Originally built in 1994 as a SS. Converted long before I bought it. So that center part is just a bit of plastic that I was thinking about covering up. A third pickup would certainly make things interesting for sure.
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Modulus Mob
- Thread starter rockstarbassist
- Start date
GeoffGould
Commercial User
I don’t think there’s much modification that would be needed. Personally, I prefer 18 V, and I’m not sure what it already has. Maybe rearrange the controls a little bit? Three mini toggles? Extra knob? Not rocket science. It just looks like there used to be a pick up in the sweet spot.
I'm guessing this bass used to be a sweetspot turbo, then the body was milled to move the sweet spot pickup up to the more typical neck position.
I think Geof's suggestion of a third pickup is for ramp purposes only, not that it should be wired in.
I could be wrong on either/both of the above.
Yes it was a Sweet Spot or Sweet Spot Turbo and a neck pickup was added. Just a cover over the center space. A third pickup is intriguing and I would not add one without it being a working pickup. The Ramp was my thought as I have never had a triple pickup bass! Which would, again, be kind of cool.
GeoffGould
Commercial User
GeoffGould
Commercial User
Probably just another of the same. Whatever you do may add some interesting combinations, or not. I play three pickups, but usually have just one at a time on. Since it used to be a sweet spot, try for something that has a hum bucker in it. If you don't use it, then it's an expensive thumb rest!
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Found a 3 hole Bartolini 72M45-T for the middle slot on my 94 Q5!! I think I am going to remove the blend pot and put a 5 position knob in for a pickup selector. Don't know if that is even possible, but I found the pickup and that's a big start!
GeoffGould
Commercial User
Modulus Graphite, the ‘80s & 2 Basses (Part 1 – the Quantum 6)
A few posts back, a fellow wondered what a history of Modulus and their instruments would read like. Here is a wee piece of that history…
***
The Eighties were a magic time for guitars and their technologies. All of the experiments of the 70s were now well developed and in production. Musical genres and musical tones were proliferating. And San Francisco was still a major nexus of musicians, technology and some of the best instruments on earth.
I was 25, a bike messenger by day and a bassist by night. My bass was a Gibson Victory Artist that was serving me quite well, whatever the genre of music. But I caught the fretless bug that was in the air during the 80s. Loving the Gibson and its warm purr like I did, I reckoned taking the frets off would get me to the sound I wanted while keeping the instrument I cherished (and still have!). As it happened, I thought I knew of a place that could do the work, as I had been rolling by it day after day in the course of my deliveries. So, one long lunchbreak in 1987, I bungeed the bass to my bike’s basket and rode over to the Modulus guitar shop on Folsom Street.
The shop was located in a large early 20th c warehouse. My memory has it the usual SF/SOMA configuration of a deep, open-floor rectangle with brick walls and a high ceiling with wood-beams strutted about to hold up the roof. A big iron lung machine in the middle of the floor. Worktables on either side. The front of the shop was a… large booth, 8 or 10 guitars and basses hanging on the wall, a couple of combo amps on the floor, a chair and counter and a bit of a partition to separate the vast and somewhat gloomy back from the better-lit street front. I entered, waited a bit and eventually a fellow not much older than me came out, introduced himself as “Joe”, asked after my needs and, after a quick convo, took my bass for fret removal and fret-marker inlays. Just another mod job dropped off at one of the many SF guitar shops back then, right?
Before I left, I took one of their catalogues.
There was much guitar porn those 80s’ days: star instruments; new instruments; the latest rock technology. That catalogue, though, was a communique from a world of basses of another order. Not Gibson, Not Fender, Not Wal or Spector… monocoques… space age materials…and one of them had… (omg, ***!)… 6 STRINGS!!!
This last excited me to no end; suddenly, it all made sense: the Gibson as my fretless and get a Quantum thing fretted for multi-octave note choice. When I picked up the Gibson, I asked if I could examine one of them never-before-seen 6-string creatures. Joe, a thin, quiet fellow with a serious and careful air about him appropriate to his Jesuit-black jeans and tee, went into the back and came out with one of those magical instruments and quickly set me up. I am not a player who bangs out “Smoke on the Water” or lets rip an “Eruption” when demo-ing a guitar for 20 minutes. Instead, I just strapped it on, picked a few notes, felt it against my chest, marveled at its close string spacing and thrilled, thrilled to its range. I had to get one.
It took some months for me to work up the will to actually place the order, but eventually I did. Come one August day, I locked my bike in front of the building and went in to buy me a Modulus. This time there was another fellow up front, a large man talking casually with a customer in a Dead tee. That large man was Geoff Gould.
A big, beardy fellow with presence. Button-front shirt and blue jeans. Like Allen Ginsberg, he had the air of someone with much on his mind, but also easily in touch with the patience to listen and talk me to the instrument that I wanted. He told me about the history of his company and the technology, some of the players and their records for reference, then some of the options from which I could choose. As you can see from the sales order form, Geoff and the team at Modulus were prepared to do quite a lot…………. if you knew what you wanted. There were no sample books or parts catalogues obviously at hand and I was not informed enough to know what I needed. What I DID know was that Alembic levels of fancy would cost; I had the cash but not THAT much cash.
The instrument I got - $2,835 in 2021 dollars.
This is about as basic a Quantum as one could get, yet the most versatile guitar I have ever owned: an ash (?) body, painted Gunmetal Sparkle for a subtle contrast with the narrow through-body neck and the Q6 “Gould” Bartollini pickup set; an on/off switch for each pickup; and Gibson-style “speed knobs” for volume and tone controls. I also asked for a preamp on/off switched that Mr. Gould double-checked with me to be sure I wanted such a thing on this bass – yessir, I did: useful on the Gibson, may be useful on the Quantum.
I came back a couple of days later to place where the knobs and switches would be (I just knew I would be chording that sucker and wanted to be sure my hand was not going to be whacking the controls while getting my Lemmy on) and confirming that there would be a good gap between the neck and the neck pickup, as I like to apply my plectrum there. Done, I settled down for the 8-12 week wait.
A few posts back, a fellow wondered what a history of Modulus and their instruments would read like. Here is a wee piece of that history…
***
The Eighties were a magic time for guitars and their technologies. All of the experiments of the 70s were now well developed and in production. Musical genres and musical tones were proliferating. And San Francisco was still a major nexus of musicians, technology and some of the best instruments on earth.
I was 25, a bike messenger by day and a bassist by night. My bass was a Gibson Victory Artist that was serving me quite well, whatever the genre of music. But I caught the fretless bug that was in the air during the 80s. Loving the Gibson and its warm purr like I did, I reckoned taking the frets off would get me to the sound I wanted while keeping the instrument I cherished (and still have!). As it happened, I thought I knew of a place that could do the work, as I had been rolling by it day after day in the course of my deliveries. So, one long lunchbreak in 1987, I bungeed the bass to my bike’s basket and rode over to the Modulus guitar shop on Folsom Street.
The shop was located in a large early 20th c warehouse. My memory has it the usual SF/SOMA configuration of a deep, open-floor rectangle with brick walls and a high ceiling with wood-beams strutted about to hold up the roof. A big iron lung machine in the middle of the floor. Worktables on either side. The front of the shop was a… large booth, 8 or 10 guitars and basses hanging on the wall, a couple of combo amps on the floor, a chair and counter and a bit of a partition to separate the vast and somewhat gloomy back from the better-lit street front. I entered, waited a bit and eventually a fellow not much older than me came out, introduced himself as “Joe”, asked after my needs and, after a quick convo, took my bass for fret removal and fret-marker inlays. Just another mod job dropped off at one of the many SF guitar shops back then, right?
Before I left, I took one of their catalogues.
There was much guitar porn those 80s’ days: star instruments; new instruments; the latest rock technology. That catalogue, though, was a communique from a world of basses of another order. Not Gibson, Not Fender, Not Wal or Spector… monocoques… space age materials…and one of them had… (omg, ***!)… 6 STRINGS!!!
This last excited me to no end; suddenly, it all made sense: the Gibson as my fretless and get a Quantum thing fretted for multi-octave note choice. When I picked up the Gibson, I asked if I could examine one of them never-before-seen 6-string creatures. Joe, a thin, quiet fellow with a serious and careful air about him appropriate to his Jesuit-black jeans and tee, went into the back and came out with one of those magical instruments and quickly set me up. I am not a player who bangs out “Smoke on the Water” or lets rip an “Eruption” when demo-ing a guitar for 20 minutes. Instead, I just strapped it on, picked a few notes, felt it against my chest, marveled at its close string spacing and thrilled, thrilled to its range. I had to get one.
It took some months for me to work up the will to actually place the order, but eventually I did. Come one August day, I locked my bike in front of the building and went in to buy me a Modulus. This time there was another fellow up front, a large man talking casually with a customer in a Dead tee. That large man was Geoff Gould.
A big, beardy fellow with presence. Button-front shirt and blue jeans. Like Allen Ginsberg, he had the air of someone with much on his mind, but also easily in touch with the patience to listen and talk me to the instrument that I wanted. He told me about the history of his company and the technology, some of the players and their records for reference, then some of the options from which I could choose. As you can see from the sales order form, Geoff and the team at Modulus were prepared to do quite a lot…………. if you knew what you wanted. There were no sample books or parts catalogues obviously at hand and I was not informed enough to know what I needed. What I DID know was that Alembic levels of fancy would cost; I had the cash but not THAT much cash.
The instrument I got - $2,835 in 2021 dollars.
This is about as basic a Quantum as one could get, yet the most versatile guitar I have ever owned: an ash (?) body, painted Gunmetal Sparkle for a subtle contrast with the narrow through-body neck and the Q6 “Gould” Bartollini pickup set; an on/off switch for each pickup; and Gibson-style “speed knobs” for volume and tone controls. I also asked for a preamp on/off switched that Mr. Gould double-checked with me to be sure I wanted such a thing on this bass – yessir, I did: useful on the Gibson, may be useful on the Quantum.
I came back a couple of days later to place where the knobs and switches would be (I just knew I would be chording that sucker and wanted to be sure my hand was not going to be whacking the controls while getting my Lemmy on) and confirming that there would be a good gap between the neck and the neck pickup, as I like to apply my plectrum there. Done, I settled down for the 8-12 week wait.
Modulus Graphite, the ‘80s & 2 Basses (Part 2 – the Space Bass)
How waiting preys on the mind!
The Gibson made for a lovely fretless, but I lost (and missed) that long-sustain Victory Artist purr for a slow attack, quick decay moan. Meanwhile, down the street from my apartment was a team making me a bass… So why not re-fret the Gibson and get another Modulus? A Modulus fretless as my eerie-timbre’d stunt bass!
When I took the Gibson back to Modulus to have the frets put back on and asked to try one of their fretless basses, I found I had come on a special day. “Phil” was in the shop, so the staff was somewhat distracted. And one of the staff, a sandy-brown-haired fellow - another about-my-age craftsman with a very, very serious Jerry fixation - had a guitar he was working for himself placed on the counter out front, perhaps to let the guest take a gander: a dreamy, in-progress candy-apple green, 20 coats of lacquer on figured wood (memory… memory??) version of the Doug Irwin “Tiger” guitar – to be fitted with a Modulus neck he was also making.
The lightbulb went on when I saw that instrument: Modulus could do and would do any instrument you wanted. One was not limited to the catalogue. John Entwistle could order a “Buzzard bass” from Modulus and they did it! Tom Petersson wants an 18-string? Modulus made it! A lad on staff wants HIS guitar? It will happen! Modulus must have done so many “my-concept” instruments back then and now I was inspired to add another to their gallery.
I worked the road extra hard to make the money and this time did my imagination research. This being the 80s, I wanted a “modern” look done to my particulars. I went back to Modulus for neck dimensions that Mr. Gould pulled out of a drawer for me, which allowed me to do a rough 2-D concept model in plywood. Excited, three days after I received the Q6, I pedaled back to the shop with a cardboard template and a spec-sheet to place the order with Mr. Gould for the Space Bass ($1,855 in 2021 dollars - note the cash-up-front discount!).
I was working closely with Joe Perman now. I would come by to see him when he or Mr. Gould called for me to make a hardware choice.
Lots of choices. Joe offered up three different bridges on a tray for my delectation; I chose the black one with all the knobs and tricksy mechanicals because… well,,,, this bass is from the future! (Like a fretless really needs micro-tuners…). With the bridge black, the tuners went from chrome to black, too. A body-inset jack for no-snag assurance. A key choice was the tone-controls cluster. There were a few options, most of them with too many knobs. For a cleaner look and quicker manipulation, I settled on Zeta (?) controls: volume knob; pickup mixer; stacked bass cut-boost/treble cut-boost. The micro-switches were a no-preamp/preamp/out-of-phase for each pickup. Those pickups were Bartollini humbuckers set into a solid mahogany body with contouring for my chest and right arm. I was shown the body for my approval, before electronics and painting. I was ecstatic; Joe allowed himself a proud, soft smile.
The result:
The neck is a bolt on – of the many necks they could make, I wanted the one that was narrow and with a flattened “D” shape. At the time, I did not think a bolt-on much of an issue as fretless basses tend to quick decaying notes anyway. Mr. Gould tried a couple of times to get me to change to a through-neck and, in retrospect, I should have said yes. The neck heel does get in my way a bit when working those tippy-top notes and I actually could use every single millisecond of sustain I can get, the way I play the thing. But the extra $500-ish was just too much just then given that I had just paid out my life savings for these wonders. So I said no.
***
Yes…………my Modulus basses have been used in a variety of musical contexts, live, in the studio and still played daily at home. I like to go direct with them and change the bass’s tone throughout the set or session using only the controls on the instrument. Being an 80s kid, I have a rack of effects set as neutral as possible – the one exception being a Barcus-Berry Sonic Maximizer to gently emphasize a swath of the spectrum per the mix. If you insist that I bring an amp & cab, I’ll wheel in an ancient Klipschorn powered by a QSC for some hi-fi. Whether tone rounded or sparkling, I want them to be heard as clearly as possible. These basses have character to burn; I am proud to be the facilitator that allows them to flaunt it when they sing.
A big grateful bow, then, to Geoff Gould and the aces of Modulus, ’87!
How waiting preys on the mind!
The Gibson made for a lovely fretless, but I lost (and missed) that long-sustain Victory Artist purr for a slow attack, quick decay moan. Meanwhile, down the street from my apartment was a team making me a bass… So why not re-fret the Gibson and get another Modulus? A Modulus fretless as my eerie-timbre’d stunt bass!
When I took the Gibson back to Modulus to have the frets put back on and asked to try one of their fretless basses, I found I had come on a special day. “Phil” was in the shop, so the staff was somewhat distracted. And one of the staff, a sandy-brown-haired fellow - another about-my-age craftsman with a very, very serious Jerry fixation - had a guitar he was working for himself placed on the counter out front, perhaps to let the guest take a gander: a dreamy, in-progress candy-apple green, 20 coats of lacquer on figured wood (memory… memory??) version of the Doug Irwin “Tiger” guitar – to be fitted with a Modulus neck he was also making.
The lightbulb went on when I saw that instrument: Modulus could do and would do any instrument you wanted. One was not limited to the catalogue. John Entwistle could order a “Buzzard bass” from Modulus and they did it! Tom Petersson wants an 18-string? Modulus made it! A lad on staff wants HIS guitar? It will happen! Modulus must have done so many “my-concept” instruments back then and now I was inspired to add another to their gallery.
I worked the road extra hard to make the money and this time did my imagination research. This being the 80s, I wanted a “modern” look done to my particulars. I went back to Modulus for neck dimensions that Mr. Gould pulled out of a drawer for me, which allowed me to do a rough 2-D concept model in plywood. Excited, three days after I received the Q6, I pedaled back to the shop with a cardboard template and a spec-sheet to place the order with Mr. Gould for the Space Bass ($1,855 in 2021 dollars - note the cash-up-front discount!).
I was working closely with Joe Perman now. I would come by to see him when he or Mr. Gould called for me to make a hardware choice.
Lots of choices. Joe offered up three different bridges on a tray for my delectation; I chose the black one with all the knobs and tricksy mechanicals because… well,,,, this bass is from the future! (Like a fretless really needs micro-tuners…). With the bridge black, the tuners went from chrome to black, too. A body-inset jack for no-snag assurance. A key choice was the tone-controls cluster. There were a few options, most of them with too many knobs. For a cleaner look and quicker manipulation, I settled on Zeta (?) controls: volume knob; pickup mixer; stacked bass cut-boost/treble cut-boost. The micro-switches were a no-preamp/preamp/out-of-phase for each pickup. Those pickups were Bartollini humbuckers set into a solid mahogany body with contouring for my chest and right arm. I was shown the body for my approval, before electronics and painting. I was ecstatic; Joe allowed himself a proud, soft smile.
The result:
The neck is a bolt on – of the many necks they could make, I wanted the one that was narrow and with a flattened “D” shape. At the time, I did not think a bolt-on much of an issue as fretless basses tend to quick decaying notes anyway. Mr. Gould tried a couple of times to get me to change to a through-neck and, in retrospect, I should have said yes. The neck heel does get in my way a bit when working those tippy-top notes and I actually could use every single millisecond of sustain I can get, the way I play the thing. But the extra $500-ish was just too much just then given that I had just paid out my life savings for these wonders. So I said no.
***
Yes…………my Modulus basses have been used in a variety of musical contexts, live, in the studio and still played daily at home. I like to go direct with them and change the bass’s tone throughout the set or session using only the controls on the instrument. Being an 80s kid, I have a rack of effects set as neutral as possible – the one exception being a Barcus-Berry Sonic Maximizer to gently emphasize a swath of the spectrum per the mix. If you insist that I bring an amp & cab, I’ll wheel in an ancient Klipschorn powered by a QSC for some hi-fi. Whether tone rounded or sparkling, I want them to be heard as clearly as possible. These basses have character to burn; I am proud to be the facilitator that allows them to flaunt it when they sing.
A big grateful bow, then, to Geoff Gould and the aces of Modulus, ’87!
GeoffGould
Commercial User
Thanks! I'm considering adding a thread to my extremely stale website for some Modulus history. And boom! This appears! If I get it together, I may ask to reprint this.
GeoffGould
Commercial User
"Paul Seventeen", indeed! Well recallled! At the time I changed my name to my messenger handle as I so self-identified with the job.
I actually would have thought my purchase through Modulus of 30 sets of Dean Markley Blue Steel Lights for the Q6 the memory-tickler. The request gave you a pause, but you put the order through for me. You and your staff were very helpful with naive requests such at this... and I am still working through the lot!
I actually would have thought my purchase through Modulus of 30 sets of Dean Markley Blue Steel Lights for the Q6 the memory-tickler. The request gave you a pause, but you put the order through for me. You and your staff were very helpful with naive requests such at this... and I am still working through the lot!
GeoffGould
Commercial User
My 1990 Q6 is for sale. I made some really nice upgrades to this bass. Please make an offer!
For Sale - Modulus Q6
For Sale - Modulus Q6
It’s back! Fresh from my luthier with new set of flats, new input barrel jack, wiring cleaned up and OMG is this so much fun!
edwinhurwitz
Supporting Member
1986
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