• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

When you upgrade, what do you expect?

#81
Upgrades for me now consist of basses that I either couldn’t afford thirty years ago or (before the days of t’interweb and me living on a small island) were next to impossible to get hold of.
I’m talking Peavey stuff (because I’m nothing if not brand loyal) like the Palaedium, Rudy Sarzo and Randy Jackson signature basses. Just because, apart from being finely crafted instruments which are all significantly different from each other, I get great pleasure from owning and gigging with them - all the more so because they’re “unfashionable” and hardly anyone knows what they are....
 
  • Like
Reactions: lomo, Nuage420, BlueTalon and 1 other person
#84
My fall down the rabbit hole of upgrading basses.

It stared after my 62 P bass. It was fretless and I wanted to get back to having a fretted bass as the P bass was fretted when I got it.

Year's latest my wife found a Cort/Steinberger headless bass at Sears of all places. It was reduce in price like markdowned meat because of a broken string. The bug had bitten :( :)

As some have noted, the thing I was pursuing was not to be found in a new, better, or more expensive bass but in me, I needed to work on me not buy another bass :)

As I got better I found it still didn't matter much the basses I used, I still sounded like me and I actually enjoyed the budget stuff I already had because my note choices were better and that was what I was looking for :)

Still looking at and test driving basses is fun ;)

My thing now is having some representation of all bass pick up placements. Need a Gibson/Hofner example :)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Dr. Cheese and MAXSPINRUN
#86
Some in this thread have more or less indicated that an upgrade in equipment won't have any effect on their ability to play. Allow me to respectfully disagree. Sometimes an upgrade will allow an increase in freedom, because suddenly you're not having to fight the instrument as much as you had been previously. (There's always an element of fighting the instrument, even if it's just holding it up against gravity.) I have experienced this phenomenon a few times.

If you don't want to take my word for it, maybe you'll think this guy has a little more credibility.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Moving Pictures, Dr. Cheese, Afc70 and 2 others
#87
BlueTalon said:
Some in this thread have more or less indicated that an upgrade in equipment won't have any effect on their ability to play. Allow me to respectfully disagree. Sometimes an upgrade will allow an increase in freedom, because suddenly you're not having to fight the instrument as much as you had been previously. (There's always an element of fighting the instrument, even if it's just holding it up against gravity.) I have experienced this phenomenon a few times.

If you don't want to take my word for it, maybe you'll think this guy has a little more credibility.
Click to expand...

I dig he likes his bass better after he got a new neck for it.That sounds more like a maintenance/repair issue than getting a whole new bass. It is an upgrade though

"Yeah, I played on this bass that I couldn't adjust the neck on it anymore and we put a new neck on it and now it plays a whole lot better."

:)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: BlueTalon
#88
I don’t think there’s too much magic in bass hardware upgrades. - To me, and if it’s a bass I care about, I’ll do some goal oriented hardware switching. - But only to remedy a situation. Like lighter tuners if the goal is to correct a neck heavy bass, or if the tuners I want are replacing something worn out or broken, and happen to be ultralight….
I don’t subscribe to the notion of a high mass bridge being a night and day game changer. I’ve done various upgrades on various basses and haven’t found the bang for the buck yet.
Don’t get me wrong, upgraded hardware is usually good quality. Just not good enough quality to make it worth getting if what you have already is perfectly good.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nuage420 and DJ Bebop
#90
Nuage420 said:
26100711[/URL], member: 271079"]Can we stop calling it upgraded and start using the term Modified?

I'm in the car and bike scene and things are either stock or MODIFIED.
"I modified the headstock by replacing the stock tuners with hipshot tuners."

Same with firearms, they're either stock or MODIFIED.
Click to expand...

The OP was referring to replacing a bass with a different one.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: lomo, DJ Bebop and Nuage420
#92
I don't really expect much these days, I guess.

I did go through the phase when I first started where I thought that "upgrading" would make me sound better. It didn't.

These days, I think that most of the things I do are more "sidegrades" than upgrades. (I recently purchased an Ibanez SR756 as an "upgrade" to my SR506, but having bought it I realize it's just different, not necessarily better.) I think these days I also buy more accessories than I do actual basses or amps; these accessories usually tend to solve a specific problem or address a specific pain point for my gigs or personal playing. (As an example, I own a Helix Floor, but I bought an HX Stomp to avoid lugging the Helix to a non-local church on Sundays. Since going to this church involves a long walk to a bus stop and hours of transit, the Stomp has been a worthwhile purchase. I've recouped the cost with my church gigs.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nuage420, Passinwind and DJ Bebop
#94
Nuage420 said:
Can we stop calling it upgraded and start using the term Modified?

I'm in the car and bike scene and things are either stock or MODIFIED.
"I modified the headstock by replacing the stock tuners with hipshot tuners."

Same with firearms, they're either stock or MODIFIED.
Click to expand...
Even though you're off track :)

I think in your example, it would still be considered an upgrade.

"I upgraded the bass by replacing the stock tuners with hipshot tuners."

"I modified the bass by cutting off the headstock!"

:)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Outtaseezun, Nuage420 and BlueTalon
#95
In short, playability and reliability (neck stability, intonation, etc.). That’s what I “expect” if I’m upgrading from one bass to a more expensive one.
The aesthetics are usually part of the package, too, but I could consider an “uglier” base an upgrade if the first two boxes are checked.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJ Bebop
#96
BlueTalon said:
Some in this thread have more or less indicated that an upgrade in equipment won't have any effect on their ability to play. Allow me to respectfully disagree. Sometimes an upgrade will allow an increase in freedom, because suddenly you're not having to fight the instrument as much as you had been previously. (There's always an element of fighting the instrument, even if it's just holding it up against gravity.) I have experienced this phenomenon a few times.

If you don't want to take my word for it, maybe you'll think this guy has a little more credibility.
Click to expand...


There is a difference between a bass that is easier to play versus the notion that a change in bass is going to foster a sudden change in ability. It is easy for some to fall into that trap.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJ Bebop
#97
DJ Bebop said:
Even though you're off track :)

I think in your example, it would still be considered an upgrade.

"I upgraded the bass by replacing the stock tuners with hipshot tuners."

"I modified the bass by cutting off the headstock!"

:)
Click to expand...
Considered* maybe they replaced resolites? Maybe hipshot isn't everyone's apex?
I see your point about modifying the headstock. Similar to carving out a belly pocket in back of a slab body. But where some may call it and upgrade, all would call it a modification.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJ Bebop
#98
DJ Bebop said:
I dig he likes his bass better after he got a new neck for it.That sounds more like a maintenance/repair issue than getting a whole new bass. It is an upgrade though

"Yeah, I played on this bass that I couldn't adjust the neck on it anymore and we put a new neck on it and now it plays a whole lot better."

:)
Click to expand...
What he actually said was, "Your playing improves. It just does."
 
#99
Nuage420 said:
Can we stop calling it upgraded and start using the term Modified?

I'm in the car and bike scene and things are either stock or MODIFIED.
"I modified the headstock by replacing the stock tuners with hipshot tuners."

Same with firearms, they're either stock or MODIFIED.
Click to expand...
If you replace a set of iron sights with tritium night sights, that's a modification and an upgrade. The modification is implicit in the term "upgraded."
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJ Bebop and Nuage420
#100
Dr. Cheese said:
There is a difference between a bass that is easier to play versus the notion that a change in bass is going to foster a sudden change in ability. It is easy for some to fall into that trap.
Click to expand...
Depends on what you mean by "sudden change in ability." My 3-pickup Warmoth jazz with bubinga neck/wenge fretboard was put together, set up, and PLEK'd by Mike Lull. When I first held it and played it, I could literally play faster than I could before with other instruments. I'm no Geddy Lee, but I experienced exactly the same thing he experienced.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back