My Peavey Milestone II - Customization questions.

Previous milestone owner here.

Do you need to upgrade or just want to?
imho the milestone is not really a bass worth sinking money into.

 

+1



If you just want to mess around, modding a Milestone is totally fine. But dumping upgrades into a $100 bass is a bad move.

 

You could upgrade to the Millenium AC and you'd get good pickups and preamp along with a much better set of hardware all around.

 

Modify it with used parts. Keep the old parts to put back on if you sell it. There's a lot you can do without spending a lot.

 

I wouldn't call the Milestone a "low end" bass. It IS a wonderful instrument for the price. As I recall, these basses had a list price of $350, about the same as the Squier CV series everyone raves about. You couln't hope to buy a bass this good in this price range 30+ years ago. The hardware is budget level. Functional, but nothing more. But that's fine. Quality tuners, bridge and pickup would cost $200 (and up). You can't expect that on a $350 bass.

It's meh on the resale aspect. It was an inexpensive bass to start with. Couple that with the fact that it's not a Fender, and that the market is flooded with quality entry-level guitars, and the resale value of Milestones is very low.

 

I'd get another Peavey, used, with an active preamp, and keep one tuned in drop D for when you need it.
The Milestone is a budget bass but they do have pretty great necks for the price and the Peavey electronics and hardware are nicer than a comparable Squire.

 

My first bass was also a Milestone II, and to be completely honest, it's still one of my favorites. I haven't done any modifications to my first one, but I am about to replace the pots and output jack after years of constant use.

I actually think that, as long as you're not planning to turn it for a profit (aka, you're going to use it yourself), the Milestone II is an excellent platform for modifications. I actually bought a second one off of eBay for $80 just so that I could mod it. I first turned it into a fretless, and more recently, I've refinished it Olympic White, added a new tort pickguard, and added a Dimarzio Model J pickup at the bridge (no tone knob now, just two volumes, but you could add another knob, too). My modded Milestone II is now my favorite bass, even beating out my Spector NS5CRFM (which is still a wonderful bass). If it were a 5 string, it would be my ideal bass, and it's cost me just a little work and under $200.

 

I just picked one up. I was curious and the price was right. Neck feels good. I am working on adjusting the neck, so far, so good.

My only let down is in the narrow tonal range but not a bad sound for a single J pup. I think an upgraded J pup would give her more presence.

It only makes me use the areas above and below the pup to taylor the sound and that is its strength. Nice.

 

That looks just like my first one. It's still stock, and I'm still VERY happy with it. It's been gigged all over, and it's never let me down.