Let's See Your Hot-Rodded Cheapo Basses!

[SilverFleet]

I think the bass I put together earlier this year fits the theme here.

It's a 1987ish Martin Stinger SBL-10, which is a Korean copy of a Fender Jazz Bass Special. It was free from my nephew; his buddy found it in a house cleanout in a basement closet.

As found, the pots were completely locked, one of the tuners was broken, and the neck was banana-shaped. I also found out later that the stock pickups were dead. Fun.

Swapped the neck for a TWT Guitars roasted maple Jazz Bass neck that was not banana-shaped, some not-broken Fender-style tuners from my parts bin, new full sized 250K pots, new 3-way "Gibson-style" switch, and Guitar Madness Alnico V P/J pickups. I also swapped out the stock rectangular string tree for a round one. All in, I have about $90 into the thing. It plays incredibly well and sounds great!

 

[M-Mittlesteadt]

As originally purchased for $279 from Sweetwater... Squire Affinity P/J...

Now...

Then...

Now...

 

[skygazer]

Didn't start out as a bass, but here's my attempt at turning a cheap Chinese V-Glorify headless 8 string ERG into a hybrid-guitar.

Original $200 Chinese 8-string ERG:

Modified with tiny P-pickups added on the bottom 4.
Used Ernie Ball 9 string nickel guitar set with 105 lowest string... the thickest "guitar" string I could find.

27 3/4" scale on the bass side, 26 5/8" on treble. Tuned EADGCFAD (E standard 4 string on bottom, D-standard 6 string on top)

Bass pickup sounds surprisingly good. Time to learn some Charlie Hunter licks!

 

[Packard Goose]

A cheapish fretless 6 string I bought with an eye towards at least tonally if not visually getting in the ball park of Les Claypool’s Carl Thompson rainbow bass without all the work of trying to build something similar from scratch.
I first took about an 1/8” off either side of the neck since there was a lot of excess fretboard between the strings and the edge, then reprofiled the neck. Routed out where the cheap pickups were and patched with a piece of purple heart. Routed for a single EMG. Built a bridge and nut out of padauk, truss rod cover and battery cover out of purple heart, and still need to make the control cover which will also be purple heart. Also replaced the cheap string ferrules with a single piece of brass, and replaced the tuners with Gotoh GB350 res-o-lites. The only metal parts left on it are the tuners, brass string ferrule, strap pins, electronics, and cover screws.
The bridge turned out better than I expected. It intonates really well. It’s held in place by friction from the string tension. It could be shifted for intonation, but only very slightly due to where the strings pass through the body.
It sounds about 1000% better than the stock cheap electronics, and plays way better with the neck mods.

 

[Jessefar84]

the wide range pickup makes the jaguar sing

 

[Jessefar84]

My Epiphone EB-0, hotrodded by adding a Serek LZN-B90 bridge pickup. Controls are (currently) volume, tone, pickup selector and series/parallell switch for the bridge pickup.

I want to do this next I have a warm place for Epiphones I have a les paul standard bass and a Jack Cassady bass

 

[ravelax]

I want to do this next I have a warm place for Epiphones I have a les paul standard bass and a Jack Cassady bass

I can really recommend that pickup. As for the Epi EB-0, I suppose the quality vary a bit, but my example is really nice, made by Samick in Indonesia in 2017. I'd stay away from older ones (~20 years old ones, they were made of plywood and quite heavy)

 

[Riff Ranger]

the wide range pickup makes the jaguar sing
View attachment 7388630

Please tell me more about that Jaguar is there anything on it you didn’t change up? Refinished?

 

[HelpImaRock]

Run of the mill Squier Affinity I bought cheap with SD Apollos and upgraded electronics already installed. I added the new hardware.

This Dano Baritone has every upgrade I could have done. Jeff Senn bridge, adjustable locking tele saddles, Hipshot tuners, Duncan pickups, and tuned E-E.

 

[wjcstp]

I posted a NBD recently about this, but I built this from a cheap Dano Rumor bass, swapped out the pickup and rewired it to Thunderbird II spec.

 

[TDR1138]

Gibson. TV Jones pickup in the neck, reversed the bridge pup, VBT circuit, Hipshot bridge and ultralight tuners. Weight: 6 lbs 10.8 oz.
View attachment 7324824
Edit, Oops, just realized this ain't no cheapo bass...oh well, I'm leaving it up.

Did you have to remove any wood to get that TV Jones to fit?

 

[Riff Ranger]

View attachment 7388634

Run of the mill Squier Affinity I bought cheap with SD Apollos and upgraded electronics already installed. I added the new hardware.

View attachment 7388638

This Dano Baritone has every upgrade I could have done. Jeff Senn bridge, adjustable locking tele saddles, Hipshot tuners, Duncan pickups, and tuned E-E.

Love the Gotoh machine heads and Flying Spaghetti Monster Saw a stickered but otherwise stock one of those in action on Friday night, will see the same one tonight.

 

[spiritbass]

the wide range pickup makes the jaguar sing
View attachment 7388630

If your wide-range pickup was also gold plated, it would be over the top!

 

[wango55]

Squier Sonic P bass - paid 160 for it (got a slight discount from MF for a ding in the back). It’s got an EMG Geezer pickup, gotoh 201 bridge, and Hipshot ultralight (import) tuners.

 

[Hot Rats]

Did you have to remove any wood to get that TV Jones to fit?

I did. If I put the original pickup back, it'll cover it.

 

[Hnz]

I did not like the sounds coming out of my Squier Paranormal Rascal and I knew it was the position of the pick ups and the switching choices, so I took a Radical decision .

And now I like it!

 

[HelpImaRock]

Love the Gotoh machine heads and Flying Spaghetti Monster Saw a stickered but otherwise stock one of those in action on Friday night, will see the same one tonight.

The stock hardware was terrible but there's something about this bass that made the upgrades worth it. Maybe it's the ugly tree of a neck. Whatever it is, it's got riffs in it, and was totally worth it.

 

[don21480]

OK - I'll jump in - I love a cheap bass with mods!

1. Bronco Bass with Bartolini MMC pickup, tort pickguard, threaded saddle bridge, hipshot tuners

2. Bronco Bass with EMG Geezer pickup and white 3 ply guard and threaded saddle bridge

3. Rascal Bass with just the bridge pickup

 

[don21480]

and my most recent just finished today, Tahitian Coral Bronco - Squier wide range humbucker in a 3 ply bwb pickguard, new pots. jack and cap and LaBella flats!

 

[spiritbass]

and my most recent just finished today, Tahitian Coral Bronco - Squier wide range humbucker in a 3 ply bwb pickguard, new pots. jack and cap and LaBella flats!

View attachment 7392528

Excellent knob choice.