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What part makes the sound?

H

HolyGrowl

Jan 28, 2008
99
0
#1
Hi folks,

Being a lefty, it is very hard to find a P-Bass that captures the 1962 era sound. So I recently bought a used lefty Squier korean made P cause it was dirt cheap. It sounds pretty good for what I'm looking for but it's still not 100% where I would like it to be. The P-Bass sound is definitely there, lot's of bass and mids but I feel it lacks some fullness. Hard to explain exactly. Also, I don't like the feel of the neck all that much. It is too thin at the heel.

So I was wondering... Would the sound be much impacted if I put a different neck and different pups?

I was thinking of going with a righty '62 RI with the nut inverted for left handed stringing and with Lollar pups.

What do you guys think?
 
#8
Amazing how unhelpful a lot of these posts are...:rolleyes:

If you like the bass you've got for the most part, you might want to consider trying the mods. Warmoth, Allparts, and quite a few others make Fender spec lefty necks. Whether or not they'll fit a specific Squier is pretty widely variable. Lots of replacement pickups out there, too - Fralins, Lollars, Nordstrands, and any number of others make great P pickups. But again, if it's worth it to you to try, go for it.

However, if you have the cash, and would rather not go to the trouble of modding your bass, or it just seems like what you want to do in general for whatever reason, go ahead and string a righty lefty.

Bottom line, only you can decide if either is right for you. For a 60s P sound, all you really need is a decent P pickup and flats (these help - a lot).
 
#9
superfunk47 said:
Amazing how unhelpful a lot of these posts are...:rolleyes:

If you like the bass you've got for the most part, you might want to consider trying the mods. Warmoth, Allparts, and quite a few others make Fender spec lefty necks. Whether or not they'll fit a specific Squier is pretty widely variable. Lots of replacement pickups out there, too - Fralins, Lollars, Nordstrands, and any number of others make great P pickups. But again, if it's worth it to you to try, go for it.

However, if you have the cash, and would rather not go to the trouble of modding your bass, or it just seems like what you want to do in general for whatever reason, go ahead and string a righty lefty.

Bottom line, only you can decide if either is right for you. For a 60s P sound, all you really need is a decent P pickup and flats (these help - a lot).
Click to expand...

Looked into Allparts and there doesn't seem to be any left handed p-bass necks at the moment. And anyway they're not C shape. Same for Warmoth.

But... a righteous C shape heel is 2,5" and the heel pocket of my bass seems to be just a tad narrower. So at this point I'm considering maybe having one built by a luthier.

As for pickups, I don't know what the stock squier ones are but would replacing them with '62 RI pups make a huge difference in the sound? Anyone tried this mod?
 
#10
I put a Seymour Duncan SPB-1 pickup, their Vintage P, in my Highway 1 and man, it takes the bass back. I had a lot of tones I'd never thought can be comin' from me. It has that vintage vibe for sure. I almost want to put the Roto 77's back on it and dedicate another bass to be my drop tuned main player... but it's so good at the moment, I can't!

The pickup took me from dawn to day. It was good, now it's great.
 

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