Let's See Your Hot-Rodded Cheapo Basses!

[GTHintz]

so aside from the stock Warwick and Ibanez in the first photo the other 2 have been worked on. The blue one is a rogue bass that has a custom wound p and a fender jazz that would have gone in one of the American fenders. It's also got a 3 band preamp from China which was a wild expiriment gone right. Sounds better than I was thinking it would. Had that bass over 10 years. The natural color is a gstyle fretless that I got on ebay for just about $300. That got converted to passive tone because it opened up the tone of the Spector pickups I installed and sounds much better this way. It has an adjustable bridge with quick release on the strings and adjustable nut from Warwick. Very much a sleeper bass now. Both are. I'm still shocked how good these sound. It really drives home the fact that even if it's cheap they can still be made to sound great.

 

[Hoyt]

I could totally go for an obnoxious green bass I barely resisted those electron green Fenders from a few years back.

I have a “Player” series P bass in Ocean Turquoise. Maybe I just like blue/green lol

Ironically, the more expensive MIM player has about 47 pieces of wood glued together making up the body (I can see the lines under the finish), whereas this Squier VM jazz body was only made of 3 pieces of basswood (that I could see before I painted it).

 

[EatS1stBassist]

View attachment 4706613 Body from a Squier VM jazz, CV Precision neck. Painted it Ford Cayman Metallic green, added a pickguard that I painted Gibson Inverness Green metallic with some Reranch, added an Obsidian harness and some DiMarzio Area J’s, a high mass bridge; and more recently a Hipshot Bass Xtender. All parts bought used on the cheap. Sounds pretty great & weighs less than 8lbs.

Beautiful!

 

[Zakken]

This is by far my favorite thread on TB! You are all definitely my people. Here is one of my Gretsch G2220 rebuilt with gold hardware. I posted this in the shortscale owners thread but it fits the cheapo mod criteria:

I got this via Reverb. Discounted floor model for $273 USD. When it arrived the switch was broken off so I was refunded an additional $26. Mods include:

Gotoh tuners from Craigslist $30
New gotoh bridge $49
Gold switchcraft ‘style switch’ $10 ebay
Gold Jack and Plate $18
Gretsch strap buttons $10
Gretsch knobs $14
All parts pots and cap $15
Got three TV Jones pups for $60 from a TBer (2 gold / 1 chrome so only $40 on this guy)

I thinks that’s $384 total. Not bad for getting the look and sound I wanted out of the thing.

Sounds pretty good. The tuners were a huge upgrade! The stock pups were not great. If you haven’t heard about the G2220 pup scandal turns out the ‘Humbuckers’ we’re actually single coils. I’m not sure I’m in love with the TV Jones pups either. I have another set of eBay no names that are supposedly Tic pups. They will be a direct drop in and will try that over the weekend.

I also have another G2220 in shell pink. Got it new from GC for $299 plus tax. I swapped the pups with the chrome TV Jones $20 and the bridge pup is another no name Amazon find. Doesn’t not fit very well but sounds pretty good. Needs new pots as they are HB and the mini pots and stick cap seem a little weak. I plan on modding this guy up similar to the black and gold. I’d love your guys input here:
Should I put black or cosmo-black/ruthenium/gunmetal hardware on the shell pink? I’m having trouble deciding.
I also have an itch to try putting a Nordstrand NM4 mustang pup in there with a custom ring. I’m starting to realize I don’t love the HB sound after all.

 

[God's Favorite Bass]

This is by far my favorite thread on TB! You are all definitely my people. Here is one of my Gretsch G2220 rebuilt with gold hardware. I posted this in the shortscale owners thread but it fits the cheapo mod criteria:
View attachment 4738187

I got this via Reverb. Discounted floor model for $273 USD. When it arrived the switch was broken off so I was refunded an additional $26. Mods include:

Gotoh tuners from Craigslist $30
New gotoh bridge $49
Gold switchcraft ‘style switch’ $10 ebay
Gold Jack and Plate $18
Gretsch strap buttons $10
Gretsch knobs $14
All parts pots and cap $15
Got three TV Jones pups for $60 from a TBer (2 gold / 1 chrome so only $40 on this guy)

I thinks that’s $384 total. Not bad for getting the look and sound I wanted out of the thing.

Sounds pretty good. The tuners were a huge upgrade! The stock pups were not great. If you haven’t heard about the G2220 pup scandal turns out the ‘Humbuckers’ we’re actually single coils. I’m not sure I’m in love with the TV Jones pups either. I have another set of eBay no names that are supposedly Tic pups. They will be a direct drop in and will try that over the weekend.

I also have another G2220 in shell pink. Got it new from GC for $299 plus tax. I swapped the pups with the chrome TV Jones $20 and the bridge pup is another no name Amazon find. Doesn’t not fit very well but sounds pretty good. Needs new pots as they are HB and the mini pots and stick cap seem a little weak. I plan on modding this guy up similar to the black and gold. I’d love your guys input here:
Should I put black or cosmo-black/ruthenium/gunmetal hardware on the shell pink? I’m having trouble deciding.
I also have an itch to try putting a Nordstrand NM4 mustang pup in there with a custom ring. I’m starting to realize I don’t love the HB sound after all.
View attachment 4738660

Which TV Jones are in there? I see one that's like a Filtertron/Fidelitron in the neck, what's the rear?

 

[Hnz]

Nice little basses, them Gretsches!

I had the single pu version once that I did a lot of work on. Still regret selling it

 

[Hoyt]

I made a thread about building this one already, but I figured this was a great spot to share it as well.

Bass made from spare parts.
Old Yamaha BBNIII neck, Squier VM Jazz stock pickups and bridge, Audere JZ3 Preamp, homemade chambered bass body.

 

[Zakken]

Which TV Jones are in there? I see one that's like a Filtertron/Fidelitron in the neck, what's the rear?

Thunder’Mag in the neck and Thunder’Tron at bridge. Both are actually neck pups

 

[Zakken]

Nice little basses, them Gretsches!

I had the single pu version once that I did a lot of work on. Still regret selling it

Nice build. I would love to find a black single pup version some day. That would be the perfect candidate for the Nordstrand NM4 pup. Hoping to get close to a P sound

 

[kodiakblair]

If you haven’t heard about the G2220 pup scandal turns out the ‘Humbuckers’ we’re actually single coils.

I'm guessing one of those single coils would be RWRP so might just be storm in a teacup clickbait stuff from the glove hand guy .

 

[Zakken]

I'm guessing one of those single coils would be RWRP so might just be storm in a teacup clickbait stuff from the glove hand guy .

Yeah I didn’t get too worked up about it. I never pursued the whole refund thing through Fender/Gretsch - and I even doubled down and bought the second one after I heard about it. But the pups were noisy and lifeless in otherwise great players. My motivation is purely chasing a sound in my head. FWIW I think someone did eventually cut one open and it turned out to be a plain old SC.

 

[kodiakblair]

Yeah I didn’t get too worked up about it.

I reckon most folks felt the same way.

At least that was the general reaction when the topic popped up on European forums , more talk was given to the motive behind the video than the wrong pickup description

 

[Riff Ranger]

This is by far my favorite thread on TB! You are all definitely my people. Here is one of my Gretsch G2220 rebuilt with gold hardware. I posted this in the shortscale owners thread but it fits the cheapo mod criteria:
View attachment 4738187

I got this via Reverb. Discounted floor model for $273 USD. When it arrived the switch was broken off so I was refunded an additional $26. Mods include:

Gotoh tuners from Craigslist $30
New gotoh bridge $49
Gold switchcraft ‘style switch’ $10 ebay
Gold Jack and Plate $18
Gretsch strap buttons $10
Gretsch knobs $14
All parts pots and cap $15
Got three TV Jones pups for $60 from a TBer (2 gold / 1 chrome so only $40 on this guy)

I thinks that’s $384 total. Not bad for getting the look and sound I wanted out of the thing.

Sounds pretty good. The tuners were a huge upgrade! The stock pups were not great. If you haven’t heard about the G2220 pup scandal turns out the ‘Humbuckers’ we’re actually single coils. I’m not sure I’m in love with the TV Jones pups either. I have another set of eBay no names that are supposedly Tic pups. They will be a direct drop in and will try that over the weekend.

I also have another G2220 in shell pink. Got it new from GC for $299 plus tax. I swapped the pups with the chrome TV Jones $20 and the bridge pup is another no name Amazon find. Doesn’t not fit very well but sounds pretty good. Needs new pots as they are HB and the mini pots and stick cap seem a little weak. I plan on modding this guy up similar to the black and gold. I’d love your guys input here:
Should I put black or cosmo-black/ruthenium/gunmetal hardware on the shell pink? I’m having trouble deciding.
I also have an itch to try putting a Nordstrand NM4 mustang pup in there with a custom ring. I’m starting to realize I don’t love the HB sound after all.
View attachment 4738660

I'm guessing one of those single coils would be RWRP so might just be storm in a teacup clickbait stuff from the glove hand guy .

Yeah I didn’t get too worked up about it. I never pursued the whole refund thing through Fender/Gretsch - and I even doubled down and bought the second one after I heard about it. But the pups were noisy and lifeless in otherwise great players. My motivation is purely chasing a sound in my head. FWIW I think someone did eventually cut one open and it turned out to be a plain old SC.

I reckon most folks felt the same way.

At least that was the general reaction when the topic popped up on European forums , more talk was given to the motive behind the video than the wrong pickup description

In the interest of keeping this thread from getting shut down, I’ll suggest that we not discuss the Gretsch pickup fiasco any further here. At best, it will derail our thread; I also seem to recall that thread getting locked and a number of contributors landing in hot water, and I’d hate to see that happen to this thread or to anyone contributing positively to it. I’m not a mod, just the dude who started the thread; but this one has happily gone 33 pages without any notable trouble and I imagine we’d like to keep it that way. I don’t take particular issue with anything said yet, but I really don’t want to go there.

 

[Riff Ranger]

I made a thread about building this one already, but I figured this was a great spot to share it as well.

Bass made from spare parts.
Old Yamaha BBNIII neck, Squier VM Jazz stock pickups and bridge, Audere JZ3 Preamp, homemade chambered bass body. View attachment 4738683View attachment 4738684View attachment 4738685

got a link to that thread? I love the looks of this one!

 

[Riff Ranger]

Nice little basses, them Gretsches!

I had the single pu version once that I did a lot of work on. Still regret selling it

That’s incredible! What’s the story?

 

[Riff Ranger]

This is by far my favorite thread on TB! You are all definitely my people. Here is one of my Gretsch G2220 rebuilt with gold hardware. I posted this in the shortscale owners thread but it fits the cheapo mod criteria:
View attachment 4738187

I got this via Reverb. Discounted floor model for $273 USD. When it arrived the switch was broken off so I was refunded an additional $26. Mods include:

Gotoh tuners from Craigslist $30
New gotoh bridge $49
Gold switchcraft ‘style switch’ $10 ebay
Gold Jack and Plate $18
Gretsch strap buttons $10
Gretsch knobs $14
All parts pots and cap $15
Got three TV Jones pups for $60 from a TBer (2 gold / 1 chrome so only $40 on this guy)

I thinks that’s $384 total. Not bad for getting the look and sound I wanted out of the thing.

Sounds pretty good. The tuners were a huge upgrade! The stock pups were not great. If you haven’t heard about the G2220 pup scandal turns out the ‘Humbuckers’ we’re actually single coils. I’m not sure I’m in love with the TV Jones pups either. I have another set of eBay no names that are supposedly Tic pups. They will be a direct drop in and will try that over the weekend.

I also have another G2220 in shell pink. Got it new from GC for $299 plus tax. I swapped the pups with the chrome TV Jones $20 and the bridge pup is another no name Amazon find. Doesn’t not fit very well but sounds pretty good. Needs new pots as they are HB and the mini pots and stick cap seem a little weak. I plan on modding this guy up similar to the black and gold. I’d love your guys input here:
Should I put black or cosmo-black/ruthenium/gunmetal hardware on the shell pink? I’m having trouble deciding.
I also have an itch to try putting a Nordstrand NM4 mustang pup in there with a custom ring. I’m starting to realize I don’t love the HB sound after all.
View attachment 4738660

Ruthenium or similar gets my vote here; I dig pink and black, but straight black hardware would throw off the vintage vibe. If you go with straight black, you should probably also sharpen the horn and headstock

 

[Riff Ranger]

This is by far my favorite thread on TB! You are all definitely my people.

Glad to hear it! I particularly enjoy this one as well even though I mostly play stock Yamaha and Ibanez these days

 

[Hoyt]

got a link to that thread? I love the looks of this one!

Let’s see if this works. I’m not the most tech savvy

My new Frankenbass…

 

[Deleted member 365158]

Glad to hear it! I particularly enjoy this one as well even though I mostly play stock Yamaha and Ibanez these days

Whats this stock thing you talk about?

 

[Zakken]

Ruthenium or similar gets my vote here; I dig pink and black, but straight black hardware would throw off the vintage vibe. If you go with straight black, you should probably also sharpen the horn and headstock

That’s what I wanted to hear!!!