What bass should I stay with for a MOD project bass?

Why not buy a cheap fretted five string bass, modify the body/electronics and play it for a while to see if you enjoy having the fifth string. If you do like the five string, you can always pull the frets. There is a good thread about pulling frets here. I read that thread and Dan Erlewine's fretless neck conversion before pulling the frets from a neck I have (not the one below).

Another option is to buy a four string bass you like that has a wider neck and add a fifth string! If you search around, you'll find plenty of threads about this conversion. Ric5 and mapleglo are two folks who have documented their conversions and I used their threads when I did mine (a precision bass, which I will shamelessly post below).

 

there are quite a few "modding threads" on TB, but here's one in which i am involved --- maybe this group could give you some ideas:
Official Exquisite/Glarry/Burning Fire Bass Club?
you'll have to read past the 'social stuff' --- but just looking at some of the pics might spur your imagination and help you in some way. good luck with your 'tinkering'!

 

The more common the instrument, the more there are parts available. It depends how far down the rabbit hole you intend to dig.

 

I would recommend a four string bass that you like and has a large enough headstock to add an additional tuner with minimal effort. The Fender/Squier headstocks have plenty of extra space. Fender parts are easy to get (at least in the USA). I'm not so sure about what is easily available in Italy. If you pull out the frets, there is a small groove in the neck where the fret used to be. You fill the spots where the frets were to make lines. I used black plastic to fill the fret slots in my maple fingerboard. Some people like to use maple or another light colored wood veneer on darker fingerboards like rosewood. Some people like to use dark wood veneer to hide the lines or make them more subtle.

I doubt a wider neck (>41 mm at the nut) will have any problems. Ibanez five string basses have narrow nuts and are thin front to back.

My bridge is a Schaller 3DS and the string spacing is 16.5 mm. I am not a good slap bass player, but it seems a bit too close for slapping. Great for finger and pick playing, though. Maybe you are more precise than I am.

Before you spend a single lira, find a bass that you like and determine the end product you want. I spent a long time planning my modifications, which also involved a bunch of reading. JRA's suggestion of the Glarry bass thread is a good one. The folks in that thread have been modifying the crap out of those basses and have probably done most everything you may want to do.

Good luck!

 

How about a SHORT SCALE 4-string? The Squier Bronco is the ultimate mod object IMO: Completely useless junk out of the box but with a nice potential for upgrades. It's cheap enough not to matter so much if you mess something up the first time. You really get a sense of achivement when modding Broncos. They can be transformed from junk to cool with very little effort.

 

Hey man, I just started my first upgrade/mod project as well. The most important thing I think is that the bass have good bones, that is, a solid neck and body, beyond that sky is the limit. As you know the cost will never be recouped, but that is not the point. I landed on an old "Korean" made Ibanez SR405 that has a great neck and body, but terrible/noisy electronics and bad/unstable tuners. Here is me installing the preamp, and actually having some issues, got wires crossed or something, so going back to the drawing board. Good luck and have fun.

 

I'll just add that Fender-style instruments are pretty universally accepted as the best mod platforms since there's a virtually endless universe of parts available for them. Obviously, anything can become anything you want it to be, but if you start with a P or a J it's a hell of a lot easier than something less ubiquitous.

 

This isn’t the easiest option, but it is extremely versatile:
I took a Precision-width neck that will fit any standard Fender-sized neck pocket, drilled it for a fifth tuner and two string trees, and cut a 5-string nut for it. If you use it on a Jazz body and choose pickups with bar magnets rather than individual pole pieces, you can use the same pickups for a 4 or 5 string setup.

 

You left the doothicky attached to the thingamabob but forgot to cross connect the ligaments to the thumbscrews.

At least, that's what it says in the OBP-3 preamp instructions.

 

That's the fattest B string (Compared to the differences between the other string guages) I've seen in quite some time!

 

That is a 32” Lowe conversion neck and a .135 was the only medium scale B string I had on hand when I first restrung the bass and took those pics. At least it wasn’t floppy!

 

I used my '81 L2Ke as a test bed for all manners of electronics. The pickup routes are gigantic and the control plate was already drilled for 3 switches and 4(if you add a side jack) pots. Maybe a L2500 Trib will suit you.

 

Exactly!

 

I agree with Sorrow 99%.
Bronco's are a great modding platform, I've modded two so far.

Parts are plentiful, generally cheaper, and easy to find.
However, I disagree that they are completely useless junk out of the box.

My 1st project was the Squire AFN P in the link below:
Hi, I’m <name goes here>, And I’m A Mod-Aholic
057912