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The Squier Mini Precision Bass Club

#4,181
mellobud said:
String tension is a function of scale length. So it does go back to strings, pickup, and distance between them.
Click to expand...
Yep, all of my instruments make sounds unplugged that don’t seem to transfer into the pickups and come out the speaker. How different would boutique bass sound with the same strings and same pickups/cap/pot at the same distance as my p bass? Would it sound like a p bass or like a boutique p bass?

could we hear the rattle of a lose tuner nut we all experienced a couple years ago through the pickups?

a rattle of the saddle springs?

I say all this but do feel that a rosewood board sounds a little different than a maple one… but I also hear changes made to plugins in my daw right up until I realize it was all in my head because they were inactive at the time I was making my adjustments…. Lol

I like my mini P

I also recommend everyone watch all of Jim Lil’s videos, on cabs and amps too.


Also I love my mini p
 
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#4,182
Last Sat I had my first opportunity to put my hands on one of these. We had a gig about 1 1/2 hr from my home and we had to be set up before the dinner portion of the night. So with a couple hours to kill we went to a nearby GC.

I plugged it into a Rumble 100, that's my amp so pretty familiar with the sounds I get out of it with my basses. The sound was good on it, no worries there, it was in tune and responsive. But it was a GC so it was hard to really assess the sound with a kid 15 ft away playing a pointy end guitar into a Marshall and playing at Black Sabbath volume. Also it was really dirty with a ton of greasy fingerprints on it, not that that's an issue with the bass itself.

One thing I noticed though. They put bigger/nicer tuners on this mini P than they did on the Bronco. That's disappointing since I otherwise love the Bronco necks. :(
 
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#4,183
WI Short Scaler said:
Last Sat I had my first opportunity to put my hands on one of these. We had a gig about 1 1/2 hr from my home and we had to be set up before the dinner portion of the night. So with a couple hours to kill we went to a nearby GC.

I plugged it into a Rumble 100, that's my amp so pretty familiar with the sounds I get out of it with my basses. The sound was good on it, no worries there, it was in tune and responsive. But it was a GC so it was hard to really assess the sound with a kid 15 ft away playing a pointy end guitar into a Marshall and playing at Black Sabbath volume. Also it was really dirty with a ton of greasy fingerprints on it, not that that's an issue with the bass itself.

One thing I noticed though. They put bigger/nicer tuners on this mini P than they did on the Bronco. That's disappointing since I otherwise love the Bronco necks. :(
Click to expand...
The new Bronco from the Sonic series has better tuners and a 4 saddle bridge. It was long overdue. I need new tuners for my Bronco but any decent replacement needs larger holes. I'm a bit nervous drilling into a headstock tbh
 
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#4,184
andare said:
The new Bronco from the Sonic series has better tuners and a 4 saddle bridge. It was long overdue. I need new tuners for my Bronco but any decent replacement needs larger holes. I'm a bit nervous drilling into a headstock tbh
Click to expand...

And I share in that nervousness, no way I'm gonna try it on one of the two necks that I have on working basses. I tried some experiments to enlarge the holes and they all turned out bad. Either they looked like an inebriated beaver gnawed on the wood or it just split. I'm not a woodworker.

One of the Bronco necks I have came with Hipshots already installed so golden there. The other one I found some Ping tuners that were drop in replacements and they've been good, just not as good as the Hipshots.

I wonder if the new tuners would be a drop in replacement on the Bronco necks we have now?
 
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#4,185
WI Short Scaler said:
Last Sat I had my first opportunity to put my hands on one of these. We had a gig about 1 1/2 hr from my home and we had to be set up before the dinner portion of the night. So with a couple hours to kill we went to a nearby GC.

I plugged it into a Rumble 100, that's my amp so pretty familiar with the sounds I get out of it with my basses. The sound was good on it, no worries there, it was in tune and responsive. But it was a GC so it was hard to really assess the sound with a kid 15 ft away playing a pointy end guitar into a Marshall and playing at Black Sabbath volume. Also it was really dirty with a ton of greasy fingerprints on it, not that that's an issue with the bass itself.

One thing I noticed though. They put bigger/nicer tuners on this mini P than they did on the Bronco. That's disappointing since I otherwise love the Bronco necks. :(
Click to expand...

I thought you might have already tried one before :thumbsup:..They are very playable. I really, really enjoy mine and its gets played daily on the couch when practicing and learning songs. I have used mine on a couple of very small stage gigs and it sounded great and I receive compliments on the sound and questions about what it is since mine has been modified so much. I really wish they would make a Squier mini Jazz so I can have another project. :cool:

aPLh1R7.jpg
 
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#4,186
TK4261 said:
I thought you might have already tried one before :thumbsup:..They are very playable.... I really wish they would make a Squier mini Jazz so I can have another project. :cool:
Click to expand...

No music stores here so never saw one in person to try, or I would have. The neck felt great and I'd try one on one of my SS's but don't want to have to move the bridge which I think I'd have to do. And yes, a jazz would be great. The mods on yours look cool too!

But I don't need another bass. :laugh:
 
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#4,188
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#4,191
Honestly I wish the Mini P had a 30" scale and a wider nut. The Mini is just a tad too small and I always have trouble with the Jazz nut width. Plus all the string issues would go away
WI Short Scaler said:
And I share in that nervousness, no way I'm gonna try it on one of the two necks that I have on working basses. I tried some experiments to enlarge the holes and they all turned out bad. Either they looked like an inebriated beaver gnawed on the wood or it just split. I'm not a woodworker.

One of the Bronco necks I have came with Hipshots already installed so golden there. The other one I found some Ping tuners that were drop in replacements and they've been good, just not as good as the Hipshots.

I wonder if the new tuners would be a drop in replacement on the Bronco necks we have now?
Click to expand...
I think our Broncos have a bore of 10mm so it's too small for any tuner except those Pings you have. I wonder what possessed Squier to make the Bronco that way when just a couple of years earlier they had the wonderful Vista Musicmasters with standard tuners and bridge.
I really want to use mine. I angled the saddles for good intonation but the tuners need to go. I think I'm gonna give it to a local guy who does a lot of woodwork. How hard can it be for a pro to ream out 4 holes? If he messes up the neck I'm taking a bunch of his luthier tools as compensation haha
 
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#4,192
andare said:
The new Bronco from the Sonic series has better tuners and a 4 saddle bridge. It was long overdue. I need new tuners for my Bronco but any decent replacement needs larger holes. I'm a bit nervous drilling into a headstock tbh
Click to expand...
bit off topic but my son has a Bronco, and putting the Hipshot Ultralite clovers on it was not exactly hard.

Drill out the big holes, drill new holes on the back of the headstock, tighten em up.
IMG_8461.JPG
IMG_8462.JPG

I plugged the old screw holes with toothpicks & cut them off.

These were Ultralite licensed tuners, full size clover, not mini, $15 each from memory.

On topic again, I bought a Mini P-Bass, will be doing some crazy stuff with it in the coming weeks and months.
 
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#4,193
Cambo351 said:
bit off topic but my son has a Bronco, and putting the Hipshot Ultralite clovers on it was not exactly hard.

Drill out the big holes, drill new holes on the back of the headstock, tighten em up.
View attachment 4979114 View attachment 4979115
I plugged the old screw holes with toothpicks & cut them off.

These were Ultralite licensed tuners, full size clover, not mini, $15 each from memory.

On topic again, I bought a Mini P-Bass, will be doing some crazy stuff with it in the coming weeks and months.
Click to expand...
Are they 1/2" or 3/8"?
You just drilled out the holes in one go? What's the procedure exactly?
 
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#4,196
Cambo351 said:
3/8"

This was 5 years ago so I don't remember exactly, but I had a drill bit which was the right size, or at least very close.

Just enlarged the existing hole with the drill, I seem to recall wiggling it around to make it a fraction bigger.

That's all it was really.

And drill new holes on the back for the single screws.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response, it seems simple enough. I a piece of scrap maple and cut in a rough headstock shape. I clamped it together thinking it would help and still split it trying to make them bigger. The Ping's have worked well, at least better than the originals.


andare said:
I think our Broncos have a bore of 10mm so it's too small for any tuner except those Pings you have. I wonder what possessed Squier to make the Bronco that way when just a couple of years earlier they had the wonderful Vista Musicmasters with standard tuners and bridge.
Click to expand...

I think the bore is 12mm but either way it's small. I have one of those Vista Musicmasters and it does have the standard size. Work well but worst neck dive of my four basses.
 
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#4,199
WI Short Scaler said:
I a piece of scrap maple and cut in a rough headstock shape. I clamped it together thinking it would help and still split it trying to make them bigger.
Click to expand...
Oh, that sucks. Maybe I got lucky... I was very slow and careful, and I think (taxing my memory here) maybe I used a couple of bits to step it up in small jumps.

J Posega said:
A tapered reamer is a much better tool for enlarging already-drilled holes of this size.
Click to expand...
For sure, but I didn't have one.

On the subject of tuners, the factory ones on the Mini-P are really awful. And on mine they weren't even installed straight!

IMG_1467.jpg

And they were also loose, so you could rock them back & forth, tuning is all over the place.

First thing I'm doing is putting on a set of Hipshot's like I did with the Bronco, will have to plug & re-drill the holes to get them all straight too.

Second thing will be a Badass II bridge, with (hopefully) string-through conversion. The new Badass has holes for both stringing methods. I've got the bridge and ferrules on the way. That will be fun.

BUT the bridge on mine is also installed crooked from the factory, not by much, maybe 1-1.5mm, but I can notice it by eye. So another job of plugging & re-drilling holes...
 
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#4,200
andare said:
Short of you coming here and listening to the bass with both necks, there's nothing I can do. Easier for you to try it with your instruments.
And since we're in the Mini thread, scale length also affects the tone. We agree on that at least, right? So it's not just string, pickup and distance between them
Click to expand...
I propose that those are not the only things that matter, which I believe is also your point, but that they are the major contributing factors and it's possible that most of us cannot hear the difference that some of the other parts contribute to the sound of the instrument.

My hearing is not as good as it used to be. And it's certainly true that I've met many fine people who can hear differences that I cannot.
:thumbsup:
 
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