What's the best modification you've made?

[breen]

Fender Modern Player Telecaster bass. Bass plays and feels great, but never liked the tone. Changed to active EMG p/j. What a difference. My main bass now.

 

[quilanthegreat]

Lollar Precision Pick-up.

 

[gelinas666]

Changed Drummers.. It helped but I also sand the back of my necks.. Reduses sweat build up and they play like they should for me..

 

[pglaser01]

So, did YOU get better, or did you sell the bass to someone who could play? “)

I can neither confirm nor deny either course of action

 

[kalle74]

I don't consider setup (pickup height, nut action, neck relief etc) to be mods. They should be basic maintenance done routinely to all instruments to improve their playability.

Mods that made the biggest differences on my basses: Shielding, swapping pickups, swapping/installing pre's, neck oil finishes, some small changes to varying pieces of hardware, and a well-placed thumbrest that facilitated a better spot for my thumb.

 

[Dimension]

Audere preamp

 

[Being and Bass]

Compressor pedal. More important than any chance to the bass itself.

 

[larrygs]

Ibanez SR505, replaced pickups and preamp with Nordstrand BigBlades and Nordstrand preamp, that bass now kick ass!!!

 

[Mantis Tobaggan]

Retro fitting my 2013 Bird with thunderbuckers, a badbird 2 bridge and hipshot tuners.

 

[MrLenny1]

Audere Classic 3 band pre-amp vs my old tone knob.

 

[cornfarmer]

Lakland ChiSonic pickups (in J housings) on a newer Fender '70s Classic Jazz

G&L MFD P-bass style pickup on a '70s Ibanez P copy

Novak/BiSonic pickup on an Epiphone Fenderbird (after filling in the bridge PU route, paint, etc.)

EGC aluminum neck on a different Epiphone T-Bird

 

[basslicks]

This sticker improved my playing by at least 3000%

 

[Clark Dark]

pickup upgrade along with single/series/parallel wiring
ACG EQ-01 pre in my 5 string

Moved the OBP-3 along with a Wilde P/J set into my 4 string
wired the P for series parallel.

 

[osv]

Allparts oversized strap buttons.
I dont like strap locks.

 

[Laurent]

Pickups they make the most difference.
Bridges do make a big difference if you are looking for more sustain.
Changing the electronics on a MIM makes a difference.

 

[sxaxsx]

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

Honestly the biggest difference I ever experienced was swapping out the capacitor on the tone pot of my Fender P bass. I don't know what the original capacitor was but the tone control was all but useless. I installed a 0.047uF Orange Drop and it brought the bass alive. I have swapped pickups and not had as much of a difference.

 

[Manticore]

Precision neck on a Jazz bass.

 

[Figjam]

Harder to answer than I thought, as most of my mods are for feel/setup/or looks.

Dimarzio PJ pickups put into a squier PJ body.

 

[groovaholic]

Turned my Dingwall Z2 into a Z3...

 

[GlennRH]

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

I did this three-part circuit mod to my G&L L-1500 bass (all inside the control cavity):

1. Replacing the stock R7 resistor with a 22k resistor kills the treble boost when the preamp is on.
2. Replacing the stock capacitor on the treble-cut pot with a .1 uf capacitor enables more treble roll-off.
3. A .001 uf capacitor added to the bass-cut pot (center lug to back of pot) lowers the resonant frequency of the pickup, providing more low end all the time.

The bottom line:

1. When the preamp is on, it simply sends a stronger signal, with none of the treble boost of a stock L-1500.
2. I can roll down the treble deep into the sub-basement by just turning a knob on the instrument while playing.
3. The bass delivers more low end all the time.

Parts cost: under $5. Time required: about 1 hour. Expertise involved: better done by a technician experienced with musical instrument circuitry.