Buying a bass specifically to modify

[ThomBassmonkey]

I'm (in the very early stages of) thinking of getting something like a MM SUB5 and heavily modding it.

Basically I'm thinking of getting a couple of delanos and turning it into a HH, putting in a forearm cut and doing a re-finish. Maybe at some point in the future get a new neck for it, but no rush.

It's the re-fin more than anything that scares me. Will it need a refin after being routed for another pickup? I assume there's no way that I could do the forearm contour without a refin though. There's not much point me paying for someone to do the work as I could just buy a proper ray for that money and it'd take out some of the fun!

I might go for a slightly easier option like a G&L or something that doesn't need the routing and countouring, but I've been GASing after a ray recently! Maybe the Ray 35 would be an easier choice.

Any advice would be recieved gratefully

[TheGreek]

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1116534' date='Feb 5 2011, 02:01 PM']I'm (in the very early stages of) thinking of getting something like a MM SUB5 and heavily modding it.

Basically I'm thinking of getting a couple of delanos and turning it into a HH, putting in a forearm cut and doing a re-finish. Maybe at some point in the future get a new neck for it, but no rush.

It's the re-fin more than anything that scares me. Will it need a refin after being routed for another pickup? I assume there's no way that I could do the forearm contour without a refin though. There's not much point me paying for someone to do the work as I could just buy a proper ray for that money and it'd take out some of the fun!

I might go for a slightly easier option like a G&L or something that doesn't need the routing and countouring, but I've been GASing after a ray recently! Maybe the Ray 35 would be an easier choice.

Any advice would be recieved gratefully [/quote]
Natural finish with a dab of Linseed Oil???

[henry norton]

A second pickup route won't need a refin, especially if you're careful about cutting out the scratchplate (you can cock up the route as much as you like then). You'll definitely need a refin after cutting a forearm contour, but you can buy cans of cellulose from places like Manchester Guitar Tech if you want to have a go yourself in the garden shed. If you're getting into new necks you might as well buy a more upmarket copy in the first place IMO, but new pickups and contouring are definitely worthwhile.

[ThomBassmonkey]

Ok, I may just go for a SBMM Ray 35 and do one thing at a time.

Anyone got any experience with the Delano MM pups? I have the some single coils in my Sandberg JJ and absolutely love them.

It's still early days though, so we'll see.

[Vibrating G String]

Doesn't the SUB use the exact same neck as the more expensive MM's? If you're buying it to mess with I'd save the money and get a SBMM over a SUB.

[Vibrating G String]

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1116656' date='Feb 5 2011, 08:08 AM']Anyone got any experience with the Delano MM pups?[/quote]
They're very trendy, which means you'll have to change them in a few years. Currently I prefer the stock OLP pickup I have to the EBMM I have in my SUB. I've had a number of Bart MM's which were great but lacked some of the glassy highs that scores the bedroom sales. Great for a band player.

I've also enjoyed the Seymour Duncans I've used very much.

What is it you want from Delano?

[ThomBassmonkey]

I don't really know a lot about pickups to be honest, I'm totally blown away by the sound of my JJ5 though and since it's a fairly standard active J5, I'm assuming it's mostly down to the delanos, which I've not tried before.

It has a lot of fatness and punch, but still sounds very clear which is exactly how I want my sound. The band I play in is me, guitar, flute and drums, so I need something to keep the fatness there when there's a guitar solo, but still defined enough to be clearly defined when I'm playing runs and fancy bits.

2 reasons I'd want to change the neck on a SUB. The paint finish and I want a maple board.

The other option I'm considering is a cheap-ish Fender 5 jazz and putting delanos in that so it's similar to mine. I'd like to try out something with MM style pups though.

Maybe I should get a MIM Jazz 5 and make it into a "double fat jazz" If I could coil tap it too to keep the original J tone, that'd be pretty awesome.

Edited February 6, 2011 by ThomBassmonkey

[Toasted]

You may as well pile the money in a heap and burn it.

[Gust0o]

Toasted has a point, to my mind.

Would you be better starting with something like an OLP, if considering heavy modification? Much more economical - so, to borrow Toasted's comment, you'd only be burning a [i]small[/i] pile of money going down that route

[xilddx]

[quote name='Toasted' post='1117274' date='Feb 6 2011, 01:19 AM']You may as well pile the money in a heap and burn it.[/quote]
I completely agree.

I think the OP just wants a nice interesting meaty project. I designed and built a bass from parts, luckily it turned out pretty much as I expected and it plays, sounds and looks amazing, and it's unique. However, it was supposed to cost me a few hundred quid and ended up costing me nearly £1,100 because of scope creep and the cheap components I was going to use ended up being top drawer parts.

Ask yourself why you want to do this. Making a cheap bass into an expensive one is probably what will happen and you may well not get what you want and end up parting it out.

Delano MMs are superb though, I had one in a fretless, the harmonic details in the response were really beautiful.

[ThomBassmonkey]

As I've said, I have a Sandberg JJ5 that I love, I'm not expecting to make my dream bass. The idea of this is just to make something a little special for myself and have a bit of fun. I'm under no illusions that resale value is going to be a huge loss if I ever come to sell it.

I think saying I might as well burn the money isn't really true. If I do do this then I'll end up with a bass that should be really good and customised to what I want. There's no way of doing this unless I go down a custom route (which will cost a lot more than doing this and will have higher losses if I sold it on).

I'm really GASing for a M/M 5 at the moment. There's not a lot on the market apart from G&L or a ray. Buying a ~£400 bass and customising it will fulfill that GAS and give me something a little special and shouldn't cost much more than a SH Ray5 H (assuming I don't get it professionally finished or too much work done).

[Gust0o]

But if you want to modify a bass, then why start from a MM? Surely you'd be a MM because you want a MM, not a blank canvas for your efforts? Is that not the crux of this business about burning money, etc?

[ThomBassmonkey]

Well the only bass I've seen in that kind of budget that has two MM pups and appealed to me is the G&L L2500, which blew me away when I had a play on one a while back (and if I'm honest, is part of the reason I'm GASing for a MM/MM bass). Even if I were to just buy one of those, I'd like to put in coil taps on the MMs.

Just buying something would take out all of the fun though just buying something. I've never modded any of my instruments and I know I'm capable of it from a few repairs I've had to do. Just thought it could be something interesting and fun that would make the instrument a little more special to me.

It's a bit like buying a jigsaw then someone saying "well why didn't you just buy the picture?"

[JimD]

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1117835' date='Feb 6 2011, 04:48 PM']It's a bit like buying a jigsaw then someone saying "well why didn't you just buy the picture?" [/quote]

Kind of, although it sounds a bit like you want a jigsaw of a Venice landscape, but with the London Eye in it too? I say do whatever works for you!

There's always a fine line in modding between what you want/need and ruining-a-classic-beyond-resale. I'd hazard that if Eddie Van Halen or Neil Young were not the famous guitarists they are, and they joined forums about guitars and said 'hey, here's my guitar, I call it "Frankenstrat"/"Old Black"' they'd be slaughtered in today's axey zeitgeist.

But if they hadn't woken up one morning and thought something along the lines of "I wonder if I put that bit from that guitar onto that other one...?" then we'd have missed out everything they did that modding their guitars allowed them to do.

I would imagine though that for every "Frankenstrat" or "Old Black" that went on to make great music, there are probably a lot more of these sort of things - [url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8903114@N07/sets/72157624393708924/"]http://www.flickr.com/photos/8903114@N07/s...57624393708924/[/url]

My only advice would be to start small for the practical parts like woodworking. Maybe even have a first go on a nice cheap bit of wood like an ikea chopping board or something. I find modding fun but it can take a lot of time, and a guitar in bits is a guitar not being played.

[Toasted]

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1117774' date='Feb 6 2011, 03:41 PM'](which will cost a lot more than doing this and will have higher losses if I sold it on).[/quote]

Dude, really? Look in the FS forum.

[neepheid]

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='1117835' date='Feb 6 2011, 04:48 PM']Well the only bass I've seen in that kind of budget that has two MM pups and appealed to me is the G&L L2500, which blew me away when I had a play on one a while back (and if I'm honest, is part of the reason I'm GASing for a MM/MM bass). Even if I were to just buy one of those, I'd like to put in coil taps on the MMs.

Just buying something would take out all of the fun though just buying something. I've never modded any of my instruments and I know I'm capable of it from a few repairs I've had to do. Just thought it could be something interesting and fun that would make the instrument a little more special to me.

It's a bit like buying a jigsaw then someone saying "well why didn't you just buy the picture?" [/quote]

The G&L L-2500 does not have two MM pickups. It has two MFD pickups, which are nothing like MM pickups in terms of anything other than they're both large pole piece humbuckers. The two do not and cannot compare in terms of sound.

I'm with you on the coil tap though. Modding a G&L with coil taps is both easy and non-ruinous because all you need to do is replace a switch and do some wiring. No cosmetic damage incurred, and easily reversible - the epitome of an elegant modification. Also the single coils of MFDs sound sweet (in my humble opinion) - I have the inner coils option on my Tribute L-2000.

[ThomBassmonkey]

[quote name='Toasted' post='1119022' date='Feb 7 2011, 04:03 PM']Dude, really? Look in the FS forum.[/quote]

There's buying someone else's custom bass and buying my custom bass. Very different things and buying my own would cost a lot and have bad re-sale value.

Neephied, what's the difference between MM and MFD? I made the assumption purely on looks, obviously I missed something.

I don't want to do anything too crazy, the MM/MM config has been done enough times before that it's tried and tested and adding a forearm contour isn't all that crazy considering most basses have them anyway (and that'd be avoided if I didn't go for a SUB).