Have you ever regretted modding your bass?

[JIO]

Have you ever regretted modding your bass?

No.., I do experiment by modding, but not on basses that would cause regretting a mod/experimentation. A more valuable bass that is modded should be guaranteed to play/sound/look better after the mod or why would anyone risk screwing it up? In my book, mods are either purely cosmetic or an improvement in playability and/or sound. (or both) To clearify, I'm not against 'cosmetic' because visual aesthetics matter to me, but a lot of mods seem to be instigated by the popular attraction to visuals over the function of those mods.

I have extensively modded a few basses and they are all great sounding/playing/looking basses. Haven't regretted modding any bass so far.

 

[J-Bassomatic]

Not sure if this is the right forum. It was a toss up between here and the repair forum.

My daily driver has been with me since the beginning. ~2001 MIM P bass, bought it when I was probably 13. Since acquiring that bass, I bought and sold several basses. I've had high end boutique custom jobs, MIA jazzes, Stingrays, etc. I thought I needed a 5 string, I thought I needed an expensive active EQ, blah blah blah. None of that ended up being true, and it took me 20 years to find that out.

I went back to playing this P bass almost exclusively about two years ago. I play for a living, and the comfort and familiarity of this bass, along with the fact that it is a P bass and so mixes well in almost every setting, makes it ideal. My GAS stopped so hard I'm surprised it didn't register on the richter scale.

One thought regarding bass gear keeps coming to mind, however. I think it would be pretty great to put a jazz pickup at the bridge, and a 3-way switch. That will get me closer to that MM and tighter slap sound that I sometimes need on stage. Keep it passive, and keep the original P pickup. That pickup was blessed by a higher power and is a total tone cannon.

So now you have an idea of how important this bass is to me. My question to the forum: Have you ever regretted modding a bass of similar value to you? Has the instrument ever lost "something" after the modding process?

It's all a learning experience. Go for it. Just be prepared to lose. If that's OK then it's OK. If you decide to redo a fanned fret bass into a fretless using marine epoxy then you should acknowledge there is some risk, right? It's the scope!! It's like those guys who decide to run across a frozen pond on TicToc and fall in. Well, what did you expect? Didn't Zappa have a line, "I figure the odds be fifty fifty?"

 

[Jeremy Crockett]

Being that I'm about 4/10 mechanically, I've only ever done cosmetic stuff. No Regerts!

 

[cjlane49]

Back in 1989 or 1990, I bought a black, Ibanez SR800. It was a great sounding and playing bass. I traded in my first bass (Peavey T-40, aka the anchor) for it. After playing it for several years, I decided I wanted something more aggressive sounding. I had the active electronics taken out, and routed out a hole for a G&L humbucker in place of the J bridge pickup. If memory serves, I could run that pickup with either coil as a single, series or parallel. A few years later, I sold it to raise some money for something or other. I can't decide if I regret the mod, or the sale more.

 

[zontar]

Never really modded a bass--well I did remove the farm mute, bridge cover & pick guard on my EB 3 copy (& switch flat wounds to round wounds)--and then I liked the sound.
And I have replaced the with hats for speed knobs.
Is any of that really modding?
I could easily put the pick guard & bridge cover back on, put the witch hats back on, and even add a new foam mute.