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Do you personalize your bass?

dog1

dog1

Dec 30, 2008
933
36
72
Indiana
#1
Whenever I buy a bass, I always personalize it to my taste. It's not always due to something lacking in the factory model, but basically I like working on guitars. Sometimes the mods turn out to be a waste as in my most recent project.

When I first bought the P bass pictured below, I changed most of the hardware. The new pup was an excellent choice, the guard looks good to me and the bridge adds sustain and better looks. However, the 27-1 Hipshot tuners are not much of an improvement over the stock tuners, so a waste of money IMO. BTW, I ended up having to shim the neck in order to get what I consider to be acceptable action.
DSC09575.jpg


The Ric got a new guard, toaster installed at the 1/2" vintage spacing, vintage knobs, and the Hipshot drop in replacement bridge. The toaster, IMO, is much smoother then the HG, and moving it made it even better. While controversal on Ric forums, the bridge is superior in design to the stock bridge and still offers great tone and sustain.
newbass011.jpg



This Ibanez was the easiest to "fix" of any bass I have owned. (it was also the cheapest to buy) All I did to this was replace the pup with a Darkstar. Needless to say, this was an excellent mod. The stock pup and the Darkstar can't even be compared. The build quality and action on this bass is the best of any I own. It was made in China. Go figure.

Darkstar004.jpg
 
#7
Well there is also a question of necessity too. I am happy enough with my stock instruments or I wouldn't have bought them. However, as a car guy, I can relate to the thought process behind doing this stuff. I just know how do work on cars. If I keep a guitar long enough chances are I'll do something to it though, even if its a pickguard or a new bridge replacement or something that simple.
 
#8
It depends ...

My vintage basses and custom made basses no, but yes on just about all the other basses and guitars I own.

Here is one example ... known around here as the "Jimi Jazz"

JimiJazzdoc2.jpg


Fender Geddy Lee body
Fender 62ri Lefty neck
Fender tort pickguard
Nordstrand NJ4SE pickups
Gotoh bridge (not in this pic)
Audere pre-amp (also not pictured)



;) ... I have an awesome tech to do the work though!
 
#10
I guess you could say I personalize my basses... On this one I started with a neck, bridge and electronics, and built a body from raw lumber:

3352310193_bfe3889e6c_b.jpg


The headstock says "Flounder" in that pic, but I've since replaced it with my own logo.

Hipshot light tuners, Hipshot "Vintage" bridge, EMG pickups and preamp, bone nut, coil tap on the neck pickup.

...Probably not what you had in mind for this thread... ;)
 
#11
Stambaugh 6: Entirely custom, so I'd say it's definitely personalized
Fender Jazz 5: Cinderella(Disney princess, not weak hair band)sticker on headstock
Warwick FNA: D-tuner
Ibanez P-copy: Already modded w/J PU; I've done nothing else aside from adding straplocks
MIM/Allparts P: Switched tuners/added D-tuner, bridge, strings & strap buttons- might do some finish work to the neck

So, for the most part, yes I do.

Edit: I also added a Snow White sticker to the MIM P's PG. ;)
 
#12
I absolutely cannot stop myself from modding every guitar/bass I own. I think the only bit of my 17 strong instrument collection I've done nothing to is my mandolin, and I have fiddled around with it a bit.
Sadly I bought my Tokai Ric clone last year hoping to have finally got something I didn't need to fiddle about with and mod, and yet it needed more work than anything else I ever bought. Go figure.
 
#14
Kenny Allyn said:
It depends ...

My vintage basses and custom made basses no, but yes on just about all the other basses and guitars I own.

Here is one example ... known around here as the "Jimi Jazz"

JimiJazzdoc2.jpg


Fender Geddy Lee body
Fender 62ri Lefty neck
Fender tort pickguard
Nordstrand NJ4SE pickups
Gotoh bridge (not in this pic)
Audere pre-amp (also not pictured)



;) ... I have an awesome tech to do the work though!
Click to expand...

You're waking up a deep-seated desire for a lefty headstock here- not sure if that's good...
Can you comment on any effect the headstock has on playability, tone, etc? Is it hard to find strings that work?
 
#16
It plays and sounds great, one interesting note, the tuners that are normally reverse wind are correct when upside down!

I have been asked if the low E is better, hard to say it's very tight and controlled I'll say that. It is the only active bass I use and it gets used mostly when I sit in or have to use a provided backline amp, that way I don't have to mess with the amp controls.

I had all the parts laying around so it was not like I had to go out and source them. It was an easy mod as all of the parts were MIJ ... some of my other modded basses took more fitting.

;) ... Mike my tech did add "dots" to the bottom (now top) of the neck.
 
#18
blendermassacre said:
how was the routing on the ibby? hollowbody routing makes me nervous.
Click to expand...

It was actually quite easy. But keep in mind that I used a Dremmel tool for routing both the Ibanez and the Ric. The Dremmel is (of course) smaller, lighter, easier to control, and way less agressive then a full size router. A full size router removes stock so fast that there is no margin for even the slightest shaking hand. BTW, the Ibby has a sound block under the pup, so I was routing into solid wood.
 

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