Glarry, Is It Good For Mods?

It is a great idea. Look for the Glarry thread.

Official Exquisite/Glarry/Burning Fire Bass Club?

 

Depends on what mods you want to do.
There is a YouTube channel where the guy does exactly this with a Glarry P - upgraded everything on it; this is the $89 model, bottom of the barrel
This guy:


there are like 6 or more episodes where he does a bunch of upgrades - even the neck. You’ll have to search his channel to see them all.

but it might be worth getting the upgraded one for $159 and need to do less to it...
I am considering the GII Jazz with no plans to upgrade it. Just set it and forget it. I already have better basses, I want one as a true beater.

 

mmm, that is a tough one. You may spend $200+ on upgrades. I look at a bass for resale value. I had a Squier VM I almost had to give away. I bought the latest version of Sterling Ray4 on sale for $269 for fun. Kinda wanting to sell it. Only a zillion of them for sale. May have to give it away too.
Said that to say this, you get the $79 bass, put $300 worth of upgrades, it is still a $79.00 bass

 

I've not quite understood the value of buying a cheap instrument and then sinking lots of money into upgrades, unless the body and neck are absolutely your favorite. Otherwise, there are so many choices for better ready-made instruments.

 

The beauty of Glarrys is their low price. They are made for modding -- not just upgrading, which most people seem to do -- and since they will never be collectible no one has to worry about "original condition." You can do things to a Glarry most people would hesitate to do even to a Squier.

Just be discreet and don't go changing out things until they've proven they need changing. That will keep the cost down. Me, I would start with a different pickup, not just a better pickup. Pull the stock pickup on a P and slap a DiMarzio Model One in there and see how you like it.

 

if the plan is to get into lutherie on the cheap then, likely not.
if the plan is to get into bass playing with this course then, no.
but it's a fun educational rabbit hole to jump down so, yes.

 

Put good strings on it, do a good setup and put a Bill Lawrence pickup in it. Mine is now my go-to bass.

 

IF you can do it cheap, otherwise take that money and buy a better axe.

I came this close to putting a full EMG setup, pickups and BTS control network, in a Squier Jazz. With installation, I'd have been the proud owner of a great-sounding $800 Squier. . . . . only to find out when the time came to sell it, most pickers are expecting to buy a good, used Squier Jazz for around 300 bucks, regardless of what's under the hood. I'd have taken a $500 bath ! Glarry is an even less expensive bass, so be careful.

So, I rounded up some great alternatives and put about another $100 in it, and if I get close to $400 bucks and lose a LITTLE money, that's OK. No matter what you do, it still says SQUIER or GLARRY on the headstock, and that is what's going to set your resale price range. EMG SQUIER might have got me another 10 or 20 bucks.

Learn from my experience.

 

Was I the only one reading the title thinking it was gonna end in “metal”?

Gotta admit I was bummed when I saw “mods”. We were soooooo close!

 

Go for it, it's a super inexpensive playable bass (after a set up) or yep just use it as a mod platform.

I yanked the frets on one, left one stock as a "house" bass, and added a CV 70's blocked & bound j neck to this Glarry Burly P body.

This is my lightest bass by far at 6.4lbs. I have it strung up with Fender flats and it is a fun player.

Paid $60 for the bass $75 for the CV Jazz neck $135 total invested.


Official Exquisite/Glarry/Burning Fire Bass Club? ...Check it out...

 

In the Glarry club I always described my Glarry J as sounding "mysteriously beautiful". Figuring out why was a good learning experience. But during this time - in order to preserve a benchmark - the Glarry has not been modded or even opened, just installed TIJFs, and it is still mysteriously beautiful.

So my advice to someone who doesn't have a lot of money is, if you can, buy two Glarry Js and keep one as a "standard", as otherwise you could be fooling yourself.

My roasted ash Fender Am Pro J that I bought after the Glarry? Changed the neck to a thicker profile one (inspired by the Glarry), and changed the V-mods to Area Js, and I still don't like it as much as the Glarry. Just my experience and my preference.

 

Funny how everyone has their particular things they like or don't like about the stock Glarry. To me, the strings were the single biggest improvement. Mine was quite weak sounding when I got it but I figured for $70 it's not bad. But I had a set of Ernie Balls strings laying around and figured I would see if it made a difference. It was the biggest difference I ever saw by swapping out strings. Other than that it was completely stock but still needed a decent setup (but I find that just about every guitar I get needs a setup in the sub $1k category). At that point it was already a pretty good bass. But the Bill Lawrence pickup really finished it off for me. You may or may not be a fan of the neck which feels like it's unfinished. BTW, I found that there IS a finis on it. I tried staining the back of my Glarry Telecaster neck and it wouldn't absorb any, so unless they do the basses different, there is a finish on it. Probably more of a sealant.