Ok. I have Yamaha TRBX174. I took paint off the body and it is clear that body made from 3 pieces of alder. Neck is straight as arrow. But needs some fretwork tho. Bridge is Gotoh. It was made in 2014 year, so it went through few season changes and it is ok technicaly. So... I have an idea to make fretwork, put EMG Geezer's set in. But... How can i be sure that bass is worth it? MIM Fenders get upgrades alot, and this bass, as i can see, made from fare parts. How can i compare? How can i clear that? Is it worth to to do that?
A Yamaha is quite worthy of upgrades. They make quality gear at all price points. And have Geezers in my P and they're definitely worth it.
It's a good idea to practice fretwork first on a less expensive bass. That one sounds worth the effort.
I replaced the stock pickups of my Ibanez Mikro with a pair of P/J Geezers, even if the pickups costed me nearly as much as the bass had cost me from new. I knew it was worth it though since I loved it's playabillity and it sounded good unplugged. If your bass has good playabillity and it sounds good acoustically then a pickup upgrade should improve it significantly, as chances then are then, if it is a cheap bass, that they saved production costs on the pickups. I know at least it improved the tone of my Mikro significantly. The P pickups went from decent to amazing and the J pickup went from weak and thin to, well, amazing as well. Got so much more clarity and definition as well as some added punch out of the swap. And it was all worth it. In fact I never owned a bass I love playing as much, and now the tone of my bass match it's playabillity. Good choice, EMG's Geezer Butler pickups sound astonishing, and even if it seems like everybody is using them these days I can't say I blame them, I don't mind to maybe sound a bit like everyone else at least, if it gets me the tone that I truly want And they certainly hit spot on!