It all started when I went into my local music shop. I was thinking about getting a "proper" Jazz 5 or some other 5 string, and figured I'd do some price checking. Man am I glad I did 
800$+ for a 4 string P, never mind anything with 5 strings and another pup Considering that I got my SX for 260$ shipped and it sounds pretty good, I can't really complain. That's when I decided to see about modding mine a little, just to see what I could achieve with a bass I already own.
The way I figure I'm already ahead of the game. The body is nice and solid (even if it is 3 piece) with a really good finish. The neck is solid, no warping or anything, and I've already satinized the back of it with ultra fine sandpaper
The electronics sound nice too. Theres a little noise with the tone open, but I much prefer it closed anyways. Some really nice phat growly mids and smooth lows.
The 1st problem I had was intonation. I'd have had to have cranked the saddles right back to get it to intone properly on the low B. My original solution was to get a new bridge, but I couldn't find one thin enough, so I decided to move the one it came with back. I could only move it about 10mm with out getting new saddle screws, but it worked out fine. Heavy, well constructed bridge, considering the price. Makes the bridge on my more expensive noname look crazy flimsy. Tough too. It took me a bit to dremel out a couple of the string holes to make stringing it easier.
In the end it worked out quite nice, so I've decided to dress her up a little. Got some new black knobs coming that look like the ones on an actual fender jazz to replace the tacky ones that say "volume" and "tone". Im getting a tort pickguard custom cut/drilled cus the fender ones don't line up. The funny part is that it won't cost all that much more than an official fender one
, or at least as compared to the ones carried locally.
The cost of all this in the end (including shipping costs)? Somewhere around 400$ 
I honestly can't believe that I'm gonna have a fairly unique (or at least uniquely set up) fender knockoff for about a 3rd of the price of an actual fender. I'm really starting to like this whole Chinese manufacturing thing
LOL...
Anyways, I just thought I'd share
800$+ for a 4 string P, never mind anything with 5 strings and another pup Considering that I got my SX for 260$ shipped and it sounds pretty good, I can't really complain. That's when I decided to see about modding mine a little, just to see what I could achieve with a bass I already own.The way I figure I'm already ahead of the game. The body is nice and solid (even if it is 3 piece) with a really good finish. The neck is solid, no warping or anything, and I've already satinized the back of it with ultra fine sandpaper
The electronics sound nice too. Theres a little noise with the tone open, but I much prefer it closed anyways. Some really nice phat growly mids and smooth lows.The 1st problem I had was intonation. I'd have had to have cranked the saddles right back to get it to intone properly on the low B. My original solution was to get a new bridge, but I couldn't find one thin enough, so I decided to move the one it came with back. I could only move it about 10mm with out getting new saddle screws, but it worked out fine. Heavy, well constructed bridge, considering the price. Makes the bridge on my more expensive noname look crazy flimsy. Tough too. It took me a bit to dremel out a couple of the string holes to make stringing it easier.
In the end it worked out quite nice, so I've decided to dress her up a little. Got some new black knobs coming that look like the ones on an actual fender jazz to replace the tacky ones that say "volume" and "tone". Im getting a tort pickguard custom cut/drilled cus the fender ones don't line up. The funny part is that it won't cost all that much more than an official fender one
, or at least as compared to the ones carried locally.The cost of all this in the end (including shipping costs)? Somewhere around 400$
I honestly can't believe that I'm gonna have a fairly unique (or at least uniquely set up) fender knockoff for about a 3rd of the price of an actual fender. I'm really starting to like this whole Chinese manufacturing thing
LOL...Anyways, I just thought I'd share
