Let's face reality here :::
Until you get to NASA-quality capacitors, there's nothing to be gained by changing them (it's just the tolerance, not any perceivable quality issues -
not at the voltages we use in bass guitars anyway) --- and unless you hold 'under-the-hood show-n-tell' and let people gaze dumbfounded at the little
orange cap under your pickguard then what's the other reason?
Just be careful - when you take the PG screws out to show everyone how cute the little orange-thingy is under your PG, the screw holes get weaker and
weaker.
From that point I guess that it's necessary to have pretty wire and orange thingies under the hood - 'cause the PG won't stay on any more.
For the next upgrade, get Dzus fasteners to hold the PG on to allow instant removal to show off the wiring and Orange cap.
Nyuck, nyuck!
Well SurferJoe46, I don't know about all that...but making up a cutesy little story about see-through PG's, bragging rights, pretty wire & thingies under the hood doesn't negate the fact that nearly 100% of the time, lesser quality pots & caps are used in offshore basses at this price point. The "reality here" is that much higher tolerance, better build quality pots, caps, wiring & such can be easily replaced for what? About $15.00 dollars? BTW, if I wanted to show off the fancy cloth wiring & Orange cap, I'd be taking off the control plate - not the pickguard.
Even though this was delivered just yesterday, you've got me curious enough to have a look at what's under the VM's hood. Here's what I found:
No cloth wiring like you told us Joe. You sure you've been inside one of these things before? The shielding paint was a nice, unexpected surprise as was the metal grounding lug - both a rarely seen thing on basses at this price point. Unfortunately, I still get some single coil noise when I solo either pickup, so I will still proceed with my copper shielding plans.
If you look closely, you will see breaks in not one, but BOTH pickup's lead wire jackets exposing bare shielding wire inside the control cavity. I'd rather not have this scenario going on. Looks like it
is broke in this case, and so I
will fix it.
What I don't understand is your ribbing of people planning to do a few simple mods to their VM bass. After all, wasn't the main premise of this thread?:
Calling all squier vintage modified bass owners. Share your basses and experiences. Tell us about your mod's.
I'll go first dimarzio j's in mine. Sonds great.
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If you choose to be blissfully ignorant of the quality of the soldering job & any other potential issues inside your basses, that's your own business. I've never been that kind of person & I like doing simple inexpensive upgrades like these for quality & gig performance reasons, you don't have to agree with them or do them to your own personal basses. But other posters in this thread could probably do without the unnecessary chastising & judgment regarding which of their planned mods
you feel are worthy of doing. Just sayin'...
BTW, if any PG screw holes do become loose - I can fix that too.
Fed-Ex delivered this here this afternoon. I have owned several of their wonderful Affinity 5-strings for the last several years, but when I heard they finally came out with a fiver in the Vintage Modified line about 3 months ago, I knew I had to see what all the fuss was about. I think I get it now, lol.
