• 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.

Would have you modded your old fender if

#41
If you're buying instruments for the purpose of making a profit then sure, put them in the closet and wait...

I'm more of a player than a collector and all my basses do active duty, blemishes are a part of the deal. If I'm going to pay good money for it I want to use it, if it needs modifying then it gets modified to my tastes.

In the 80's mods were like the in thing and replacement bridges, tuners, pickups, potentiometers, active circuits and even particular fretwork were thought to possess magical qualities that would make you play and sound better. In some cases this was true but a lot of it was hype also. How many players did we see with BA bridges, Bartolini pickups and preamps, tape over unused holes in the control plate, gaffer tape over the empty pickup route because that pickup wasn't 'necessary'. There were some wild colour schemes too as I remember.

Then was the era of the 'beater' look. All basses had to have some cosmetic damage if you were to be taken seriously in certain genres. Did it really matter to the sound? No, they still sounded the same, it was a fashion statement.

Jazzes and P basses haven't really changed much in decades and many other brands still do the same models today that they did in the early days, I suspect that if you heard both in a blindfold test you'd be hard pressed to pick the difference.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mikewalker
#43
My second bass was a 1975 Gibson Grabber and when I was 15, I threw it into a wood chipper. Boy! Do I regert that!





Not really. I traded it for a set of CB-700 drums, a step up from a wood chipper.

The point is, modding something that long ago is nothing to hang onto emotionally at all. It’s all relative. The chipper on the other hand, would be something to regret and hopefully seek help for.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mikewalker
#44
buldog5151bass said:
After reading some of the threads here (lots by inexperienced people asked what mods they should make to instruments they haven't even played yet), I think the majority of mods are at best, unnecessary.

Back in the 1970s there was a lot of modding of Fender Precision basses. Back in the 70s, if you wanted a bass, a Fender was the only option for most people. With a little looking, today it's pretty easy to find an off the shelf bass with almost any option.
Click to expand...

The fad for Fender basses in the 80's and 90's was EMG pickups. 75% or more of all 70's and 80's Fender P and J basses had had EMG pickups put in them. I never understood this, because EMG's are really expensive and they didn't help the basses at all. But every pawn shop was stocked with 70's and 80's Fenders with EMGs in them as far as the eye could see back then. Go Figure. EMG must have been worth a trillion dollars in the 90's.

My 70's Jazz Bass, I stripped the finish on the body and redid it in clearcoat. And I too replaced the neck pickup, though not with an EMG (I put in a Quarter Pounder instead. Didn't help at all). I did like the neck on it tho, so if I'd kept it, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have touched it. Nowadays it'd probably be worth around the $1500-2000 mark if I'd left it alone (it was all original).

L
 
  • Like
Reactions: mikewalker
#45
I had a friend give me a 71 p bass back in the 80’s. Someone had made it fretless with a pair of pliers and a belt sander. Yeah, you get it.

Then they sanded the body to go natural. Equally as horrific.

When I got it I restrained it black to try to hide the mess, changed to a fretted Chandler neck and dropped in Jackson pickups.

Now, 30 years later I am playing again. Picked up some real Fender pickups and some miscellaneous screws. My plan is to clean up the metal, rewire it and try to bring it closer to stock. But this one has seen some bad things in its life.
 
#46
My favorite 73 came my way with EMG very early edition pickups already installed. No idea what happened to the OEM pickups. I replaced the EMG with Fralins and a John East pre and it sounds a skajillion times better. Sorry, but true. I’d do that again 100 times without hesitation. I have a 73 I keep in a case and maybe I’ll make money on it one day, it’s already worth $300 more than I paid almost 25 years ago. But basses aren’t investments. They perform even worse than guitars. So if you are happy with your Fender don’t mod it. And if you wonder why there are hundreds of businesses successfully making upgrade pickups, bridges, tuning machines just for Fender? If they weren’t really upgrades those companies wouldn’t survive. So if you love the idea of a Fender but want to mod it and plan to sell it for less of a loss then normal just hang on to the older parts. Simple.
 
#47
I modded my 73 P bass by adding two DiMarzio jazz pickups and 3 little on/off switches. Also a Badass bridge after losing one of the adjustment screws at a gig. Painted over the sunburst with orange paint at one point. When I sold it the guy in the bass shop called it a frankenbass. I used to play it with the bridge jazz and P pickup together. Loved the tone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mikewalker, BigAlBass69 and Ricky Rioli
#48
Back in the 70's-80's, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE who bought a Fender bass was personalizing it. They would tell you what they bought and how they modded it - new tuners, new bridge, new pups, etc. I cannot remember a single bassist back in the day who bought a Fender and left it alone.

They were not purchased to be investments.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mikewalker and BigAlBass69
#49
I sort of get people today regretting the mods made back in the 60's, 70's ,80's, or whenever. BUT those instruments modified then weren't valuable then. At least not like today. People talk about modifications made to early 70's Fenders, back in the day early 70's Fenders weren't highly valued to put it mildly.
People modified instruments, because the range of options for sale was more limited. You couldn't buy a say a P bass with a choice of pickups, bridges, etcetera and you couldn't buy a PJ.

People modified all sorts of things because the range of things to buy "of the rack" was more limited. Chopped bikes, hot rodded cars, patched and embroidered jeans, making and modifying stuff was all part of a particular ethos and it included guitars and basses.

I occasionally feel a bit of regret over some of the instruments I modified back in the 70's, some were improvements as I saw it at the time, some not so much... But they were all learning experiences, some were instruments I enjoyed playing for years, but wishing I hadn't modified something in my 20's, because perhaps I could sell at a profit in my 70's, (as long as I'd kept it pristine, hardly ever played it and stored it carefully all those years) A big fat NO!

I doubt that things are any different today, not given the number of posts here about which pickups to put in a brand new P or J bass because someone doesn't like the stock offerings, or those who want to change the tuners for light weights. What will people think of those who foolishly modify a 2021 bass, if it turned out to be be worth more in 2060 as an all or original vintage collectors item? Damn putting in those Delano's, or Nordstrand's. :D
 
#50
Willie5String said:
You had known you were lowering the value when you modded it back in the day.
Click to expand...
If by "value" you mean $$$ I could get selling it... it's not for sale. Every change I've made (other than paint I've flaked off) has increased its value to me as an instrument I play.
fretless-full.png


Willie5String said:
Wish I had at least saved all the old parts.
Click to expand...
I still have the original bridge and tuners, and maybe the pickup cover. I gave away the bridge cover to a friend forty years ago.
 

Attachments

  • checking.jpg
    checking.jpg
    71.6 KB · Views: 18
  • Like
Reactions: Ricky Rioli, juancaminos, DJ Bebop and 3 others
#54
After more than 40 years of playing guitar and bass, I still don't get how replacing fully functional pickups in a bass can improve the tone, whatever that means. In any event, any decent amp I've used in the last 20 years has had enough EQ range to make any of my basses sound great.

The most puzzling posts are those claiming that, e.g., replacing the original pickup in an early '60s Precision with a whatever pickup improved the tone by some hyperbolic percentage. The sound of the pickup you replaced was literally the standard in recording studios for decades. You might like the sound of the new pickup better, especially because you went to the trouble and expense of installing it, but the reasoning reminds me of a friend of mine who assembled a state-of-the-art 5.1 stereo system a few years ago. The system is probably capable of staggering fidelity, but I'll never know, since he invariably uses a preset that adds delay, reverb, scooped EQ, and exaggerated stereo imaging to everything he plays on it.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: DJ Bebop and mikewalker
#55
Guitalia said:
After more than 40 years of playing guitar and bass, I still don't get how replacing fully functional pickups in a bass can improve the tone. Any decent amp I've used in the last 20 years has had enough EQ range to make any of my basses sound great.

The most puzzling posts are those claiming that, e.g., replacing the original pickup in an early '60s Precision with a whatever pickup improved the tone by some hyperbolic percentage. The sound of the pickup you replaced was literally the standard in recording studios for decades. You might like the sound of the new pickup better, especially because you went to the trouble and expense of installing it, but the reasoning reminds me of a friend of mine who assembled a state-of-the-art 5.1 stereo system a few years ago. The system is probably capable of staggering fidelity, but I'll never know, since he invariably uses a preset that adds delay, reverb, scooped EQ, and exaggerated stereo imaging to everything he plays on it.
Click to expand...
The placebo effect....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Guitalia, DJ Bebop and mikewalker

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back