Right, so I've been craving a new bass project to give me an excuse to delve into my spare bits box, so on ebay I found this Squier Standard Jazz Bass in Satin Pewter. It was a buy it now, local pickup only in Lancaster where I live, so I nabbed it at 2am and the guy dropped it off by 2pm! This is the pic off ebay:
It came with a Carlsboro kickstart 25 amp (which for some reason is 30 watts apparently), a stand, a ritter padded gig bag, a strap and some tutorial DVDs and books - not bad for £125 right?! But anyway, I've been wanting a 'beater' bass to experiment around with, trying pickups and such, and I especially wanted to see how guitar pickups sounded in a bass, simply 'for the hell of it' heh. I had these pickups from a Japanese "Top Twenty" branded guitar, a 70s knock off budget thing sold at Woolworths, as well as a couple of P90 style pickups from a similar Japanese guitar of unknown make.
...My mattress is floral, dammit...Obligatory headstock shot added...
I managed to get one of the above pickups into the Squiers Neck route, which was an easy fit, and after a bit of soldering it worked and sounded pretty good to my ears - warm and bassy without the tone pot on, and clear and bright when the treble was whacked up; a sound which I really like because of playing with a pick quite often towards the bridge (apologes if any of that sentence seems weird, I don't know the proper terms for describing the sound and that).
I also attached the two P90 style pickups either side of this single coil, with them both wired to the same volume pot. This really bugged me though, and I have future ambitions of nabbing an engineering friend who has access to a router to enlarge the cavitity so I can maybe add a 3rd pickup somewhen, but until then the Squier now looks like this...drumroll...
I took out the pickup from the Top Twenty simply because I didn't like the way it looked with the other two, and didn't like having more than one pickup attached to one pot. I could get someone to route a Jag style extra control space, and have another jack for one extra pickup or just enlarge the one already, but until I come across a similar P90 from the 70s that won't be too soon!
The pickups that are finally on it are really strange, I remember them having that surfy 'twang' that you might associate with old Japanese guitars like the Guyatones and Teiscos, and it really comes across on the jazz bass. The black bits you can see are actually holes in the metal with what looks like leather underneath. They're also wound strangely, with a core of copper wiring and a magnet either side - I don't know if this is standard for a P90, I just noticed it being really different to a lot of bass pickups I've seen in the past. Here's a couple of close-up pics:
The, ahem, interesting pickguard is just a replacement for the time being to cover the hole where the original jazz pickup was. Believe it or not it's just the cardboard box backing off of a masterpiece Starscream Transformer! The packaging, which was going to be thrown out, came in pretty handy! For some reason the neck pickup is much louder than the bridge one; I can't remember if it was like this on the guitar it came off, but it seems a bit strange. Unfortunately I can't adjust the height of the pickups either, because they're literally just screwed straight onto the body - bit of a cheat I know, but I've still got the Jazz pickups if I ever get bored of it!
I havn't got any equipment that'll let me record how it sounds, so I can't upload any examples, but it sounds different enough from my Precision to enetertain me for a while. And that neck pickup sounds great turned up with the tone pot on full, really clear, to the point where I had fun making the ceiling tiles in my student flat rattle whilst testing it out ha! Here's a few more pics of the finished project, hopefully someday I can add more or improve upon it (I'm thinking the pickguard hehe). Also I now have a fair few bits extra for my parts box - and as with every other project I've ever done, there were some damn washers spare ARGH. If you've read all this, then cheers - I had fun sharing! Keep on bassing fellow peeps!
N.B. If I've made images too big, posted in the wrong place or done anything wrong (first thread posted) sorry, I read all the newbie threads and that, fingers crossed this works - I love "Preview Post" ha! Cheers!
It came with a Carlsboro kickstart 25 amp (which for some reason is 30 watts apparently), a stand, a ritter padded gig bag, a strap and some tutorial DVDs and books - not bad for £125 right?! But anyway, I've been wanting a 'beater' bass to experiment around with, trying pickups and such, and I especially wanted to see how guitar pickups sounded in a bass, simply 'for the hell of it' heh. I had these pickups from a Japanese "Top Twenty" branded guitar, a 70s knock off budget thing sold at Woolworths, as well as a couple of P90 style pickups from a similar Japanese guitar of unknown make.
...My mattress is floral, dammit...Obligatory headstock shot added...
I managed to get one of the above pickups into the Squiers Neck route, which was an easy fit, and after a bit of soldering it worked and sounded pretty good to my ears - warm and bassy without the tone pot on, and clear and bright when the treble was whacked up; a sound which I really like because of playing with a pick quite often towards the bridge (apologes if any of that sentence seems weird, I don't know the proper terms for describing the sound and that).
I also attached the two P90 style pickups either side of this single coil, with them both wired to the same volume pot. This really bugged me though, and I have future ambitions of nabbing an engineering friend who has access to a router to enlarge the cavitity so I can maybe add a 3rd pickup somewhen, but until then the Squier now looks like this...drumroll...
I took out the pickup from the Top Twenty simply because I didn't like the way it looked with the other two, and didn't like having more than one pickup attached to one pot. I could get someone to route a Jag style extra control space, and have another jack for one extra pickup or just enlarge the one already, but until I come across a similar P90 from the 70s that won't be too soon!
The pickups that are finally on it are really strange, I remember them having that surfy 'twang' that you might associate with old Japanese guitars like the Guyatones and Teiscos, and it really comes across on the jazz bass. The black bits you can see are actually holes in the metal with what looks like leather underneath. They're also wound strangely, with a core of copper wiring and a magnet either side - I don't know if this is standard for a P90, I just noticed it being really different to a lot of bass pickups I've seen in the past. Here's a couple of close-up pics:
The, ahem, interesting pickguard is just a replacement for the time being to cover the hole where the original jazz pickup was. Believe it or not it's just the cardboard box backing off of a masterpiece Starscream Transformer! The packaging, which was going to be thrown out, came in pretty handy! For some reason the neck pickup is much louder than the bridge one; I can't remember if it was like this on the guitar it came off, but it seems a bit strange. Unfortunately I can't adjust the height of the pickups either, because they're literally just screwed straight onto the body - bit of a cheat I know, but I've still got the Jazz pickups if I ever get bored of it!
I havn't got any equipment that'll let me record how it sounds, so I can't upload any examples, but it sounds different enough from my Precision to enetertain me for a while. And that neck pickup sounds great turned up with the tone pot on full, really clear, to the point where I had fun making the ceiling tiles in my student flat rattle whilst testing it out ha! Here's a few more pics of the finished project, hopefully someday I can add more or improve upon it (I'm thinking the pickguard hehe). Also I now have a fair few bits extra for my parts box - and as with every other project I've ever done, there were some damn washers spare ARGH. If you've read all this, then cheers - I had fun sharing! Keep on bassing fellow peeps!
N.B. If I've made images too big, posted in the wrong place or done anything wrong (first thread posted) sorry, I read all the newbie threads and that, fingers crossed this works - I love "Preview Post" ha! Cheers!
