Fender basses you have never wanted to mod

[matti777]

I'm a self professed tinkerer and I thought it was interesting that this is the only bass I have never wanted to mod (apart from vintage stuff). Its great the way it is. Its a plain old '09 American jazz. I for some strange reason tried to sell it once and didn't get an offer over $500 USD for it. Anybody have something like this?

 

[Pilgrim]

My 1963 P. It's fine as is.

For that matter, I have modified three basses:

1) Squier Bronco I bought as a test mule for different pickups. Once I tried a Gretsch 2202 soap bar pickup in it, I found beauty and stopped messing with it.

2) Dean "Cabbie" bass in which I installed Gretsch Filtertrons. Good sound, end of project.

3) I bought an old Lotus P/J in a pawn shop; it was covered in runny black spray paint and missing one string and tuner. I got it to learn refinishing and defretting. The result was a bass that I entered in a county fair as a craft project and it won Grand Champion.

Other than those, I would not modify a bass unless there was a problem I needed to serve. I generally prefer that a bass sound the way the manufacturer designed it to sound.

 

[JRA]

Fender basses you have never wanted to mod​

i didn't know that was an option........honest!

 

[DJ Bebop]

I'm a self professed tinkerer and I thought it was interesting that this is the only bass I have never wanted to mod (apart from vintage stuff). Its great the way it is. Its a plain old '09 American jazz. I for some strange reason tried to sell it once and didn't get an offer over $500 USD for it. Anybody have something like this?

View attachment 7062758

Nope…

 

[GIBrat51]

View attachment 1061235 View attachment 1061237 View attachment 1061238 View attachment 1061239 View attachment 1061240 OK, guess I'll play, too. Here are a few of mine; '94 Gretsch Broadkaster (and, yes, it came from the factory this way); '78 Fender P-Bass w/the"A" neck; '96 Alembic Epic; the Rickenbacker Tone Twins - '01 COY 4003, and a '73 4001; and a '78 Kramer 450B. Can I have a number, please?

Well...
Since this is my only Fender, I suppose it has to be this one. My '78 P-Bass, with the optional-at-the-time, Jazz Bass-sized "A" neck. Other than having to have it re-fretted and re-finished (long story)? All I've ever done to it, is change the pickguard (the broken black original is safely stored away); put the bridge/pickup covers back on it (with the foam in the bridge cover, of course); and, put a new, "genuine" Fender thumb rest on it (which gets used). It currently wears GHS Precision Flats; the near-clones of the original Squier flats it would have had, when it left the factory. It's about as close to "original" as I can get it - and that's the way it will stay...

 

[matti777]

Nope…

I think that should be in a different thread....'Fenders I regret modding'

 

[Rip Van Dan]

I'm a self professed tinkerer and I thought it was interesting that this is the only bass I have never wanted to mod (apart from vintage stuff). Its great the way it is. Its a plain old '09 American jazz. I for some strange reason tried to sell it once and didn't get an offer over $500 USD for it. Anybody have something like this?

View attachment 7062758

Never even crossed my mind to mod my '82 Olympic White Jazz with all-maple neck and 70's era pickup spacing (4" center to center). Plays great and sounds even better than that. I'd love to have my '65 Jazz back that was stolen in 1976, but even if I did get it back, my '82 would still be my primary because of its sound.

 

[Sam Dingle]

I'm a self professed tinkerer and I thought it was interesting that this is the only bass I have never wanted to mod (apart from vintage stuff). Its great the way it is. Its a plain old '09 American jazz. I for some strange reason tried to sell it once and didn't get an offer over $500 USD for it. Anybody have something like this?

View attachment 7062758

what's funny is I don't mod my basses other than standard setup and string changes, but I also have a 2009 American standard jazz sunburst with maple that I absolutely love.

 

[nonohmic]

I put hipshot ultralites on this and was planning to shield and buy hum canceling pickups. But with a fretted custom coming I think I'm just gonna leave this one raw, single coil goodness and all.

 

[Mastermold]

My Fender basses are all stock. The only thing I've changed is the strings.

 

[Bassinthemudd]

Until Fender produces my signature bass, each one will be a mod platform. Same goes for every other brand.

 

[John Sparkman]

I have never wanted to modify ANY bass or six string electric guitar.

But then again, I play them and try them out carefully before I buy them.

If they aren't just fabulous, I don't buy them and/or take them to gigs.

Simple approach, really.

 

[JIO]

Two I owned and didn't touch - I'd include the early '90s Kubicki/Fender Factor - but that was a Kubicki 1st and Fender Custom Shop was only co-producing them for a very short period.

22 fret early '90s Jazz + with Kubicki/Fender 9v pre - perfect 'as is'.

'85 MIJ 24 fret Performer - made only one year (June '85-June '86) it would be a crime to alter it.

oh yah... and my '66 P...

 

[Bass Motifs]

New basses are open season for mods. Cosmetic, pickups or hardware. Part of the fun.

Classic bass, never.

 

[mcrawfordmusic]

I think that should be in a different thread....'Fenders I regret modding'

That’s a great idea for a thread! It would be upsetting though..

 

[dmt]

The only completely unmodified Fender I’ve ever had was this 2009 American Standard Jazz. I always hated it, was a lot of the reason, lol. Too heavy, and I didn’t like the weird way the finish was beat up from the previous owner (you can’t tell in this pic, but up close it looked like somebody’s little brother had used it as a drum practice pad, or maybe a dog had literally chewed on it, including on the neck a bit). So, with the bones of the thing not to my satisfaction, instead of modding it, I just bought a completely different Olympic White Am. Stnd. Jazz that was lighter and in better condition, and I then made some little mods to that second one to get it to my ultimate specs (series-parallel push-pull switching, bone nut, shielding, Straplocks). But then comparing the two back to back, I couldn’t get away from that in my heart I liked the sound [and arguably the neck] of this first (heavy, chewed on) one better…

I ended up hanging on to both for about 6 years, slowly coming to, eventually, lean heavily towards the above old, heavy, chewed on one as my favorite of the two. But, I was moving to a smaller place in September and I needed to downsize and I don’t really need any Jazz at all, so I sold both off a few weeks ago now. My remaining 3 Fender bassess are all modded to varying extents, even if just a pickup change.

 

[LowendG]

I got a used 2016 FSA 70's Jazz (the MIM ash ones, pretty period correct, actually) fully expecting to swap pickups, but it is killer as-is with the Fender 74 vintage-whatever they are. One of my punchiest, more versatile basses.

 

[goodformetal]

Its great the way it is. Its a plain old '09 American jazz.

I have the same exact bass (2011) with no mods. I love the dark sunburst these have. I’ve only ever thought about doing a series/parallel switch but I’ll save that for a project bass someday.

 

[MrAB4003]

I'm counting my 2008 Squier Jazz Bass here. This is my first ever bass and I never wanted to mod it, especially when I was younger.

But... my Squier was from a time when overseas basses were generally not the best. My original preamp stopped working after almost 15 years, so I had no choice but to mod it. I replaced it with a volume-tone-pickup selector preamp and I love it way more than the original.

Another "mod" of sorts is that I started putting piccolo strings on this bass and I never looked back. A few years ago, this bass was seldom played. So I decided to experiment with piccolo strings and it worked! Now this bass handles all my leads, rhythms, and piccolo bass solos on my original songs.

 

[Church-Bass]

I wouldn’t mod my Fenders.

1960 Fender Jazz Bass
1970 Fender Precision Bass factory fretless
1959 Fender Bassman