Let's See Your Hot-Rodded Cheapo Basses!

[Aussie Player]

I beat my all time record for an el cheapo bass recently when my wife dragged me into a consignment junk shop. I always joke and tell her to keep an eye out for a battered '62 jazz bass when she called me over to a dark corner and I found myself looking at a near mint P bass with no markings.

This puzzled me so I turned it over expecting to seek the skunk stripe common to Squires and there was none. MMmmmm!
Looking at the price tag, I made my way to the cashier. Didn't need a P bass, already had several Fender's including a MIA P but for $50 what the heck. Took it home and cleaned it, pots were junk, so I changed the pots to CTS, added a new Fender Bridge, Switchcraft output jack and some Roto '66's.

 

[ejaggers]

Well, the story is that I quite liked the model and since it wasn't expensive I bought one.
I liked the sound but it 'lacked something' for the use I had in mind for it.
So I decided to chamber the body.


Man!!!......That's nice.
Did you do all the work yourself?....057912





Change the hardware from silver to black, just because



And sand and paint the top of the body







I decided to make a 'ramp' for it that would close in the pu aswell.

 

[EatS1stBassist]

I beat my all time record for an el cheapo bass recently when my wife dragged me into a consignment junk shop. I always joke and tell her to keep an eye out for a battered '62 jazz bass when she called me over to a dark corner and I found myself looking at a near mint P bass with no markings.

This puzzled me so I turned it over expecting to seek the skunk stripe common to Squires and there was none. MMmmmm!
Looking at the price tag, I made my way to the cashier. Didn't need a P bass, already had several Fender's including a MIA P but for $50 what the heck. Took it home and cleaned it, pots were junk, so I changed the pots to CTS, added a new Fender Bridge, Switchcraft output jack and some Roto '66's.
View attachment 4779940

Really cool!

 

[bass4u]

I guess this bass is as cheap as they can get.....it was free. A fellow musician (guitarist) gave the bass to me. He stated the bass was unplayable for him because the action was way too high and the neck was warped. I tried to tell him I could probably make some adjustments and make the bass playable. He declined the offer and said I could just have it. I didn't turn down his offer. After adjusting the truss rod slightly for a few weeks and setting up the nice non-OEM bridge, the neck is straight, low action and plays well. The only negative aspect of the bass is that the pickups have an anemic tone to them. But for free I can't complain.

 

[Riff Ranger]

I guess this bass is as cheap as they can get.....it was free. A fellow musician (guitarist) gave the bass to me. He stated the bass was unplayable for him because the action was way too high and the neck was warped. I tried to tell him I could probably make some adjustments and make the bass playable. He declined the offer and said I could just have it. I didn't turn down his offer. After adjusting the truss rod slightly for a few weeks and setting up the nice non-OEM bridge, the neck is straight, low action and plays well. The only negative aspect of the bass is that the pickups have an anemic tone to them. But for free I can't complain. View attachment 4780141

FREE(T-)BIRD!!!!!

 

[Riff Ranger]

I guess this bass is as cheap as they can get.....it was free. A fellow musician (guitarist) gave the bass to me. He stated the bass was unplayable for him because the action was way too high and the neck was warped. I tried to tell him I could probably make some adjustments and make the bass playable. He declined the offer and said I could just have it. I didn't turn down his offer. After adjusting the truss rod slightly for a few weeks and setting up the nice non-OEM bridge, the neck is straight, low action and plays well. The only negative aspect of the bass is that the pickups have an anemic tone to them. But for free I can't complain. View attachment 4780141

Glad it already has a good bridge on it, too. I know some like the 3-point Gibson bass bridge, but I know of many more who don’t. Slap some fire-breathing pickups in that beast and knock down some walls!

 

[AaronBass4]

Here's mine I just put together. I got it in a package deal with some stuff I already sold for $10 more than I paid . . . so, I guess that makes the bass -$10 . . . better than free! I had a set of Geezers I got on a Reverb coupon and a set if TI flats snagged the last time there were under $60 at Amazon that I wanted to try together on a P. 2010 Affinity P, still had the plastic on the pick guard. Bought a black anodized aluminum pick guard from Amazon. Did a cursory fret level on the neck. Put together and rocked it a last rehearsal. I found it to be too light a slightly neck-heavy. . . the whole thing was just over 7 lbs. So, added a KickAss bridge to add some weight to the back end. Pics . . .

 

[Riff Ranger]

Here's mine I just put together. I got it in a package deal with some stuff I already sold for $10 more than I paid . . . so, I guess that makes the bass -$10 . . . better than free! I had a set of Geezers I got on a Reverb coupon and a set if TI flats snagged the last time there were under $60 at Amazon that I wanted to try together on a P. 2010 Affinity P, still had the plastic on the pick guard. Bought a black anodized aluminum pick guard from Amazon. Did a cursory fret level on the neck. Put together and rocked it a last rehearsal. I found it to be too light a slightly neck-heavy. . . the whole thing was just over 7 lbs. So, added a KickAss bridge to add some weight to the back end. Pics . . . View attachment 4782499 View attachment 4782501

Nice! Now black out everything on the headstock, and the jack

 

[EatS1stBassist]

Here's mine I just put together. I got it in a package deal with some stuff I already sold for $10 more than I paid . . . so, I guess that makes the bass -$10 . . . better than free! I had a set of Geezers I got on a Reverb coupon and a set if TI flats snagged the last time there were under $60 at Amazon that I wanted to try together on a P. 2010 Affinity P, still had the plastic on the pick guard. Bought a black anodized aluminum pick guard from Amazon. Did a cursory fret level on the neck. Put together and rocked it a last rehearsal. I found it to be too light a slightly neck-heavy. . . the whole thing was just over 7 lbs. So, added a KickAss bridge to add some weight to the back end. Pics . . . View attachment 4782499 View attachment 4782501

Wow! Beautiful!

 

[AaronBass4]

Nice! Now black out everything on the headstock, and the jack

Done for now, I think. Jury is out on this neck . . . we'll see how it goes. What I really think would be nice is a black bound maple board on this with no fret markers (just side dots). Haven't found an appropriately cheap way to make that happen . .

 

[Riff Ranger]

Just to have a professional undo this

View attachment 4776901

The old foam under the pickup wasn’t doing its job anymore, and when I went to replace it, I found the holes for the height adjustment screws had stripped at the depth I needed. Assured it was an easy fix, I tried the toothpick trick … and got this

I’ll see how the stock DiMarzio (or dead ringer of a clone) sounds once I finally have the pickup high enough, but if I don’t love it, I will probably give the Lace Aluma-P another try. I think this bass sounded too dark because I couldn’t get the pickup anywhere near the recommended height with everything disintegrating underneath it.

OPE—it’s baaaaack!

For reasons not worth detailing here, it appears it took me exactly a year to finally get this to a professional, who finished the job the very next day. It feels great to have the bass that got me back into music in a big way once again, and it feels like money well spent, too. In the meantime I’ve played mostly active basses, and have learned that I prefer to use the preamps but go easy on the onboard EQ; now I’m learning to love the raw roar of a hot split coil pickup in its proper place all over again

Of course, I’m getting other ideas already I might go back to an Aluma-P, might jam another pickup right up underneath the existing one (thinking ATK or Bassculture clone, but maybe a humbucker or noise-canceling J), and might refinish in slime green but for now, I’m just thrilled to have it back and setting off earthquakes in BEAD

 

[C M Stevens]

I know that this won't be to everyone's taste, but here's my recipe for success and happiness: Buy a Sterling Ray24. Buy and install an expensive Nordstrand vintage-sounding pickup, along with an equally expensive Nordstrand '70's EQ circuit. Get thoroughly pissed-off with the unnatural-sounding active EQ, rip the circuit out and throw it in the bin (yeah, I know - I should have carefully unsoldered it and sold it on eBay). Wire the pickup straight through to the output jack and control the sound from an MXR semi-parametric preamp pedal straight to FOH mixer. I might even ditch the MXR and let the sound guy worry about the EQ - I just want to play the bloody thing and stop tweaking knobs... Happy now

 

[spiritbass]

View attachment 4817828
OPE—it’s baaaaack!

For reasons not worth detailing here, it appears it took me exactly a year to finally get this to a professional, who finished the job the very next day. It feels great to have the bass that got me back into music in a big way once again, and it feels like money well spent, too. In the meantime I’ve played mostly active basses, and have learned that I prefer to use the preamps but go easy on the onboard EQ; now I’m learning to love the raw roar of a hot split coil pickup in its proper place all over again

Of course, I’m getting other ideas already I might go back to an Aluma-P, might jam another pickup right up underneath the existing one (thinking ATK or Bassculture clone, but maybe a humbucker or noise-canceling J), and might refinish in slime green but for now, I’m just thrilled to have it back and setting off earthquakes in BEAD

You don't gotta love a good split-P in the sweet spot, but I know I do. Glad you're generating seismic waves with it again!

 

[MadJack]

My Hot Rodded Cheapo is my Donner DPB-510B. So far I replaced the pickup with an OriPure BP-5 and the wiring with CTS, Switchcraft and Sprague Orange Drop. I'm looking at high mass bridges, as when I play with a pick, much of the time the meaty part of my palm rests on the side of the stamped bridge, which isn't very comfortable. The Gold Anodized pickguard is a custom cut Pickguardian PG.

 

[C M Stevens]

My Hot Rodded Cheapo is my Donner DPB-510B. So far I replaced the pickup with an OriPure BP-5 and the wiring with CTS, Switchcraft and Sprague Orange Drop. I'm looking at high mass bridges, as when I play with a pick, much of the time the meaty part of my palm rests on the side of the stamped bridge, which isn't very comfortable. The Gold Anodized pickguard is a custom cut Pickguardian PG.
View attachment 4818118

I can highly recommend the Gotoh 201/203 - but beware:

 

[JIO]

before : Made in China "Gibson" ... with Made In U.S.A. stamped on the hs back... so wrong.

After : V8 project for "hot-rodded" details

 

[JIO]

I'm going to do some major reshaping of the very 'fat' neck profile and while I'm at it will address the back of the hs with bogus "Made In the U.S.A." stamped on it (maybe they have already produced 017160685 units... but I doubt that also...) so for the time being...

 

[Riff Ranger]

before : Made in China "Gibson" ... with Made In U.S.A. stamped on the hs back... so wrong.
View attachment 4829654 View attachment 4829657
After : V8 project for "hot-rodded" details
View attachment 4829649 View attachment 4829650

I enjoyed watching this transformation; thank you for including it here

 

[Deleted member 365158]

Im messing around with an OLP I recently picked up. I was going to leave it as is then thought another pickup might help

then thought creating a new pick guard would be cool

but after I pulled off that design, I really liked it without so now im thinking this will look cool

ill play around with the J placement on my test bass before i make it permanent.

 

[Andy Marshman]

I guess this bass is as cheap as they can get.....it was free. A fellow musician (guitarist) gave the bass to me. He stated the bass was unplayable for him because the action was way too high and the neck was warped. I tried to tell him I could probably make some adjustments and make the bass playable. He declined the offer and said I could just have it. I didn't turn down his offer. After adjusting the truss rod slightly for a few weeks and setting up the nice non-OEM bridge, the neck is straight, low action and plays well. The only negative aspect of the bass is that the pickups have an anemic tone to them. But for free I can't complain. View attachment 4780141

You should joint the Thunderbird club here. There's bound to be lots of recommendations for PUPs. I think you got an outstanding bass, not to mention FREE! Lucky dude.