Misowaki

I'm basically building mine right now! Well, modding at least. Converting my Fender Elite P bass to passive as I never use active and the preamp colours the sound (I finally know what people mean by that now!). So neck and body exactly the same as the Elite, PJ set up with S/P switch on the volume, blend pot for pups and master tone. Maybe a kill switch if I can be bothered. Olympic white, rosewood board with a tort plate (which I am stupidly making with a Dremel, I still haven't learned that it's probably more trouble than it's worth) but other colours might be surf green/daphne blue with anodized gold plate and maple neck (which is basically the regular P bass I made). Also, an orange sparkle or translucent finish which I'm going to attempt on my Jazz bass one day... or mocha... the colours would change every 6 months or so...

I don't think I've ever seen a USA neck with the truss adjuster on the headstock, that says MIM to me. love this idea! =D

Now why did I never think to google that myself...? 🤔

I think maybe it was used to transport a table or some display thing, was in my cousins house and I thought I could use it for something but I haven't. Free to whoever can come pick it up. Maybe it will make good storage or a table or something. Maybe just take it apart to build your own flight case 🤷‍♂️ The choice is yours, young wizard! 🧙‍♂️

@Heathy Here's one but mega bucks https://www.wdmusic.co.uk/pickguards-c62/fender-basses-c111/precision-bass-american-deluxe-c158/wd-music-american-deluxe-p-bass-single-ply-070-tortoise-shell-p2365 Non-tort is cheaper but still £50+ I had a blank arrive today for £18. By the time I've taken a Dremel to it it would have cost me three times that in labour but whatyougonnado 🤷‍♂️

I'm doing similarly with my Elite and the only options I found for pickguard are £50+ or make my own (which I am going to do). You don't necessarily have to but you'll have to remove the whole board and likely have extra holes. If you wanted to buy one I think WD Music have some on their site.

The P has little balls and the J has little growl, or at least compared to what I've had in the past and currently have on separate basses. I've only really felt this with active basses so I'm wondering if it's something about the pups or the preamp.

Fair enough but the Elite has only been out 3 years, can't imagine they've changed the pups yet but they're stock from first year of production. I know it won't damage them but I want to know if it's going to affect the sound negatively as they're plug ins and I don't fancy cutting the wires to find I've screwed the pooch. Hence my appeal to anyone with 1st hand experience of this particular issue.

I see you've not read any of my original post then... 😬 Or the title, or any of the bits where I've mentioned it's a Fender Elite 😅

I know he does a decent, tidy job. I also know I could do/have done a good enough albeit messier job, but what I'm trying to figure out is if bypassing the preamp will clear up the sound of the pups in the Elite or if I should change them completely. Can anyone speak to that?

Nice one, then that's what I'll look to do. New passive controls, same pups, see how we go! Only thing is the plugs... do Kiogon's solderless looms use the same plugs do you know? I've got a soldered one on another bass and don't fancy cutting the plugs off the pup wires should it not work for me for whatever reason =S

Ah, I meant by removing the preamp batteries so it kills the sound! =D Perhaps mute switch would have been a better way of phrasing it... But any idea on the pup sound with preamp removed? Will it sound different? When the batteries go in this, it starts squealing and popping and that's in passive mode! I figured if it affects it in passive, perhaps the preamp is also muddying it up some.

So I have an Elite P and I only ever use the active switch as a kill switch but passive mode sounds pretty muddy to me. Am thinking about changing everything out but did you find the same pups with the preamp removed sounded different to passive mode through the pre? Am wondering if I can get around it all without spending loads by just going around the pre and using the same pups.

See now, I just watched a video where a guy replaced his CS PJ set (I'm looking to do both, can see how it looks like I just meant the P pup) with Aguilars and they sounded better to my ear, but that was over laptop speakers tbh...

Alternatively... should I maybe try removing the preamp first and running them passive? Would that make a difference? And anyone that can vouch for the Aguilar PJ set?