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Best bass mod ever for you?
- Thread starter Raman
- Start date
I only posted this last week, but a picture tells a thousand words:
1998-ish Dearmond Starfire bass. Modified with Guild BS-1 pickups, which have a better bandwidth and articulation than the stock Dearmond humbuckers. I also replaced the wiring with CTS 500k pots, a Switchcraft 'long' angle switch and Switchcraft jack. I wired it to isolate each volume control from the other. I re-wired the pickup with coax hookup wire, and I used this in the wiring harness as well. This is as close as I can get to shielding the bass without going fully Alembic and cutting up the top.
I also installed Grover Titan tuners (the stock tuners were a bit approximate), leveled crowned and polished the frets and made it a tortoiseshell trussrod cover. This bass is outstanding in the field.
I modded this Dearmond in part for the looks, as I love the look of '60s Starfire II basses. The tone of this bass, with the new Guild pickups, is very impressive. The bass doesn't really have any grind or growl, but rather it has a very clean and high fidelity tone. It has astonishingly deep lows, and a biting treble response. It records beautifully and has a very even string-to-string response.
PJ Mustang. Rewired to accommodate Dimarzio Model P and Model J pickups. Fully shielded electronics cavities, a new switch, and rewired like a Telecaster to remove the horrible volume and treble drops in the middle position when using the tone and volume controls.
The stock bridge is replaced with a Fender Badass II-style bridge from a Starfire bass. I also stole the 'UFO' string tree off the Starfire and have it on this bass. I finally installed a DIY tort pickguard (replaced since taking the photo above) and the thumb rest in the '70s Mustang position (which is just a little too high for most of my playing).
The frets are leveled, crowned and polished and the nut was cut with lower slots and some meat shaved off the top. This bass comes with me to gigs where I have to travel a considerable distance via public transport.
Honorary mention goes to my Aria TAB-66.
Early on I modified this bass to accommodate two humbuckers, some extra controls and a Strat-style output jack plate. I also cut the pearloid pickguard.
This bass is still going on this long journey into the cosmos. It is now routed for three humbuckers, an extra control on the treble horn, and I've converted it to fretless. This bass is patiently waiting its turn on the bench.
1998-ish Dearmond Starfire bass. Modified with Guild BS-1 pickups, which have a better bandwidth and articulation than the stock Dearmond humbuckers. I also replaced the wiring with CTS 500k pots, a Switchcraft 'long' angle switch and Switchcraft jack. I wired it to isolate each volume control from the other. I re-wired the pickup with coax hookup wire, and I used this in the wiring harness as well. This is as close as I can get to shielding the bass without going fully Alembic and cutting up the top.
I also installed Grover Titan tuners (the stock tuners were a bit approximate), leveled crowned and polished the frets and made it a tortoiseshell trussrod cover. This bass is outstanding in the field.
I modded this Dearmond in part for the looks, as I love the look of '60s Starfire II basses. The tone of this bass, with the new Guild pickups, is very impressive. The bass doesn't really have any grind or growl, but rather it has a very clean and high fidelity tone. It has astonishingly deep lows, and a biting treble response. It records beautifully and has a very even string-to-string response.
PJ Mustang. Rewired to accommodate Dimarzio Model P and Model J pickups. Fully shielded electronics cavities, a new switch, and rewired like a Telecaster to remove the horrible volume and treble drops in the middle position when using the tone and volume controls.
The stock bridge is replaced with a Fender Badass II-style bridge from a Starfire bass. I also stole the 'UFO' string tree off the Starfire and have it on this bass. I finally installed a DIY tort pickguard (replaced since taking the photo above) and the thumb rest in the '70s Mustang position (which is just a little too high for most of my playing).
The frets are leveled, crowned and polished and the nut was cut with lower slots and some meat shaved off the top. This bass comes with me to gigs where I have to travel a considerable distance via public transport.
Honorary mention goes to my Aria TAB-66.
Early on I modified this bass to accommodate two humbuckers, some extra controls and a Strat-style output jack plate. I also cut the pearloid pickguard.
This bass is still going on this long journey into the cosmos. It is now routed for three humbuckers, an extra control on the treble horn, and I've converted it to fretless. This bass is patiently waiting its turn on the bench.
I modified the wiring in my 5 string Spirit. From a Volume/Volume/Tone knob configuration I went to a Volume/3 way rotary switch (neck-both-bridge)/Tone configuration. Maybe my next mod will be to get rid of the tone knob..on that bass.
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Every bass needed or benefited from different things individually and that's a lot to itemize here.
Best single mod for MY sound on any bass - LaBella flats of various gauges and type
Best single mod for MY sound on any bass - LaBella flats of various gauges and type
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It's hard to pick just one.
But most improved for the least amount of effort and coin?
Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz- traded the neck straight up, for one off a fretted CV 50's P Bass. Swapped the pickups out for a pair of DiMarzio Area J's. Put a set of AllParts steel threaded bridge saddles on it.
No other mods.
With DR Dragon skins, it was jaw-droppingly good. Been used on a ton of recording sessions by various friends.
But most improved for the least amount of effort and coin?
Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz- traded the neck straight up, for one off a fretted CV 50's P Bass. Swapped the pickups out for a pair of DiMarzio Area J's. Put a set of AllParts steel threaded bridge saddles on it.
No other mods.
With DR Dragon skins, it was jaw-droppingly good. Been used on a ton of recording sessions by various friends.
Why the threaded bridge? Just asking, as ivI'been debating a bridge swap on my jazz for awhile...
Hmm, depends on the bass.
All 4-string basses: Hipshot D tuner -- suddenly I have enough range to take my G&L 1000 fretless to gigs again.
Delano PMVC pickup (FE I think?)
I've done a lot of mods across a dozen basses, but in the end nothing is significant compared these two changes.
All 4-string basses: Hipshot D tuner -- suddenly I have enough range to take my G&L 1000 fretless to gigs again.
Delano PMVC pickup (FE I think?)
I've done a lot of mods across a dozen basses, but in the end nothing is significant compared these two changes.
Lower setup and more stable adjustment screws. This was on a few Fenders and Squiers I modded.
For headstock dive?
Flush-mount Dunlop Straplok on the back of the body, mounted an inch or two north of the centerline, and about 2" in from the butt end of the body.
I believe that Sheldon Dingwall was the originator of the mod, but it works a treat on Fenders, too.
It moves the whole bass about 2" to the right, makes the bass hang dead-level or even slightly headstock high and brings the 1st fret closer to your body.
Good for anybody, but particularly for shorter people who like long scale basses, but can't hack the reach to the first fret.
Flush-mount Dunlop Straplok on the back of the body, mounted an inch or two north of the centerline, and about 2" in from the butt end of the body.
I believe that Sheldon Dingwall was the originator of the mod, but it works a treat on Fenders, too.
It moves the whole bass about 2" to the right, makes the bass hang dead-level or even slightly headstock high and brings the 1st fret closer to your body.
Good for anybody, but particularly for shorter people who like long scale basses, but can't hack the reach to the first fret.
I have an older mij Fender Marcus Miller jazz. I had the bridge swapped from a badass to a Fender deluxe style with the spiral saddles. Also had the active pre removed. Had the pickups replaced with Lollar singles. Also had a tone bypass switch added.
Took the bass from one that I liked to one that for me, couldn't get any better .
That tone bypass really opens up a bass imo. I have one in my fretless jazz as well, works awesome .
Shawn
Took the bass from one that I liked to one that for me, couldn't get any better .
That tone bypass really opens up a bass imo. I have one in my fretless jazz as well, works awesome .
Shawn
Back in 1996 when my son wanted to play the bass in school, I bought him a MIM Fender
Jazz. At the time I had a Ric 4001 that I bought in the early 70’s but really wasn’t getting much use as I was playing guitar mostly, and if I went in the studio there was usually a Fender
P bass available.
The reason I bought the MIN jazz was I figured two things would happen. One, he’d might quit, and if he did, I get it back & I would upgrade the pickups. Or he would get really good, and would want a pro level bass and I would get it back and I would upgrade the pickups. One way or another, I WAS getting this bass back and upgrading he pickups.
Well it turns out he did get really good, and bought his own pro quality bass, I got the Jazz Bass, upgraded the pick ups to Fender Re-placement 62’s, my son joined the Marines as a bassist in the Marine Corps fleet band program, and I ended up with a great sounding instrument reasonably cheap.
In 2004, when my son was deployed to Iraq, he started buying instruments with his combat pay having them shipped to me to make sure they were in good order, and if the need attention to take care of it. First to arrive was a black American P-Bass Deluxe (PJ pickups), next and Les Paul Custom, next another Les Paul, the one that looks like an SG with the 3 pickups, an American Telecaster, and finally another American P-Bass Deluxe but a SunBurst, that matched the bass he bought when he was in high school.
When his tour was up, he came home to spend the holidays with us. When it was time to head to his next duty station, as he was packing up his instruments, he told me he was leaving the Black PJ with me. Totally caught me off guard. Then came the prevaso, he was leaving the PJ, but he wanted my modified Jazz in return. So off they went to California.
A little while later we get a couple CDs in the mail of his band long with a letter that said the sound engineer insisting on him using that bass because of how well in mixes in. he said it was one on the nicest easiest basses to mix he had heard in a long time.
The subplot of this is I’ve been playing and enjoying this P-Bass Deluxe for the last 14 years. It’s also a great instrument and also records and sits well in th mix as well.
Aside from firing the drummer? Immediate replacement of the stock pickup in a '76 Fender P bass. Sounded awful to my ears. Dropped in an old no name pickup from the parts bin and it sounds great now. Torted it at the same time, but the tort didn't effect the sound all that much. The black pickguard didn't make it sound darker, either. Maybe I put it on wrong. 
Not very original, but helps "fit the song" in my variey cover band.
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