What's the best modification you've made?

[McG]

Integrated a Kent Armstrong pickup into the sound hole cover of my Dean EABC.

It was the final piece of the tone quest puzzle that includes GHS Brite Flats, GK MB500 and Avatar B210 neo.

 

[Guiseppe]

Got rid of my Highway One's BadAss II and replaced with a vintage (threaded) Fender bridge. Better overall tone (for me) and 90€ in my wallet, which I invested in an EMG GZR pickup set. Absolutely the best mods I've done.

I'm thinking of doing the same with my Highway One. I might even add the ashtrays.

 

[Bard2dbone]

I turned my 88 MIJ Standard Fretless Jazz Bass into TWO basses. I had the aforementioned 88 MIJ Jazz. I'd put EMG's and an EMG preamp into it, with a BA II bridge and Hipshot tuners. But I decided I wanted the fretless neck on a different bass. So I bought a Geddy Lee Signature Jazz, just for the neck. I put that neck on the 88. Then I took the fretless neck, I coated the fingerboard with CA, I put the neck on a sunburst alder body, then I added a BA II and Hipshots like on the other Jazz, and a pair of Nordstrand pickups with an Audere preamp.

TL : DR - Step 1. 88 MIJ Fretless Jazz standard - white with rosewood fingerboard. Step 2. Things happen over time. Step 3.A- White Jazz body has Geddy neck, EMG's, BA II, Hipshot tuners. 3.B - Fretless neck is on sunburst body with Nordstrand J's, Audere Preamp, BA II, Hipshot tuners. Step 4 Profit?

 

[dan rathbun]

I make my own custom thumb rests for all my basses. just use stock steel rod from a hardware store. heat it with a torch and pound the ends flat so you can drill holes in them. bend them so they match the existing holes in your bass and so the sit in the position of a next lower string.

Two big reasons.
1 i move my right hand freely up and down the strings bassed on tone. not stuck with my thumb on the pickups.
2 my rest strokes are consistent on all strings. when i started i had the damdest time playing fluidly in the low E string because my fingers missed coming to rest on the string bellow. i know all you good players just learn to deal with it, but here's what i did.

 

[dan rathbun]

In the 1980's i bought a stock fretless P bass. I put a badass bridge on to match string spacing of my other bass at the time. I added a J pickup. Then i took them all out and put in EMGs in a JJJ config each with an on off switch and a master vol and master tone. And a pushbutton kill switch so i could shut of in a hurry when i need to careen around the stage. I added my custom thumb rest of course.

But i still didn't like the look or feel of the P bass body. The cutaway really didn't let me get my big hands in there. My other bass was a rick so I removed everything and went to town with a jig saw and a planer. the body is thinner now and completely unfinished raw wood. I was also into MusicMan so i went there with the headstock. And made my own copper pick guard.

Finally i liked the bass.

 

[dan rathbun]

Added 4 positions to my fingerboard.

View attachment 2906929 View attachment 2906936 View attachment 2906937

You Rule!

 

[dan_thebassman]

I fitted some British Status bass jazz pick ups and they really transformed the bass. This spurred me on to fit a stellar tone pot. Really good improvements.

 

[Tom_1978]

Ripped out the frets, tinted the neck and changed the headstock on my Harley Benton pb50.

 

[soulman969]

Bill Lawrence/Wilde pickups and Babicz FCH Bridges on both my PBass and Jazz Bass.

 

[FraKo]

Mounted a Golden Age reverse-phase Jazz bridge pick up on my Squier P-bass. It's actually a P-bass special, so the out-of-phase effect doesn't happen since the neck pup is a split P-bass one, but the tone improved significantly. The stock pick up was a little bit flimsy (whle the neck 'brother' is a good one, with the right 'thump' you expect from a P). It was a 50% rebate, so I paied just a few bucks - and did myself the swap.

 

[TvOZ]

G'day, I bought a Japanese Fender P-Bass direct from Ishibashi in Japan around 2001 and fitted a Raven Labs (Steve Rabe) PB1 retro fit preamp. I got it fitted by my fav luthier and he sheilded the cavity and all that electronic stuff. It's as quiet as can be, the preamp is transparent and the tone of the instrument is big. Love it. My gigging bass ever since. All the other basses end up living in the cupboard. Oh, and I fitted a t-shell pick guard off an old 90's re-issue and that helps the tone too.

 

[basskong]

I make my own custom thumb rests for all my basses. just my rest strokes are consistent on all strings. when i started i had the damdest time playing fluidly in the low E string because my fingers missed coming to rest on the string bellow. i know all you good players just learn to deal with it, but here's what i did.

Exactly my issue, so i started a whole thread on it. But this is an awesome steampunk solution!

 

[basskong]

And made my own copper pick guard.

Finally i liked the bass.

I like the way the thumbrail connects to the copper pickguard so its all nicely earthed (it is earthed?)

 

[Luisfpr]

Cooper shield in holes, changing plastic nut for brass nut(cheap way)
Expensive way: Seymour Duncan quarter pound.

 

[MTMB]

Making my passive p-bass active with a fet 3 band amplifier. Since then I never wanted to go back to a passive bass.

 

[Helcarauco]

Mounted a Lace Bassbar AND a Darkglass ToneCapsule preamp inside a once-crappy 100$ bass (and corrected neck, changed bridge for monorails, addes 2 9v cavities) the Lace/Darkglass is mindblowing !

 

[lidesnowi]

Making and adding finger ramps "The Willis ramp" on all my basses.

 

[eastexsteve]

Excluding strings, what's the best modification you've made to a bass guitar that resulted in an improvement to the sound?

I've been at this awhile, and about 25 years ago, I built myself a bass out of high-end parts that played and sounded exceptional. I used to judge all other off-the-wall basses against that standard, and nothing else came close. However, over the years I've learned to examine my own playing styles and abilities more, and learned how to get the most out of all the other basses I own. The end result is I don't play my "hot rod" bass any more than I do my other basses, and I've learned to appreciate the good qualities they may have and take advantage of them.

So, to answer your question, I guess the best the best modification I've even made to a bass was the modification I made to myself.

 

[DavesnothereCA]

Adding a 220pf cab and 100k resistor to the bridge pickup.

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Please explain how those were hooked in.
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My Zon has low impedance pickups, so the bridge was really bright. By adding the cap parallel, from + to -, it lowered the resonance peak. I put a resistor parallel with the cap (and pickup) to attenuate the peak. I don't know how much it moved the peak, or how how much attenuation since it was all done by ear testing multiple values of each component. This website explains the science: BuildYourGuitar.com :: The Secrets of Electric Guitar Pickups

This is exactly what a tone pot on a passive bass does, just to a lesser extent.

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Thanks.

That's a good thorough article, covering all the relevant theory too.

Looks like the author even built his own test equipment as he went along, after first doing it by ear as you have done.

I have played with resistors and capacitors in other ways in a guitar or bass, but not in that manner.

For example, adding a cap and/or a resistor, each between the wiper and top terminal of a volume pot (in parallel with each other and with those two pins of the pot), to add some highs at lower volume settings, and/or to change the taper of the pot.

I don't think my Ric currently has that mod (IIRC, its active EMG's volume pot is 25K, so less need for that sort of stuff), but it has made a big difference, especially with, say a 500K pot as some Gibson guitars with humbuckers have, to get a bit of proper sounding brightness from the stock PUPs.
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[rgordon]

Swapped out the stock bolt-on fretted neck on my Epiphone Zenith Bass for a fretless Epiphone Zenith bolt-on neck. Sounded great as a fretted bass, sounds even better (and even closer to a stand-up) as a fretless...