i bought a Squier Jazz 5 Deluxe Active Whatever Else Capitalized bass a while back. and i like it. but i'm curious about some of the common mods for Squiers. i've read some people change out pots, and i can't tell why. anybody got anything else?
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common mods to Squier?
- Thread starter TrevorOfDoom
- Start date
"common mods" for me, means "full electronics and hardware overhaul."
When I buy a squier, basically, I'm purchasing two hunks of wood, and fretwork. The real $$$ and planning, comes in my hardware choices, and if I have enough of a steady hand and a clear head to rewire everything.
...YMMV, but I completely redo every bass I get my hands on.
When I buy a squier, basically, I'm purchasing two hunks of wood, and fretwork. The real $$$ and planning, comes in my hardware choices, and if I have enough of a steady hand and a clear head to rewire everything.
...YMMV, but I completely redo every bass I get my hands on.
pickups! easily the most bang-for-buck mod. i don't usually do the pots unless they're absolutely awful.
I used to wonder about the same thing when I first got my Squier. It was my first bass, and I didn't have the experience to tell what was most lacking on it so I could mod those first. So basically I just searched through a buttload of threads to get kind of a feel for what other ppl usually did and I tried to follow them.
I remember one poster saying there was an order in which you should mod your bass. I think it went like "pots > pickups > blah" and I was pretty surprised that some other people agreed that pots were the one part that would improve Squiers the most. Just like you, I was pretty skeptical at first, but I took the advice to heart and bought some 250k CTS pots from basspartsresource.
It was weird because my stock standard pots didn't scratch at all and I could control the volume just fine. Well, I thought it'd be fun so I just upgraded the pots for the hell of it. Turns out I suck *** at soldering, and the CTS pots fit in my Squier P-bass's small cavity only after some pain-in-the-@$$ sanding and jamming.
I thought my soldering was so sloppy that my bass would either explode or be nonfunctional. I almost regretted attempting to mod it so recklessly, but that was until I fired up the bass! The volume pots worked a lot more smoothly compared to the stock pots which were more like "on/off" switches.
And the tone pot! Wow I had no idea what it was even supposed to do until I upgraded it. I now fiddle around with it all the time to try out the different sounds.
Yeah so in short, you'll appreciate aesthetic mods after you've grown old of the look first, but hardware mods will make you a lot happier on the get-go. If you still don't think you need better pots, I guess you can search for some good pickups and install those first. But if you're gonna open up your bass and fiddle with the wiring, you can consider upgrading the pots while you're at it too.
I remember one poster saying there was an order in which you should mod your bass. I think it went like "pots > pickups > blah" and I was pretty surprised that some other people agreed that pots were the one part that would improve Squiers the most. Just like you, I was pretty skeptical at first, but I took the advice to heart and bought some 250k CTS pots from basspartsresource.
It was weird because my stock standard pots didn't scratch at all and I could control the volume just fine. Well, I thought it'd be fun so I just upgraded the pots for the hell of it. Turns out I suck *** at soldering, and the CTS pots fit in my Squier P-bass's small cavity only after some pain-in-the-@$$ sanding and jamming.
I thought my soldering was so sloppy that my bass would either explode or be nonfunctional. I almost regretted attempting to mod it so recklessly, but that was until I fired up the bass! The volume pots worked a lot more smoothly compared to the stock pots which were more like "on/off" switches.
And the tone pot! Wow I had no idea what it was even supposed to do until I upgraded it. I now fiddle around with it all the time to try out the different sounds.
Yeah so in short, you'll appreciate aesthetic mods after you've grown old of the look first, but hardware mods will make you a lot happier on the get-go. If you still don't think you need better pots, I guess you can search for some good pickups and install those first. But if you're gonna open up your bass and fiddle with the wiring, you can consider upgrading the pots while you're at it too.
And now for a different POV...I don't believe in doing mods for the sake of doing mods. If something is broken or doesn't do what you need, then I say mod it. But to buy a bass and mod it without a specific purpose...that just seems wasteful to me.
Like people buy these $120 SX basses and put $500 worth of mods in them, and in the end, they've got a bass that cost them $620 that they can't sell for much more than $120. They'd probably do better to part it out at that point. And it's debatable if the mods make significant improvements. Like the pots mods...I don't really care if the pot acts like an on-off switch because I leave it up all the way all the time. So for me, that's a mod that's pretty well meaningless. And pickup mods may improve the sound of your bass if you're looking for something specific that your bass isn't giving you, but if you just change out the pickups because people say you should, you may end up hating your mod and liking it better with the stock pickups. Hell, the best thing about my SX P copy is the stock pickup. I'd never change it because it sounds great as it is. And don't get me started about bridge changes!
So I'd say play your bass as it is for a while and if you must mod it, mod it for a good reason that will actually improve it, not just because people on Talkbass think you should.
Like people buy these $120 SX basses and put $500 worth of mods in them, and in the end, they've got a bass that cost them $620 that they can't sell for much more than $120. They'd probably do better to part it out at that point. And it's debatable if the mods make significant improvements. Like the pots mods...I don't really care if the pot acts like an on-off switch because I leave it up all the way all the time. So for me, that's a mod that's pretty well meaningless. And pickup mods may improve the sound of your bass if you're looking for something specific that your bass isn't giving you, but if you just change out the pickups because people say you should, you may end up hating your mod and liking it better with the stock pickups. Hell, the best thing about my SX P copy is the stock pickup. I'd never change it because it sounds great as it is. And don't get me started about bridge changes!
So I'd say play your bass as it is for a while and if you must mod it, mod it for a good reason that will actually improve it, not just because people on Talkbass think you should.
