Never did get the P pup removed but will be doing this soon. Will be adding a preamp and possible 70's block inlays.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Best Mods Recommendations for Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Short Scale
- Thread starter bfilmsoz
- Start date
Never did get the P pup removed but will be doing this soon. Will be adding a preamp and possible 70's block inlays.
That is a sweet-looking bass! I like the color and especially the pickguard choice.
I have a candy apple red one. I replaced both pickups with Duncan Quarter Pounders, new pots and jack, made the bridge volume pot into a blend control, leveled the frets, steel wooled the back of the neck and installed some D'Addario half-round strings. I am not sure that I will ever play any of my long scale basses ever again.
I put some fender standard P and J pickups in mine and they sound great. In fact, a really nice beefy and throaty growl.
one thing I noticed is that they have the P pickup the same absolute distance from the bridge, which is actually a larger percentage of the string length on the shorter scale, so it is actually closer to the neck than the sweet spot on a long scale P bass. That, coupled with the lower string tension, and overall shorter scale, gives it I think a deeper tone, but still some good mids, and overall I like that effect. but definitely a little bitter darker than a normal P bass.
I still want to replace the pots, because they feel somewhat flimsy, but have gigged with them no problem. The chamber is smaller so they would have to be small pots.
Other than that (and the Squire logo vs Fender), the only thing I would like to be better is the body wood is almost too lightweight. maybe an alder or ash would balance better and feel more like a long scale / traditional (but still lighter)
Overall a great bass, and makes those long rehearsals and gigs much less tiring. looks cool too.
one thing I noticed is that they have the P pickup the same absolute distance from the bridge, which is actually a larger percentage of the string length on the shorter scale, so it is actually closer to the neck than the sweet spot on a long scale P bass. That, coupled with the lower string tension, and overall shorter scale, gives it I think a deeper tone, but still some good mids, and overall I like that effect. but definitely a little bitter darker than a normal P bass.
I still want to replace the pots, because they feel somewhat flimsy, but have gigged with them no problem. The chamber is smaller so they would have to be small pots.
Other than that (and the Squire logo vs Fender), the only thing I would like to be better is the body wood is almost too lightweight. maybe an alder or ash would balance better and feel more like a long scale / traditional (but still lighter)
Overall a great bass, and makes those long rehearsals and gigs much less tiring. looks cool too.
Full sized pots will fit in the control cavity, you just have to clock them just right so that they don't short to one another, or the conductive coating in the cavity. They are very close together though, so close that I actually soldered the grounded lug of the tone pot directly to the output jack. It's a little less cramped now with the blend control being two mini pots stacked. Since I already had the Quarter Pound P-bass pickup, and I bought this bass before the price went up, I think i only have about $250 in mine all together. This bass is a great little player, and with your own custom mods, it's even better. Who cares what name is on the head stock, if it inspires you to play more and play better.
I realized that my problem with the pots is that the nuts were never tight enough. Causing them to rotate, and even a connection problem, since the control plate acts as ground. I thought I had a bad cable or jack. But I took it off, and really cranked the nuts down and now it sounds good and the knobs feel great. I also had to put some wood filler in the screw holes in the body for the screws, they got routed out, I guess because the wood is soft.
I also ended up putting higher gauge strings on, to bring the tension up. I used Elixir 50's.
This thing is really a good practical bass for me now. Whenever I get tired of hanging the big P on my shoulder.
I also ended up putting higher gauge strings on, to bring the tension up. I used Elixir 50's.
This thing is really a good practical bass for me now. Whenever I get tired of hanging the big P on my shoulder.
How would one rewire the pickups to make the bridge pickup less anemic? Replacing all the pickups, pots and wiring wouldnt do it by default?
I put in new pickups: a Fender Original Precision and a Fender Noiseless Jazz bridge. They both sound much better, higher output, and pretty well balanced. Plenty of bridge pickup for my tastes. This is with the same wiring and pots, I am not sure any wiring changes would be needed or would make a difference
I threw away everything except the wood. First I sanded the sticky finish off the back of the neck and applied numerous coats of tung oil. It's quite slick now and feels great. The tuners were replaced with black Schallers. The pickups were replaced with Bartolini P/J active pups which dropped right in with no modifications necessary. The electronics were tossed and an Aguilar preamp is now in the cavity. I ordered the preamp with Volume, Blend and stacked bass and treble controls. There are other options available. The knobs were replaced with black knurled ones as well as the stacked tone controls. The bridge is now a Gotoh which utilized the same predrilled holes. As a final touch I replaced the pickguard with a black pearl version just because. After a couple of years I became tired of taking off the control cover to change the battery so took it to my regular guitar repair guy who put a battery door on the back. It looks factory installed. One final mod was replacing the strap buttons with black ones to match the rest of the black hardware. I'm anal that way.
Attachments
Last edited:
