad floppy but it sounds good to me and beats using a 5
