What's the best modification you've made?

[Iridescentone]

Love this paint job

 

[Swingin]

Years ago I installed a Seymour Duncan pickup in a Yamaha BB400; in 2002 I swapped out the stock bridge on a first-generation MTD Kingston V with a Badass bridge. But lately the best “mod” is learning how to do my own setups.

Did the pickup fit in your BB400? Mine seems a tad wider than a standard P pickup.

 

[LowEndOperative]

Did the pickup fit in your BB400? Mine seems a tad wider than a standard P pickup.

I ended up using the original pickup cover; the SD fit well enough. That was in 1981.

 

[MycooLeeyun]

I've been a "decent" bassist for over 30 years. A little over a year ago I decided to install a bass ramp on my J, just to see what the deal was. To say my playing improved in leaps and bounds is an understatement. And as an improved player, my tone, attack, and consistency have greatly improved, so I think it's worth mentioning in a thread about sonic upgrades. I wish I discovered these decades ago! I've installed 3 of them now on various basses I own, and I've also started printing them out on my 3D printer.

You wanna sell one? =]

 

[4 Out of 5]

for me the best modification I have done is running my pickups directly to the output jack bypassing all the knobs. Bass runs wide open and everything is eq'd later down the road. Learned it from John Myung and have never looked back since.

Wow- so not even a working volume knob on the bass?

 

[Leo was right]

Best mod are no mod cause the original was so perfect. The only alteration are the worn spots with the time.

To be honest here is the list of what is not like original on my bass:

1964 Jazz Bass = truss rod repair one time at fender during sixties and by a luthier in the eighties.
1964 P-bass = when I bought it, it was already paintstripped Tchernobyl style so a refin was a most.
1972 P-bass fretless = original rosewood fingerboard was worn like a Kaboul street, redone in ebony, sound much better.
1996 MM Stingray = I put a little spacer into the pickup so the pole pieces are less raspy on the fingers.
All of them have the strap buttons screw in sandwich with a small piece of thick leather that jam the strap so no need for straplock stuff. The strap cannot be remove.

The only way these basses will sound better is to improve my playing or made them play by a better bass player.

 

[djaxup]

Best conversion so far: the quite popular Spector Rebop 18V pimp. It took the already solid bass to the next level, and I actually preferred that czech bass over the two US Spectors I've had for a while.

The regular Spector Rebop has EMG HZ passive pickups. I've put in a pair of EMG 35DC Humbuckers, rewired to 18V and that's it. The bass is soo articulate and grindy, it is an absolute joy. I had a Spector NS4, so neck through high end machine that looked stunning and 100times better than the Rebop, but it neither sounded as good nor did it play so good.

This rather small and easy conversion upped the value of the bass considerably. I love it to bits.

 

[godofthunder59]

My modded 76 Ibanez Destroyer
60s EB0 pickup, Dimarzio Model G under a Thunderbird puckup cover, Badass bridge. This thing kills.

 

[Rambazamba]

Wiring my Jazz Bass in series with 1x vol 1x tone.

 

[Oleg BassPlayer]

Defretting my low-end Ibanez. It used to be just a cheap bass, now it has a character.

 

[4 Out of 5]

Brass nut. I installed it with promises of magical tone improvements, which mostly turned out to be claptrap. However, it has one very useful effect: open notes sound as strong and sustain the same as fretted notes, so I don't have to worry about finding the 5th fret when diving down to a D or A (for example).

I love it - would have either that or a zero fret on all of my fretted instruments if I could!

I don't understand why brass nuts or zero frets aren't more common.

 

[wraub]

I put Barts in a MIJ Squier Jazz Bass

 

[lowplaces]

.
I love it - would have either that or a zero fret on all of my fretted instruments if I could!

Here is a source of easy zero fret mods for a few various instruments.
Zero Glide Replacement Nut System

 

[4 Out of 5]

Here is a source of easy zero fret mods for a few various instruments.
Zero Glide Replacement Nut System

Thanks for the link. Looks like a genius system. Have you tried one?

 

[lowplaces]

Thanks for the link. Looks like a genius system. Have you tried one?

Yes, I put one on a Squier Vista Series MusucMaster that had the same specs as the P Bass model ZeroGlide.

Took it off when I sold the Squier and put the stock nut back on it.

It worked well though. I'll be putting one on my Mustang PJ eventually.

 

[Algo]

I changed a capacitor for a lower farad one to a passive jazz and it now kinda has a one band eq

 

[DavesnothereCA]

I don't understand why brass nuts or zero frets aren't more common.

~
Follow the money.

You'll get your answer.

I wish that they were more common too.
~

 

[ELS011]

Love this paint job

View attachment 3078542

"Love can be found everywhere, even in a guitar" Bob Hite, Canned heat, Bullfrog Blues. Your bass is lovely!

 

[craigie]

Removing the badass bridge I had put on and putting the stock bent plate fridge back on. Well sounds about the same but now the thick-ass E string fits.

 

[B-Mac]

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

Practicing more often