Telebass pickup Mod

[deepvibration]

So, here's the situation. I have a short scale gretsch with a pup in the sweet spot and a telecaster bass copy with a 70s jazz neck and an original humbucker at the neck. Now, for the time being I can only have 2 basses and I want to make my telebass more useful.


Considering cost, how do I improve the versatility of my tele bass?

I was thinking upgrading the pickguard and routing the body in the sweet spot and installing the original mudbucker. Would it sound like a Mustang pawn shop bass with more attack?

Or should I route for a 51 p pup and buy a pup from fleabay? What about a actually P bass.

I really don't want to sell the bass to buy another. I love the neck and it was my first bass growing up. Suggestions?

 

[PlungerModerno]

So, here's the situation. I have a short scale gretsch with a pup in the sweet spot and a telecaster bass copy with a 70s jazz neck and an original humbucker at the neck. Now, for the time being I can only have 2 basses and I want to make my telebass more useful.


Considering cost, how do I improve the versatility of my tele bass?

I was thinking upgrading the pickguard and routing the body in the sweet spot and installing the original mudbucker. Would it sound like a Mustang pawn shop bass with more attack?

Or should I route for a 51 p pup and buy a pup from fleabay? What about a actually P bass.

I really don't want to sell the bass to buy another. I love the neck and it was my first bass growing up. Suggestions?

Is the telebass body finished in a solid colour or a burst/natural/transparent? You are taking less of a risk with a solid colour - if you need to do repairs you can hide it easier without major refinishing.

I assume while the neck and pickup are 70's or 70's spec, the body you wish to route / modify is a modern copy body of limited value?

If it's a 70's or even 80's body it might be wiser to use another body.

It'll be hard to know what the modified bass will sound like - after all the configuration and specific electronics will all factor into the sound greatly!

 

[ctmullins]

Suggestion 1: if the mudbucker is a true dual-coil humbucker, install a coil split switch.

Suggestion 2: greater tonal flexibility can be achieved by using an onboard preamp. I imagine something compact like an EMG BTC would fit without modification.

Both suggestions avoid routing, if that helps any...

 

[deepvibration]

Here's a pic of the bass. Its too boomy for my taste. I'm in love with the neck though. I don't want to mess with an original 70s pup. I hear that they're worth a pretty penny.

The body is a copy not original. It is string through bridge.

 

[Steve Dallman]

You could wire in a simple highpass cap to roll the low end from the pickup to clear it up. A .0047uF to .01uF or so would go a long way toward getting rid of the mud. If you don't use the tone control, you could change it to a bass rolloff control like in a G&L.

 

[PlungerModerno]

Well the neck humbucker will always tend to be loose and deep sounding - If you want more typical tight or punchy bass sound you'll have a better chance with a pickup far nearer to the bridge - i.e. the sweet spot you mentioned earlier.

It might be nice to keep the 'bucker where it is and add another pickup in the sweet spot. You should keep in mind that that humbucker may have more output than most pickups - so the wiring and choice of pickups might best reflect this.

As for tone shaping and minor electronic mods - I'd recommend trying moderate to heavy compression to reign in some of the neck pickup looseness - and playing fairly close to the bridge as playing style permits.