Best bass mod ever for you?

[chris_b]

I know some guys like to personalise and mod their basses, but I don't.

I buy basses where the manufacturer has already made all the mods.

 

[jdcraignh]

I know some guys like to personalise and mod their basses, but I don't.

I buy basses where the manufacturer has already made all the mods.

To some extent, I agree. However, the musical instrument business is just that, a business. Manufacturers make trades offs to hit price points, sales targets, and margins. Sometimes those trade offs are what hold a good instrument back from being a great instrument. I have several basses I have made objectively better with minor mods. My best story is swapping bridges on two US fenders, one high mass, one standard. Each bass had tone issues that were really bugging me. The P with the high mass just sounded a little too harsh, and the J with the standard bridge a bit too dull and lifeless. The swap was just an experiment to see if there really was a difference. Total home run. Both basses came alive, in different ways.

Don't be shy about trying experiments. Let your ears be the judge.

 

[jdcraignh]

Rickenbacker 4003. Added a longer headstock, 4 more tuners, Rickenbacker HB1 humbuckers, custom wiring with push-pull controls for vintage tone and coil shorting, a black acrylic guard, white knobs, modded the bridge for 8 strings, changed the truss rod cover from black to white, and had it painted white.View attachment 4942839

Wow. Now THAT is a mod!

 

[jdcraignh]

Now I really enjoy playing this bass.

That, right there. That is what this whole thread is about.

 

[legalbass]

View attachment 4942883 Adding a Status Graphite neck to my Jazz bass. The tone and action is incredible.

I could kick myself for ever selling my Fender Precision which I had fitted with a Status Graphite replacement neck and Status P-pickup. What was I thinking }:

 

[Kalsarikannit]

Sadly, almost everyone has a story like that. Hopefully another graphite neck bass will cross paths with you again. I know Status doesn't make the necks anymore but they might still be manufacturing the pickups.

 

[lokikallas]

Schaller strap locks, hipshot d tuners. EMG geezers.

 

[Corrington]

Status Graphite replacement neck

Atomic Music is stilling a partscaster J bass with a Status P-style neck.

 

[bigtone23]

I know some guys like to personalise and mod their basses, but I don't.

I buy basses where the manufacturer has already made all the mods.

Technically, an untouched instrument from the factory has no mods, it's stock. Yes, maybe it addresses issues from previous designs, but still...

I just change things or tweak things to make them to my needs and likes. Very, very few factory stock instruments stay stock, perhaps about 25% of my instruments are factory.

 

[relayer66]

Tort. Straplocks.