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Tricked Out Squier Club Part 2

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#941
@soulman969 I know what you mean Squiers are great. I say I'll never get another expensive bass again but then I never buy expensive basses anyway. We've been talking about pre cv/vm Squiers elsewhere on tb--an even better deal than cv vm & just as good.
 
#942
chuck norriss said:
@soulman969 I know what you mean Squiers are great. I say I'll never get another expensive bass again but then I never buy expensive basses anyway. We've been talking about pre cv/vm Squiers elsewhere on tb--an even better deal than cv vm & just as good.
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Chuck the last new MIA Fender I owned was a Jazz Deluxe that I sold because I didn't care for the active electronics and the noiseless pickups. The bass played exceptionally well but tonally it just wasn't what I wanted so as before I had that one I stick with the passive basses Fender makes.

After a few years as a guitarist I decided to go back to playing bass again about a year ago and went looking for a Fender Jazz like I'd always played as my first line bass when I came across these CVs. I couldn't believe they had produced such and incredibly nice bass for that price. I was able to find a spotless used one for even less and that's the Jazz I've been playing for over a year now. I love it.

Yeah the pickups on them can be improved a bit and I've done that on the PBass and will do the Jazz soon but even with the stock pickups they still sound great. Even with new pickups, a good set of strings and the few other tweaks I've made I'll still have less into these two basses than either one brand new MIA P or J Bass would run me.

I play professionally and I care less about the name on the headstock. I don't play the headstock I play everything from that point down and I simply can't find enough difference in these and their MIA cousins to justify the added cost. They are excellent moderate priced basses.
 
#947
I played a cv 50s p (the blue one that a lot of people have) & the neck felt unfinished. Anyway my point is I like the poly finished necks. I used to sand it off that was a long time ago I guess it was the cool thing to do. Now I'd leave it.
I wish they put out more colors in the cv series. I think they'd sell more.
 
#948
chuck norriss said:
I played a cv 50s p (the blue one that a lot of people have) & the neck felt unfinished. Anyway my point is I like the poly finished necks. I used to sand it off that was a long time ago I guess it was the cool thing to do. Now I'd leave it.
I wish they put out more colors in the cv series. I think they'd sell more.
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Agreed. I wouldn't consider buying the 60's P becaasue I can't stand the Fiesta Red and Tort color scheme. As of right now, the only CV I have any interest in, is the Butterscotch blonde 50's P.
As far as the 50's P you say felt like it had an unfinished neck, I have to ask, was it new or used, because that model is indeed suppoosed to have a glossy neck.
 
#951
All CV's have a poly , glassy like finished neck much like the Japan made fenders. The VM's , standards and really any other recent model of squier has a satin like finish.

The CV 50s P bass in blue may have had a neck swap done and had a satin finished VM neck from the telecaster bass with the mudbucker in it. If I worked at a store I would probably try to swap necks around between those 2 basses.

I am currently either going to build up a MIM fender P as a project or a PJ squier body I have
 
#953
Found this thread and thought I’d like to get in. I snagged a VM Fretless Jazz (’08, I think) off of one of the big internet auction sites and started to get comfortable with fretless. A short stint in a hot car resulted in a fairly quick warpage of the neck. Got another one for cheap from a fellow TB’er, but was always leery of the same happening again. Did the neck change and set-up myself, which inspired me to look into other mods; can’t do too much damage to an inexpensive investment, right? That was just the start; since then I’ve:
-changed out the bridge for a Babicz Full Contact bridge (great tone and sustain; Jeff Babicz is a good communicator, quickly sending me special inserts for the bridge, FOC)
-changed out the pots for 250K models, cap for a .047mf ‘orange drop’, wiring it for series/parallel with a push-pull pot in the front volume (great way to hone soldering skills- I used a wiring diagram from Seymore Duncan’s website); improved the overall tone and gave more variety in tone options
-changed out all the hardware for black
-changed out the neck for a maple fretless model (? Year, ? manufacturer) from same auction site; loved the looks, but different diameter holes were drilled, slightly off-center, on the front and back of the headstock for the tuners. Pegged both sides (as well as the holes for the neck bolts) and re-drilled them
-finish on the fingerboard had a few ‘buzzy’ spots, so I decided to refinish it, using super glue (followed the advice of multiple TB’ers, including one here- http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/epoxy-style-fingerboard-tutorial-sort-585998/ ). Fairly simple to do, though I had to make my own radius blocks, due to a compound radius on this neck. Came out beautifully-loads of ‘mwah’
-due to a bit of hum from the pickups when turned to different volume levels and from wearing a 4G phone, I shielded the control and pickup cavities with copper tape; worked great- only minimal hum at different volumes, and none with pickups equal; easily done, also.

Here are before and after pics-

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If you want to see more of the individual steps, peruse here- http://s1100.photobucket.com/albums/g412/cvsurg2001/Squier VM Fretless Jazz Mods/
Only thing left original are the pickups (Duncan Designed models; also in VM and CV basses) and body.
What a great low-risk way to gain a lot knowledge about (and tools for) basses and set-up, PLUS I got the sound and look I want.
BTW, may I have a number?
 
#956
C.Linton said:
Agreed. I wouldn't consider buying the 60's P becaasue I can't stand the Fiesta Red and Tort color scheme. As of right now, the only CV I have any interest in, is the Butterscotch blonde 50's P.
As far as the 50's P you say felt like it had an unfinished neck, I have to ask, was it new or used, because that model is indeed suppoosed to have a glossy neck.
Click to expand...

I'm not a fan of the Fiesta Red either. Looks like a '58 Ford Galaxie but the look might be improved with a white or antique pearl pickguard. Very retro.

The Black/Maple Matt Freeman like I have has a very classy look. Essentially the same bass as a CV '60s but with the '70s look of a maple fret board rather than rosewood.

All of the CV line of basses have a gloss neck finish.
 
#959
Hi all,
I recently did some more tricking out on my Squier Mustang.
Besides having redone all the electronics, Nordstrand NM4 pickup, custom Birdseye Maple pickguard and All-Parts Maple knobs. This week I did some more mods. :D

A. Replaced the old tuning machines with 1/2" Hipshot Ultralite clover tuners.
B. Replaced the neckplate with the Fender "F" plate
C. Replaced bridge plate with the MIJ reissue bridge (used the old saddles)
D. Replaced the All-Parts maple knobs I had with some custom Birdseye Maple knobs from THG Knobs.

I really like the Hipshot Ultralites a lot. Stays in tune and has better balance now. I think I'm done with the mods on this now. :cool:

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It might end up in the Classifieds soon as I need to fund a new Bass I have on special order. I haven't decided yet cause this Bass is so fun to play :bassist:
 
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