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Upgrading a squire bass

M

Moonlid

Jul 27, 2010
4
0
Leuven
#1
Hi fellow bassfolks,

I have this Squire jazz bass I bought 3 years ago, and although I'm pretty happy with it (Price/quality is superb), I'm thinking about upgrading it.

Invalid Link Removed
basswood body
maple neck with ebonol fingerboard
2 5-string jazz bass pick-ups (no further specifications given)

My question: Is this bass worth upgrading and if so what are you guys recommending? Or should I just buy a new one?

I don't want to go too expensive with a new bass cause I'm already saving for a nice sweet custom one, but I'm just craving for some improvement in the meanwhile ; )

Cheers,

Moonlid
 
#2
There's many many many people who upgrade their Squire's. I would definitely do it, if I had one, provided the neck and fretboard is in a decent shape. If it's just electronics or something, yeah, slap in some new pick-ups, maybe a new bridge, even a new pickguard to switch it up. Why not? wouldn't be too costly
 
#3
well the real question is where should you be spending your money? do you have a nice amp? i used to swap out pickups all the time but then i got my amazing rig... im running a swr 6x10 and hartke lh 500 and have found that stock pickups sound pretty good on a nice amp and cab set up. upgraded pickups are nice but not really worth it. and as for hardware. I wouldnt change it unless it doesnt stay in tune or something.
 
#4
Wow...3 years and you still can't spell it - hahaha

Kidding....someone started a thread about misspelling Squier recently :)

Definitely worth upgrading...Squiers can turn into pretty decent basses with a few upgrades.

If it were mine:

- rip out all the guts, and replace (wire, potentiometers, capacitor, jack)
- install (2) J45 - these are for both 4 and 5 bangers (will cost $60/each, I believe)
- major clean, intonation and action setup.
- all done...time to play!

...and if you don't like it, list it...it will go.
 
#5
Sure it is. Especially if you do the rewiring yourself. Get better pups because the ones that came in it aren't, well, let's just say they could be better.

Are the improvements you're craving in the tone department or ??????
 
#6
I just modded my squier and the results were quite good. I'm really happy with it. I have the Squier Deluxe Active ebanol fretboard in olympic white. Dimarzio ultra jazz pickups (Sadowsky fits too) Bass mods pre. The Squiernator lives.
 
#9
Damn you got me =p SQUIER!!!!
And to think that I even posted the squier website...

The craving is really tone-based only. The bass plays great, I did the setup myself.
I'm running it through a tc-electronic BG500, I think the amp is decent enough.

It's an active one, isn't that a hassle to rip everything out?
 
#10
Well, my personal opinion is I don't care for active, but certainly some here love them...so that is a personal decision.

If you want to go passive (which I will stand behind) just rip it all out...no biggie.

If you want to keep it active, no biggie....just rip out all the guts a rewire the same as it was, with the new pots.

The pots after 3 years might still be decent and functional...so you could also just pop out the stock pups, and put in the new ones....very simple.

In your bass....the stock pups are passive, what makes it active is the preamp inside the control cavity and battery, no need for new active pups...just get your choice of passive ones.
 
#13
I see an unmodded Squier as a blank canvas...
I have done up a lot of them in my day and I can say with certainty, if the neck is not screwed up, mods are worth doing.

I had 2 "Squierdowskys" and the tone was so freaking amazing, they kept my US Jazz and Musicman SR5 in the cases for numerous sessions.

In fact, I wish I had one right now, because I have 2 days off, spare parts lying around, a bottle of TruOil, and nothing to do!

Good luck with your mods! If anything, you'll learn something and have some fun.
 

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