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the worlds most tricked out p bass; pics

okay so heres my p bass special ive owned for a couple of years and completely ripped apart along the way. when i got her she came with a white pickguard, maple w/rosewood neck, and just the middle and bridge pups. this thing was a total piece of crap i got off ebay, the seller took fotos with new strings on it and when it came they were brown and green

right when i got it i put on a new allparts jazz neck, tuners, badass II bridge, black pickguard, chrome knobs, pickup cover, and a dimarzio p/j set, these mods kept me satisfied for a little while

last summer i put on the SD quarter pound single coild at the neck and after that it had 4 knobs; 3 vol, 1 tone, and installed a 3 way on/off/on to activate the neck and bridge pups, allowing the classic p pup to stand alone or be augmented with the flick of the switch

this summer i began by painting my own black inlays on the maple/maple jazz neck that i put on, this was done with stencils, spray paint, and some acrylic sealer. many measurements were done to get acurate and proportional faux inlays.

after the inlays i went wild and added a series parallel switch, stacked vol/tone controls for each pup, and a NOLL 4 band preamp which was also customized to include a seperate active/passive, i also put on the bridge cover and black mighty mite tuners which are actually pretty decent

the sound? well i cant say yet because ive been away from my main amp ive been borowing from my friend and all ive got now is a crappy, blown out fender 15 watt, however i do have a birthday (21st) next saturday and im certain to expect an amp with a 4x10 cab, 450 watt berringher i think with paper cone speakers

ive lost track of all the money ive spent on this and ive probbaly spent more time building it then practicing, but i think all the mods are finally done, hope you enjoy.
 

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tplyons said:
Certainly interesting. May I ask why you opted to put the battery box on the front?

Do you get any single coil hum from the neck pickup?

i put the battery box infront simply because i had already done routing from the top to accomodate all the add ons, the space was there so i just used that

i get slight hum from the single coil but everything is sheilded and star grounded so she stays pretty quiet
 
Here's mine. It started out as a '74 Fender and ended up like this.

Invalid Link Removed

Original neck was replaced with another Fender Neck

Pickups changed several times. Currently EMGs

Mirrored pickguard is inlayed into the body

Bridge 70's Dimarzio Brass Bridge

Body made by a personal friend Keith Glenn. It's Ash, Wenge and Paduk.

Can you say the 1980's? LOL
 
Interesting. Sounds like a fun project!

How's it sound? What do you find yourself using most often? Did you put some kind of sealer over the neck to protect the DIY inlays?

That's a pretty wild setup. 4band EQ and VT for each pickup? Can you explain from right to left the controls on the picture of the body by itself?
 
from left to right the controls are
-bridge pup vol/tone
-EQ low mid/high mid
-middle pup vol/tone
-EQ bass/treble
-neck pup vol/tone

switches
-active/passive
-series parallel
-pup selector

im gong amp shopping today and ill definately be testing out the Noll, but so far i can say that the Noll adds some serious umpff to the output, even with EQ level. i find it to be useful when trying to squeeze a little bit more out of my single coil but im sure ill find other benefits for the other pups.

there is an acrylic sealer over the inlays, several coats and it works well, they dont get scratched up and resist humidity very well, i know cuz this thing has been in my garage for a while; anyone in northern VA will know what im talking about when i say it gets wet in the summer.

on a side note the bass is strung with regular DR's but im hoping to put on some TI jazz flats if i find them at the local music store, once i get some quality strings and a decent amp i plan on posting a thorough review of the Noll's 4 band capabilities. the passive electronics are much better now that i used quality pots and orange drop capacitors

thanks for all the kind words on the bass, i hope i can be an inspiration for all those other crazy would be bass builders out there
 
RyreInc said:
where's the piezo? ;)

actually i was thinking of putting a piezo film under the bridge and send it to a blend/balance pot to be mixed with passive signal, which then could all go into the preamp but i decided to stop because i just wanted this monster to be done/ no more room to put stuff