Replacement neck for an Ibanez GSR200?

[BassOutcast]

Hey guys.
I've got an Ibanez GSR200L (L stands for Left handed) that's been serving me well for years. I'm upgrading to a Japanese Jazz Bass soon and I thought it'd be fun to mod the old one to make it into a reliable backup bass , and besides the obvious electronics swap the main thing I want to do is to replace the current neck with the god-awful looking headstock with a block-inlays maple neck , with 4-in-line tuners (basically I want a 70's Jazz bass look). I've been thinking and Warmoth sounds like the best option but I have no idea if it'll fit, seeing as my Ibanez has 22 frets and the neck pockets are probably different. any thought on what I should do ? (and if you're against it, please don't comment, I know it's a cheap bass but It's got sentimental value to me)

 

[iiipopes]

Well, having played bass and tinkering with instruments for almost forty years, I am going to comment. GSR basses are fine basses for the price. Leave it alone for your backup and mod your new one to suit your fancy. If you don't like the Phat II, You can always jumper it out of the circuit by soldering a jumper wire from the tone wiper lug directly to the tip lug of the jack and take out the battery. But I find it to be a good addition to buffer the output, and to give a variable vintage-to-modern or straight-to-slap contour control.

Yes, the neck does have a different geometry and does not interchange with the standard Fender and Fender derived necks. You would have to have a custom neck made that would be several hundred dollars, much more than the original cost of the instrument.

If you must upgrade, consider different pickups, including a split-coil humbucking J-bridge pickup to match the P-pickup.

Otherwise, put your money into modding your new bass and keeping your old one as a spare as is.

 

[BassOutcast]

Well, having played bass and tinkering with instruments for almost forty years, I am going to comment. GSR basses are fine basses for the price. Leave it alone for your backup and mod your new one to suit your fancy. If you don't like the Phat II, You can always jumper it out of the circuit by soldering a jumper wire from the tone wiper lug directly to the tip lug of the jack and take out the battery. But I find it to be a good addition to buffer the output, and to give a variable vintage-to-modern or straight-to-slap contour control.

Yes, the neck does have a different geometry and does not interchange with the standard Fender and Fender derived necks. You would have to have a custom neck made that would be several hundred dollars, much more than the original cost of the instrument.

If you must upgrade, consider different pickups, including a split-coil humbucking J-bridge pickup to match the P-pickup.

Otherwise, put your money into modding your new bass and keeping your old one as a spare as is.

The new bass I'm buying has pretty much everything that I like , I wouldn't mod it because it's perfect straight out of the box.
The real reason I want to change the neck so much is 90% about the headstock , it's just UGLY, if I could somehow change it without changing the neck it'd be a treat ...
Are there any good tuners that'd fit a GSR ?

 

[iiipopes]

Yes. The mini tuners that are on it are Gotoh copies. You can get them here, @$50 for chrome, @$60 for black:
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I don't mind the look of the headstock. I gig a 2011 SRA305, and I have a Rick 4002, so I like the 2+2 headstock designs.
I must comment on the tuners: Japan historically was known for copying everything. Tuners are no exception. The Gotohs are copied after the original Schaller mini-tuners, like are on my 4002 bass. The stock tuners on the GSR series basses are the Ibby copies of Gotoh. It's not quite something that goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, but it is close.

Yes, for @ $200, roughly the cost of the bass when new, you could get new tuners, a new P-pickup and a new J-split coil pickup, and that might be even better than getting a new Jazz bass. For weekend gigging, I went EMG active soapbars for my Ibby because I wanted to get the benefits of the internal grounding (no bridge ground) for outdoor gigs. Since you already have the battery box and the Phat II, which is the Ibby OEM version of the EMG EXB, A set of their new Geezer P/J's would be a good upgrade.
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[BassOutcast]

Yes. The mini tuners that are on it are Gotoh copies. You can get them here, @$50 for chrome, @$60 for black:
Invalid Link Removed
I don't mind the look of the headstock. I gig a 2011 SRA305, and I have a Rick 4002, so I like the 2+2 headstock designs.
I must comment on the tuners: Japan historically was known for copying everything. Tuners are no exception. The Gotohs are copied after the original Schaller mini-tuners, like are on my 4002 bass. The stock tuners on the GSR series basses are the Ibby copies of Gotoh. It's not quite something that goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, but it is close.

Yes, for @ $200, roughly the cost of the bass when new, you could get new tuners, a new P-pickup and a new J-split coil pickup, and that might be even better than getting a new Jazz bass. For weekend gigging, I went EMG active soapbars for my Ibby because I wanted to get the benefits of the internal grounding (no bridge ground) for outdoor gigs. Since you already have the battery box and the Phat II, which is the Ibby OEM version of the EMG EXB, A set of their new Geezer P/J's would be a good upgrade.
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Looks are a matter of choice , and I've got this bass in the first place mainly because here in my country the selection for lefties is too few to be picky so I just took this one as it was the last bass in stock ... been wanting a Jazz ever since I was 16. As for the Ibanez , I'd create a pickguard for it and turn it into something like this :

 

[iiipopes]

That's a lot of cutting on the body. If it is what you really want, it's your bass.

 

[bassbenj]

Hey guys.
I've got an Ibanez GSR200L (L stands for Left handed) that's been serving me well for years. I'm upgrading to a Japanese Jazz Bass soon and I thought it'd be fun to mod the old one to make it into a reliable backup bass , and besides the obvious electronics swap the main thing I want to do is to replace the current neck with the god-awful looking headstock with a block-inlays maple neck , with 4-in-line tuners (basically I want a 70's Jazz bass look). I've been thinking and Warmoth sounds like the best option but I have no idea if it'll fit, seeing as my Ibanez has 22 frets and the neck pockets are probably different. any thought on what I should do ? (and if you're against it, please don't comment, I know it's a cheap bass but It's got sentimental value to me)

I've got a GSR206 and I can dig where you are coming from. I bought it to convert to fretless but I love it so much it never got converted. Nobody is "against" a new neck, but personally the thin fast SR neck is one of the things I love best. But that's me. I think the thing to do would be to get exact measurements off the Warmouth neck of choice and the GSR and see how much wood needs to be modified to make it fit. It's better to have to rout some wood away rather than to have to glue strips in to fill gaps. Seems like a doable project to me. Remember measure TWICE, cut once!