Show Your Pandemic Mods

[JimmyM]

Not only was it a big time for buying guitars and basses during the pandemic, but it was also a pretty big time for modding, or so industry reports lead me to believe. I am no different. I made a handful of mods right before the pandemic so they don't count, but I'll show you what all I did during the pandemic.

First up is my highly modded 76 Precision body with an 83 neck. Has been many colors but was stripped with one coat of tung oil since the 90's. Developed a thing for black over the years, resented it wasn't black but didn't want to cover up the awesome ash woodgrain, so I ebonized it myself with wood dye, wood stain, and gunstock oil. Also replaced the Schaller bridge I had on it since 83 with a bent plate and added a Hipshot Xtender but that was before the pandemic.

Next up, I tried my hand at cerusing. My 1991 Guitar Factory bass was also stripped of its finish, so it had to become black. And since the body wood was mahogany, there was a whole lot of grain I could fill, so I filled it and left the maple all black:

Then I didn't do anything for a long time till I bought a Yamaha BB235 on a whim a couple months ago. Swore I'd never get another 5 string but just decided one night to pick up a cheap PJ 5 just to have. Black and white...looked pretty cool, plays and sounds pretty amazing for a budget bass:

I just decided the tuxedo look isn't for me. I priced new pickguards...no thanks. So I went digging for a couple cans of Rust Oleum, found a gold and a copper. Tried the copper first and stuck with it:

Still has a mod or two to go, though it'll be a while. Got a Duncan CS SPB-1 for a 5 coming in a few weeks. Might keep the J pickup but I do like humbuckers, so I might replace it with a Duncan Apollo. But it's going to be on backorder for a while so I have a lot of time to decide.

OK, whaddaya got?

 

[seedokebass]

I have some of these on the way for my 98 Thumb 4 string.

I also have an EMG Geezer that's been sitting around to go in my P bass or whenever I find another P body to go with a fretless neck and a bunch of parts I've accumulated.

 

[Moving Pictures]

I swapped necks. Put a Performer neck on a Professional body. The original neck was unstable so I decided it was a modding opportunity. Next up, new pickup. Just haven’t decided what I want although the Geezers are very tempting and I blame you for that

 

[Killing Floor]

Ye olde fretless, when I got it in 1986 the junkie pal I bought it from had already modded it, EMG, high mass bridge, stripped all the deco. So over the "break" I found an old original bridge and replaced all the shiny bumpers and the thumb bar. I also pulled the very vintage EMGs and replaced with Fralin and added an East preamp. It's been fun learning how to play around the covers.

 

[Killing Floor]

User error, forgot to attach...

 

[scuzzy]

Swapped necks on two builds. Required neck pocket routing and fairly extensive setups. Changed one of those over to all blacked out with a vintage Kramer/Schaller roller bridge. Also changed pickup and bridge on my peavey fury. (EMG GZR). New bridge on my 4-string short scale build (kickass). Changed the pickups in my spector euro 4 to EMG-X's.

Currently I'm doing the craziest thing I've ever done, but won't post till it's done. It could still go very wrong.

 

[Flaked Beans]

Bought this one in 2019 (november) and attached the GK3B pickup in april 2020 (bought it one moth before the bass with the Roland GR55 synth) so here it is:

ps. ignore the ebmm stingray in the background.

 

[arbiterusa]

I have done two mods - the least I have done to my gear since I started - during the plague. Removed the plastic nuts from my Sterling SUBs and replaced them with bone. No point in even showing that.

 

[Chickenwheels]

I’m working on a strap hack that allows a 14th fret top horn bass to sit more ergonomically when standing. That’s about it, really. I don’t mod my basses, never have.

 

[eastcoasteddie]

The only mods I’ve done during the pandemic is installing a preamp, battery box, and side jack to my passive fretless:

And getting Hipshot HB7 tuners for another Jazz V

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Not only was it a big time for buying guitars and basses during the pandemic, but it was also a pretty big time for modding, or so industry reports lead me to believe. I am no different. I made a handful of mods right before the pandemic so they don't count, but I'll show you what all I did during the pandemic.

First up is my highly modded 76 Precision body with an 83 neck. Has been many colors but was stripped with one coat of tung oil since the 90's. Developed a thing for black over the years, resented it wasn't black but didn't want to cover up the awesome ash woodgrain, so I ebonized it myself with wood dye, wood stain, and gunstock oil. Also replaced the Schaller bridge I had on it since 83 with a bent plate and added a Hipshot Xtender but that was before the pandemic.

View attachment 4273507

View attachment 4273482

View attachment 4273483

Next up, I tried my hand at cerusing. My 1991 Guitar Factory bass was also stripped of its finish, so it had to become black. And since the body wood was mahogany, there was a whole lot of grain I could fill, so I filled it and left the maple all black:

View attachment 4273508

View attachment 4273501

View attachment 4273499

View attachment 4273500

Then I didn't do anything for a long time till I bought a Yamaha BB235 on a whim a couple months ago. Swore I'd never get another 5 string but just decided one night to pick up a cheap PJ 5 just to have. Black and white...looked pretty cool, plays and sounds pretty amazing for a budget bass:

View attachment 4273504
I just decided the tuxedo look isn't for me. I priced new pickguards...no thanks. So I went digging for a couple cans of Rust Oleum, found a gold and a copper. Tried the copper first and stuck with it:

View attachment 4273503

Still has a mod or two to go, though it'll be a while. Got a Duncan CS SPB-1 for a 5 coming in a few weeks. Might keep the J pickup but I do like humbuckers, so I might replace it with a Duncan Apollo. But it's going to be on backorder for a while so I have a lot of time to decide.

OK, whaddaya got?

Well, I ain't got all that much. A benton JB-75 makeover and pickups.

Tweeter control in my K212s

My 60s jazz. Only thing OG is the body, and I worked on that too. Patched a fat chip in the corner. You'd never know les I showed you.

Talman600 refinish...a few times and, I whittled a hole in it for the other volume pot. With a pocket knife.

Built my Tele. It went through a few pickups and colors as well as wiring changes.

My PJ. A few different pickup sets and neck swaps.

Hmmm, I think that's it. Guess it's about time to start figuring out the next project.

 

[SLPimp]

Been modding something a little different during the pandemic...

 

[Dr Zee]

not exactly a mod, but it changed my life

 

[Deleted member 261632]

No basses to be modded... but I can show you my IT homelab which was modded during the lockdowns/pandemic.

 

[Nephilymbass]

Most of my gear purchases over the pandemic was recording gear and video stuff, like lighting for example. The main bass mod I did was simply setting up my fender jazz 5 in high C (eadgc) tuning because I’ve mainly been playing by myself and don’t need two 5ers with low B strings right now. Before the pandemic my last few mods were simple stuff like pickgaurd swaps. I had Pickgaurdian make the guards.

The rig changed during the pandemic. Said goodbye to my last ampeg classic cabs and got a Mesa subway cab

Have a few plans for the basses in the future though. I plan on eventually swapping out the knobs on my Dingwall for these

And I plan on having warmoth make a maple and ebony fretless neck for the jazz. Which is obviously the more drastic and more expensive one.

 

[JKos]

I changed the pickup in my R. Low Vaughn Panzer from an EMG to a Nordstrand NM4V using a custom 3D printed adapter. The radius of the adapter matches the fretboard radius.

Pickup Test

Bottom side of adapter.

Installed

 

[Doctor Intrepid]

Revolution pickup surround
Black tea cups
Black control panel
Upgraded tailpiece.

 

[NoiseNinja]

Transplanted the outstanding neck of my battered main Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass to the GSRM20B body in Weathered Black finish I had laying around, from an unfortunate purchase with a neck with horrible fretwork.

As a bonus I didn't just get a much nicer looking body on my Mikro Bass, but also much lighter, even if it is supposed to be Mahogany like the original body, and the super tight neck pocket of it together with the lack of the insanely thick poly finish of the original body also resulted in improved resonance and slightly increased sustain.

I also swapped the stock barrel type output jack socket with a regular front mounted one, which I installed in one of the redundant pot holes, since I have the single P pickup I have installed in the bass wired directly to the output jack socket (since I re-installed the EMG Geezer Butler P that I had preciously installed in it, so currently got that in it and not the DiMarzio Model P as in the first after picture).


Before :

After :

Though I since, as said, re-installed the EMG Geezer Butler P pickup that previously was in it, and removed the white striped, plus swapped out the black foam filling out the unused J pickup cavity with a folded piece of black cardboard, making it's body look like this now (though I since this picture was shot covered the EMG logo on the pickup with black tape) :

 

[mouthmw]

I sold 2 basses right before Covid hit last year, so I treated my main bass (Precision) to a beautiful Spitfire tort guard, because I started hating the looks of most modern tort guards. I blame it on looking through many pics of 60s Fender basses with tort guards and Spitfire web gallery. Once you go that way, you can't see tort in the same light again.

That's about it for the mods really.

I also got a mint condition Bergantino NV610 last year, and a 90s Japanese G&L L-2000 two months ago, plus a nice SKB case for it. My next hunt is for an all tube Ampeg SVT amp and that's it, I'm good.

 

[2saddleslab]

Performed a nitro neck swap on my custom Cabronita, including neck inserts.

Personalized my 1994 Mojotone 212 cab.

Updated pedal board.

Created home practice studio.