Moving forward with my "tricking out" process on the VM 4...This is gonna be fun
I've been mulling this over for a few weeks now, and have more or less laid out a plan over the coming months to create a needlessly complicated (but fun) little monster.
I broke it up my plan into three phases - partially because I'm a compulsive planner, and partially because breaking the purchases into three bites is going to be easier for my loving fiancee to swallow.
First phase will be coming shortly, and will involve wrapping up the remainder of the cosmetic issues that I've wanted to deal with for some time now. Getting new black tuning machine screws (I stripped a few and mixed/matched when I first installed) will run me about 7 bucks. I'd also like to put on some bridge/pup covers...Last jazz bass I owned had them, and I really liked using them as resting places for my ogre-sized palms (not a palm-muter at the moment). Going all black, non-Fender branded hardware with the covers. Hard to find in-stock, still working on that, but presuming it'll run me about $35 bucks net. Finally, I'm going to buy a tin of oxblood Kiwi shoe polish and try staining the glow-in-the-dark maple neck ala some of the previous posters. I've seen a lot of posting in my google wanderings where folks have had great results. Call me a skeptic, but I'm going to start with a small patch on the rear of the headstock and see how that works out for me. If I like it, I'll hit the rest of the neck. Total cost of the first phase: <$50-
Next phase: updated pups and pots. I dig the tone I get from the Duncan Designed j-pups that came stock, but I've got some hands-on experience with Model J's, and I'm itching to hear what they would sound like in this bass. With that comes new 500k pots (and potentially some routing under the current control plate). I'll be shielding the bejesus out of the control/pup cavities while I'm in there. Finally, I'm considering picking up a Stellartone passive tone circuit to replace my tone pot with. Anyone here have experience w/ one of these on your rig? I've heard a lot of good things, and want to give it a spin. W/ the passive tone circuit, I'm looking at about $230- for this phase.
Final phase is kind of a idiot's errand, but I'm a tinkerer and stuff like this appeals to me - practical or not. I'd like to gut an MXR M82 filter pedal, and install the electronics in-line on the bass. Obviously a lot of routing involved, maybe making a new board or two, and I'll be designing a custom control plate to accommodate the bypass switch, maybe an LED, the extra 5 pots for the control, and weights to counter neck-dive from cutting out all this material in an area adjacent to current VVT control pots. Practical - dur, hell no. Awesome - maybe?
~$170 bucks for this phase, plus the cost of thin gage sheet scrap, shaping and coating (maybe black chromate at a local shop) for the control plate.
Doing this kind of 'tricking out' is much easier to do on a Squier VM Jbass than a MIA, definitely a lot less stressful should something get buggered up. It already has low/no resale value, but it plays like the best I've ever owned, so why not? As the idiocy progresses, I'll throw up some photos. I'm guessing it'll run me about a month/phase at this point to find time and expendable $$$ to nail this all down. Like all plans, it's probably a bit more aggressive than my schedule will allow, but it's got the stamp of approval from the boss (thanks babe!) to proceed.
The bass as it stands today (see previous posts for details on the cosmetic changes made thus far):
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Enjoy!
