I know it's probably an "autocorrect" thing, but I cannot resist, so…
Nordstrom's is selling pickups now?! No way! Talk about "boutique"!!
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Show us your "parts basses"
- Thread starter ChickWithaRic
- Start date
Nordstrom's is selling pickups now?! No way! Talk about "boutique"!!
I can’t even remember what all this bass was made up of. Japanese 70s lawsuit body, 80s neck from Strings and Things, hot pickups. (Maybe Seymour Duncans).
It was a good sounding bass that I hade set up for BEAD tuning. I played it for a few years,then parted it out.
It was a good sounding bass that I hade set up for BEAD tuning. I played it for a few years,then parted it out.
Mjt body , Nate Mendel neck , Arcane ‘63 experience pickup
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Jazz Bass Special clone...fretless, with tapewounds.
2003 MIJ neck, tuners etc
2001 Highway One body, pickups, etc
Of all my jazz basses, it’s my favorite. It’s the only one that stands up to my old 66 Jazz that I regret selling way back ….
Only thing I’m thinking of changing is “maybe” putting some DiMarzio Model J pickups in there. The old Highway one pups are really good, but I enjoy the thickness in the Model J tone, and the fact that they’re nice and silent.
Oh, and I’d like to get a nice spitfire guard for it.
Here’s “with” and “without” a pickguard… just a random guard I had here at the house…
2001 Highway One body, pickups, etc
Of all my jazz basses, it’s my favorite. It’s the only one that stands up to my old 66 Jazz that I regret selling way back ….
Only thing I’m thinking of changing is “maybe” putting some DiMarzio Model J pickups in there. The old Highway one pups are really good, but I enjoy the thickness in the Model J tone, and the fact that they’re nice and silent.
Oh, and I’d like to get a nice spitfire guard for it.
Here’s “with” and “without” a pickguard… just a random guard I had here at the house…
I got really deep into parts builds and modding back in Covid times. This most recent one was very different than my previous experimental and hot rod builds though. This one was a carefully sourced 70s vintage Fender non-original rebuild basically. I ran across a great deal on the 73 neck and it kinda took off from there. I had a lot of fun sourcing parts and bringing pieces and parts back together as they should be. I have a 1973 Jazz Bass and 1976 P Bass that are all factory original. But I really feel a connection to this 75ish parts build. It was a labor of love for sure as I doubt it saved me money over the long haul. It sure plays and sounds great!
*1973 maple neck
*1975 natural finish 2 piece ash body
*1975 tuners
*1975 split coil pickup
*1975 BWB pg
*1975 serial, neck plate, gasket, and screws
*1979 CTS 250K, output jack (harness rewired)
*UNK year 1970s chrome knobs
*Late 70s PB case
*Strap buttons, string tree, ashtray covers, and screws are modern "Road Worn" or relic repros
*1973 maple neck
*1975 natural finish 2 piece ash body
*1975 tuners
*1975 split coil pickup
*1975 BWB pg
*1975 serial, neck plate, gasket, and screws
*1979 CTS 250K, output jack (harness rewired)
*UNK year 1970s chrome knobs
*Late 70s PB case
*Strap buttons, string tree, ashtray covers, and screws are modern "Road Worn" or relic repros
Here’s one of my parts builds:
*Warmoth alder Jazz Bass body in Sonic Blue with custom routed pickup routes. The pickups are placed with the north coil in the 60’s Jazz Bass position. The south coil of the bridge pickup is in the 70’s Jazz Bass position, so it nails the tone of both.
* Bartolini pups 2J Squared quad coil pickups. Each pickup has a 5 way rotary switch for north single coil, south single coil, parallel, series and kill and is noiseless in single coil mode. All passive, although thinking about adding in a Nordy 2b preamp to wake the pickups a little more
* Blend pot to blend between the two pickups and a stacked volume/tone and side jack out.
* Custom designed 1 ply matte black pickguard. The top part is shaped like a Jazz Bass pickguard and the lower half is shaped like a Precision Bass pickguard, so it fits underneath the neck pickup.
* Roasted Maple Jazz neck and Hipshot ultralight tuners
*Warmoth alder Jazz Bass body in Sonic Blue with custom routed pickup routes. The pickups are placed with the north coil in the 60’s Jazz Bass position. The south coil of the bridge pickup is in the 70’s Jazz Bass position, so it nails the tone of both.
* Bartolini pups 2J Squared quad coil pickups. Each pickup has a 5 way rotary switch for north single coil, south single coil, parallel, series and kill and is noiseless in single coil mode. All passive, although thinking about adding in a Nordy 2b preamp to wake the pickups a little more
* Blend pot to blend between the two pickups and a stacked volume/tone and side jack out.
* Custom designed 1 ply matte black pickguard. The top part is shaped like a Jazz Bass pickguard and the lower half is shaped like a Precision Bass pickguard, so it fits underneath the neck pickup.
* Roasted Maple Jazz neck and Hipshot ultralight tuners
I love building them. Two of my favs…
Warmoth Jazz with Aguilar pickups:
Fender MIM body, Mighty Mite neck, Tone Rider Classic pickup:
Weirdly, purple isn’t my favorite color. Just ended up that way.
Warmoth Jazz with Aguilar pickups:
Fender MIM body, Mighty Mite neck, Tone Rider Classic pickup:
Weirdly, purple isn’t my favorite color. Just ended up that way.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,612
- 222,129
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
I like it better w/o the pg - maybe it's the pg...
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,612
- 222,129
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
The Darkstar is my favorite single-coil pu. The narrow spacing Guild to my ears sounds just as good as the Novak's. (and is less $) I use both for my builds depending on the neck width.
Recently posted this - my latest build using a Novak DS/B-S ...
My humble parts bass is a Squier Sonic P bass, which I ended up modifying to the point it truly *is* a parts bass. I just still consider it a Squier.
Initially planned as a platform for the DiMarzio Split P pickup (I bought a pre-wired pickguard from them for this purpose), the stock Jazz bass neck had a bad fret, so I just decided to change everything from there on. Player II Modified P bass neck (which already comes stock with a TUSQ nut), Hipshot Xtender (still using the remaining three MiM tuning machines), DiMarzio/Vai Cliplock strap replacing strap buttons, Fender Himass bridge with brass saddles, DiMarzio Split P pickup with pre-wired pickguard, which was replaced with the above Carmedon pickguard months later (last week.) Forgot to mention, Graffiti Yellow Squier Sonic body.
What's amazing is that it sounds SO good with the current Roto Bass 35 and that DiMarzio Split P pickup many seem to dislike. The neck feels great, those Player II Modified basses seem to be excellent instruments. Love to play this humble, mass produced, no name and no one would care bass (despite the questionable looks, of course.) Addictive instrument, and I could not even fathom the pickup was this great due to all the old online chatter about it (I think it just lives in the shadow of the Model P-which is a shame, as it's quite different.) Glad it is still made, even 34 years later.
Initially planned as a platform for the DiMarzio Split P pickup (I bought a pre-wired pickguard from them for this purpose), the stock Jazz bass neck had a bad fret, so I just decided to change everything from there on. Player II Modified P bass neck (which already comes stock with a TUSQ nut), Hipshot Xtender (still using the remaining three MiM tuning machines), DiMarzio/Vai Cliplock strap replacing strap buttons, Fender Himass bridge with brass saddles, DiMarzio Split P pickup with pre-wired pickguard, which was replaced with the above Carmedon pickguard months later (last week.) Forgot to mention, Graffiti Yellow Squier Sonic body.
What's amazing is that it sounds SO good with the current Roto Bass 35 and that DiMarzio Split P pickup many seem to dislike. The neck feels great, those Player II Modified basses seem to be excellent instruments. Love to play this humble, mass produced, no name and no one would care bass (despite the questionable looks, of course.) Addictive instrument, and I could not even fathom the pickup was this great due to all the old online chatter about it (I think it just lives in the shadow of the Model P-which is a shame, as it's quite different.) Glad it is still made, even 34 years later.
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It is embarrassing how many parts basses that I have. Here's one.
Put this together over 25 years ago.
Actually made the body myself out of walnut, cut out on a band saw, routed edges, sanded and inlaid figure maple for a guard. I'm now way too old to do stuff like this again!
Warmoth J neck with frets but no dot markers. Aero pickups. Schaller tuners. Volume Blend & Tone controls.
I guess I had to prove to myself that I could do this, even though it was a big, big gamble.
Put this together over 25 years ago.
Actually made the body myself out of walnut, cut out on a band saw, routed edges, sanded and inlaid figure maple for a guard. I'm now way too old to do stuff like this again!
Warmoth J neck with frets but no dot markers. Aero pickups. Schaller tuners. Volume Blend & Tone controls.
I guess I had to prove to myself that I could do this, even though it was a big, big gamble.
Attachments
Love that pickguard. It almost looks inset but I'm guessing it is bonded in place.
I can't believe I did this but I had some 1/4 inch thick figured maple and I had to glue a section at the bottom near the control holes because the maple wasn't big enough. Cut it to the shape of a P guard. Penciled the guard shape to the body and then hand routed a 1/4 deep cavity, pressed and glued the maple and sanded it flush.
Once again, this build was a big gamble and somehow I was lucky it all worked out.
(I'm 74 now and was about 48 when I made this. I could never do this again!!!!!!!! Nor would I even ever want to try!)
Thank-you for your interest, skycruiser
(Meant zinc saddles, not brass! Misremembered-not that it matters much, but wanted to be accurate! Missed it, and couldn't edit my post in time.)
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,078
- 46,035
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
This one was originally put together with leftover pieces from a discontinued line a luthier friend used to build. There was only one unlined fretless neck in the pile, and one body that would fit it with minimal effort, so I chose those with the fact that this was basically a gift in mind. My friend had to wind new pickups anyway, so we went with something new to both of us, small soapbar neo sidewinders. Leftover long shaft clover Hipshot tuners, Hipshot aluminum bridge, all the stuff he doesn't use so often. So a proper mongrel, and it was left to me to do the control cavity and onboard preamp. The first take looked like so:
Many different knob combinations and a few different preamps later, I tweaked the body horn contours a bit:
And then I spotted a different body in the burn pile from my friend's unfortunate shop fire, which took several months to rehab, re-contour, and refinish. The bass lost a full pound with the new body, and of course it got yet another new DIY preamp, because I can:
Current format is Bass/Mids boost/cut for the neck pickup and a filter preamp w/Q-switch for the bridge, with active bvoost/cut mixing for the two channels. Stereo output not yet implemented, but easily done if and when desired. Not your typical FSO parts build, needless to say...
Many different knob combinations and a few different preamps later, I tweaked the body horn contours a bit:
And then I spotted a different body in the burn pile from my friend's unfortunate shop fire, which took several months to rehab, re-contour, and refinish. The bass lost a full pound with the new body, and of course it got yet another new DIY preamp, because I can:
Current format is Bass/Mids boost/cut for the neck pickup and a filter preamp w/Q-switch for the bridge, with active bvoost/cut mixing for the two channels. Stereo output not yet implemented, but easily done if and when desired. Not your typical FSO parts build, needless to say...
