What Little Mod Made All The Difference?

[eirik_]

putting a push pull pot on my sr300 to kill the boost. I did this to turn the eq off when i wasn't using it, but ended up loving the passive tone out of it, and then hitting the boost when I played a little lead line or something. What was supposed to be battery conservation on my bass ended up being more like a nitrous hit.

 

[pyroponic]

Guitar mod, but still representative: My son has an Epiphone Les Paul. It didn't stay in tune very well. I replaced the tuners with real Grovers. It now stays in tune much better. He was somewhat disappointed with the overall tone/sound/whatever you want to call it. He was sure it was gonna need new pickups. I told him "Instead of dropping a wad of cash on new pickups, let's try modding it in small steps." I replaced all 4 pots with the appropriate CTS ones, replaced the selector switch with a genuine Gibson switch, replaced the jack with a better one, replaced the caps with better caps and replaced all the wiring. Total cost of the parts was less than $50. That's all it took. My son discovered that the stock Epi pickups were just fine for his purpose (mostly metal) and that the jacks, pots, caps, switch and wiring combined for a big improvement.

For real, epis are good instruments for the money. I have an SG epi and installed grover tuners like your son, also a bone nut (huge difference in tone) and pickups. I got a gibson LP pickup at the bridge and a Fender 57 tele reissue single coil in the neck position cuz im crazy like that! It gave me a custom sound that I like and the guitar plays great.

Pickups are needed at least half the time in a new bass or guitar. DiMarzios made my P Bass sound heavy and full when the stock pickups were weak and flabby.

A bone or brass nut is the #1 way to cheaply increase tone but it is risky! In one case it was a world of improvement but in the other an unskilled repairman ruined a vintage bass.

Check your repair person's past work and call references, before any mods.

 

[RocktimusBass]

Lets see... Straplocks are a must right out of the box. Leo Quan Badass Bridges on any Fender bass. Usually upgrade the caps and pots in most of my basses too. A good setup. Replace the cheap nut with a bone nut. Series/Parallel push-pull pot on Jazz basses. I guess I like to mod my gear more than i thought...

 

[woodsideh]

Audere JZ3 on my American Std Jazz. Huge difference. I never have cared for the VVT setup on a Jazz anyway.

 

[JimB52]

New strings.

 

[bass4worship]

Adding LED to my active basses for battery condition.