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NBD! Fender Mark Hoppus sig

Yeah, it does seem an odd choice. I don't mind it though. Sonically, it's pretty massive sounding, but I'm not sure the QPs will do it for me in a band setting. The J body with P pickups and neck is perfect for me, I can swap the pickups out if need be :)

I'm with you, the J format feels better bc uts with me instead of just hanging off me. That's a perception thing.

The QP you can tame or thicken up mids downstream.
I like the way they sound just playing one.

GZR set I've got in right now I'm not into listening to works fine with a band but I don't play it at home for the sake of hearing it.
 
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Terrific score!

Mine now wears a replacement flame maple fretless neck and has been hot rodded with a Jazz pickup. Scored mine on TB a while back. Love the Daphne Blue too. Here's mine with a Warmoth Birdseye fretted before the fretless neck was fitted.

FWIW, I kept the Basslines even with the fretless neck. With TI flats they sound very good!

John

IMG_3264.jpg
 
So, I love the offset body shape of a Jazz, but also the sound of split coil pickups. I don't like too many knobs... I was going to go custom, but for less than the finished body was going to cost, picked up this from evilBay instead. Daphne Blue, 2002/3 model.

Pics are after I'd partially disassembled, as it was pretty filthy. Has anyone ever seen a white pearloid guard go this colour before?! The seller said he bought it 2nd hand, but hadn't changed it. Sometimes pearloid photographs strangely, but this really is a gold shade... Under the knobs looks more white. The body is quite yellowed too, a nice green tint to the Daphne - serious UV/nicotine exposure?
View attachment 3187388 View attachment 3187389 View attachment 3187390 View attachment 3187391 View attachment 3187392 View attachment 3187393
Beautiful
 
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That's the color that pearloid turns to with UV exposure. Even poly finishes yellow with enough UV exposure (my '94 MIJ Daphne Blue Strat and my '05 MIM Strat and its guard have both yellowed a bit). Your bass probably sat out of its case for long periods of its life in a room with a lot of natural light.

Hell, many people pay someone to fake what you've got naturally! If you don't like the guard, be sure to sell it. Someone out there might love it.

I've always liked that layout: P neck (well, in between J and P nut width, actually – but still better than a full-on J-sized toothpick neck). P pickup (Duncan at that). J body shape. It's the best features from each instrument, to my taste. I would have got one of those basses if they had been made more like an AVRI, with lacquer finishes and vintage style necks. The black one was hot, as was the white/blonde one. I am in the process of building a very similar bass (single pickup J body, P neck), in Inca Silver, but with a '51-style P pickup and a one-piece maple neck.
 
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Thanks for all of the replies and suggestions guys, I really appreciate it :)

The guard is staying, as are the QPs - I was on the fence, but they do sound great. So, it shall remain stock! Well, apart from the volume pot (it's loose and taken a knock at some point, as the shaft is slightly bent...), plus a new Switchcraft jack that I have left over from a project bass that never happened.

Now, where on earth is that tuner bushing?! Time to dig through the parts box.
 
Nice score! I love the Hoppus basses!

It's kinda funny - I have 3 of these basses (surf green, shell pink, and daphne blue) and my daphne blue one had the exact same thing happen to the pickguard. I suspect nicotine as well, as it was purchased recently and I'm not the original owner of it.

I haven't decided if I'm going to "freshen" it up and replace it or just keep it as is.
 
Replace your vol pot with a 500k push pull.
Google up how to cut the wire connecting the 2 coils, and set yourself up series parallel.

If that isn't your bag, you can hard wire a "rolled back tone" option.

There's a lot you can do with not much.

Instead of a hard wired tone option, perhaps a stacked 500k Push/Pull pot? My take is that it keeps the simple look, but would add both the series/parallel wiring option and volume/tone.

Some of the appeal of the Hoppus is the simple volume only control. For me, I'm happy with my layout of a stacked Vol/Tone control and a mini toggle (P/Both/J) for the added Jazz pickup. :)

I know that it's not quite a Hoppus anymore with the added Jazz pickup. In my eyes it's still looks pretty clean and uncluttered though.

John
 
I haven't tried one either as I like the lows/low mids/mids from the Precision pickup when the treble is dimmed too, but I also like to add just a touch of bite from the Jazz bridge pickup - which was the appeal of picking up an already modded Hoppus.

4sight, do you know whether the Fender S1 series/parallel wiring option option only available on their Jazz Bass? FWIW, I've never owned a S1 Fender so don't know how it sounds or whether it actually was series/parallel wiring - and am only assuming that is how the S1 option was wired.

John
 
4sight, do you know whether the Fender S1 series/parallel wiring option option only available on their Jazz Bass? FWIW, I've never owned a S1 Fender so don't know how it sounds or whether it actually was series/parallel wiring - and am only assuming that is how the S1 option was wired.

John

Yes the S1 is Fender's series/parallel wiring scheme. It's usually activated using a push/pull pot, but there are a few ways it can be done. On my (non-Fender) Jazz I have the neck pickup knob as a push/pull pot - pulling it out puts it in series mode, so both pickups are like a big humbucker, and that knob is then the master volume. It adds some mids back in, and just sounds like a beefier Jazz sound to me, like hitting a boost button.
 
OK, so a follow up on this. It turns out that the UV exposure that turned the top layer of the guard that golden colour also made it very brittle, and it chipped off in several places. So I removed it all:

IMG_20181122_193326.jpg


The result is a matte pearloid guard, but as pearloid has shiny bits in anyway, if doesn't really show. I grew to like the colour, so a tinted clear coat might be in order.

The QP's did not stay in the end. Great "bedroom" tone, but the slight mid scoop and over-the-top boominess with flats meant they had to go. Might be considered heresy, but I replaced them with AlNiCo 5 Wilkinsons - great definition and sound just like a P bass should. I'll post some better pics later. Very happy with the bass still though, it's a keeper :cool:
 
So, I found a picture here somewhere (credit to that person) of the bass Mr Hoppus used during the "Enema Of The State" (maturity escapes those guys) tour - it had a Jazz control plate:

hoppus470.jpg


I got a 3 hole plate, plugged one hole, and proceeded to hack my pickguard up. Up close it looks... a bit rough, but from a distance very cool. I'll tidy it up later, but I think it looks great.

IMG_20181219_213833.jpg
 
So, I found a picture here somewhere (credit to that person) of the bass Mr Hoppus used during the "Enema Of The State" (maturity escapes those guys) tour - it had a Jazz control plate:

View attachment 3253037

I got a 3 hole plate, plugged one hole, and proceeded to hack my pickguard up. Up close it looks... a bit rough, but from a distance very cool. I'll tidy it up later, but I think it looks great.

View attachment 3253041
Very nice!:thumbsup:
 
Hey, I’ve got a friend who is selling what he thinks is a Hoppus signature, the serial checks out , it’s surf green, looks absolutely right, but he’s concerned that when he bought it from a cash-converters it had a plain neck plate it had spb-1’s in it, did all the signatures come with a Hoppus neck plate? The serial says it was from 2007/8
 
Hey, I’ve got a friend who is selling what he thinks is a Hoppus signature, the serial checks out , it’s surf green, looks absolutely right, but he’s concerned that when he bought it from a cash-converters it had a plain neck plate it had spb-1’s in it, did all the signatures come with a Hoppus neck plate? The serial says it was from 2007/8

Do you mean SPB-3? Those are the SD Quarter Pounders that are stock on the Hoppus signature.

They all had the Hoppus neck plate as far as I know, but I believe they're reversible, so perhaps someone just turned it around. I guess there is a market for them seperately, so it may have been replaced.
 
Yes the S1 is Fender's series/parallel wiring scheme. It's usually activated using a push/pull pot, but there are a few ways it can be done. On my (non-Fender) Jazz I have the neck pickup knob as a push/pull pot - pulling it out puts it in series mode, so both pickups are like a big humbucker, and that knob is then the master volume. It adds some mids back in, and just sounds like a beefier Jazz sound to me, like hitting a boost button.
I want to try this Push/Pull Series on a Jazz bass Neck Pickup - my understanding is that it should be a 250k pot push/pull. I just searched them out and not sure whether to get an A or B type. Is one for Volume and the other for Tone, I assume? Any furthest insight would be greatly appreciated - newbie to mod wiring here
 

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