Let's See Your Hot-Rodded Cheapo Basses!

[bassbenj]

Here's mine. Started life as a Squier supposedly PJ 5. Only it had two really crappy Jazz pickups (?) So a NOS Fender P-bass 5 pickup and an Ultra Jazz bridge pickup and Voila! New Tort Pickguard, natch. Totally cool hot rod PJ 5 er.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[JRA]

cool tools!

 

[RobOnBass]

Here's mine. Started life as a Squier supposedly PJ 5. Only it had two really crappy Jazz pickups (?) So a NOS Fender P-bass 5 pickup and an Ultra Jazz bridge pickup and Voila! New Tort Pickguard, natch. Totally cool hot rod PJ 5 er.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I feel bad for it lying on the rocks like that!

 

[Derry Murbles]

I’ve posted this (now my only bass... minimizing gear for some financial reasons) here and there, but seems appropriate to share here!

2001 Squier Affinity P body (my first bass back in high school), 2008 VM jazz neck, custom trans purple refin, badass 2 bridge, and EMG HZ pickups.

Under 8 pounds, love the tone, and may add an active preamp of some sort down the road. Perhaps some lightweight tuners to combat the minor neck dive:

 

[redstrand]

Series parallel switch and CT’s pots Jack with new wiring. Bring da thunda!!!

 

[EatS1stBassist]

I’ve posted this (now my only bass... minimizing gear for some financial reasons) here and there, but seems appropriate to share here!

2001 Squier Affinity P body (my first bass back in high school), 2008 VM jazz neck, custom trans purple refin, badass 2 bridge, and EMG HZ pickups.

Under 8 pounds, love the tone, and may add an active preamp of some sort down the road. Perhaps some lightweight tuners to combat the minor neck dive:

View attachment 3473119

Beautiful!

 

[Riff Ranger]

Here's mine. Started life as a Squier supposedly PJ 5. Only it had two really crappy Jazz pickups (?) So a NOS Fender P-bass 5 pickup and an Ultra Jazz bridge pickup and Voila! New Tort Pickguard, natch. Totally cool hot rod PJ 5 er.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I considered going this route for a P5 when a proper VMPV finally came my way. Well played!

 

[Riff Ranger]

Series parallel switch and CT’s pots Jack with new wiring. Bring da thunda!!!View attachment 3473127

Les Paul Junior?

 

[Riff Ranger]

View attachment 3472988

View attachment 3472989

View attachment 3472990

Dig ‘em all. What’s the story?

 

[Jeff Scott]

Here's my hot rodded cheap bass, along with a potential mod that I have not done as of yet.

 

[redstrand]

Les Paul Junior?

Epiphone Embassy

 

[Macht-0]

Anyway Zephyr 5 £100 s/h. Previous owner had busted a couple of pots so scrapped the lot of them for a Tone Monster preamp £30. The stock 4 wire humbuckers were good but I like Warman Jazzbar HB's , 2 of them £32. Rosewood covers for the Warmans £6

Nice!
What are those Warmans like, are they close to any other known humbuckers?
I've seen them on ebay, tempting at that price but will require boring a hole on some cheapo p body I have.

 

[C M Stevens]

I’ve posted this (now my only bass... minimizing gear for some financial reasons) here and there, but seems appropriate to share here!

2001 Squier Affinity P body (my first bass back in high school), 2008 VM jazz neck, custom trans purple refin, badass 2 bridge, and EMG HZ pickups.

Under 8 pounds, love the tone, and may add an active preamp of some sort down the road. Perhaps some lightweight tuners to combat the minor neck dive:

View attachment 3473119

Those '70's-style Squier Jazz necks are really nice to play.

 

[redstrand]

Not the absolute cheapest because of the pickup but hey. Original Hammond Darkstar, Babicz bridge killer ash with maple top body, varitone switch cause it already had a hole. 80’s mij Jazz neck

 

[bassbenj]

I feel bad for it lying on the rocks like that!

In art nothing is quite as it seems! Truth is it's laying on a folded up towel underneath to protect it's sensitive bottom!

(And strings actually align with poles, it's just the angle of the photograph that makes them look a bit off)

 

[Axstar]

Here's my hot rodded cheap bass, along with a potential mod that I have not done as of yet.

How cheap is a 4004 exactly?

 

[kodiakblair]

Nice!
What are those Warmans like, are they close to any other known humbuckers?
I've seen them on ebay, tempting at that price but will require boring a hole on some cheapo p body I have.

I've a telecaster bass with a ChiSonic fitted,prior to that it had a Warman jazzbar.

If I could have found a mudbucker cover that'd fit the Warman it would still be in that telecaster bass

 

[Hachimitsu]

Here's my hot rodded cheap bass, along with a potential mod that I have not done as of yet.

View attachment 3473154

Is that a real ric?

 

[Jeff Scott]

Is that a real ric?

Yes, it is. Here is a photo of the bass as stock as it came from RIC in December '15. The model is 4004 Laredo SPC.

 

[cm3ohana]

All of the basses I now own are parts basses and the one thing they all have in common (with the exception of the semi-hollow jazz bass) is they started life as a Squier. The most unique though is the Jaguar bass. First thing I did was change the tuners to Schallers and added a Hipshot D-tuner. Then, I picked up the VM body from a fellow TB'r who already had it routed for the third pickup. I installed a Gotoh 201 bridge and Fender Super 55 pickups and wired the three selector switches as on-off for each of the three pickups. I can have one, two or three pickups on at any time. The pre-amp is an Aguilar OBP-2 located in the the upper horn control plate. I bought the bass and all of the parts used so it took a while to complete and, as a result, kept the total build price under $500. It's my primary, go-to bass.

 

[bassdude51]

Used $120 ($149 new) bass with a cheap but effective and excellent sounding pickup mod.