What would you spend £150 if tarting up a sh*te bass..

[dougie]

Dont know why but the Marlin P bass the missus got me for xmas has started to get my attention recently and last cpl weeks ive replaced the crappy machine heads with good ones i picked up,also the bridge replaced with a sturdier black one,add that to the £30 i spent on the DR neons and my "fecker pretender bass"logo and its now became one of my stupid projects i do,anyway the whole thing now actually seems nice tto play but ive decided to spend around another £150 to see just how nice i can get it,my question is......what would you spend it on ?????
1-"scrap it,keep the strings and buy a good bass"---heard it
2-"get medical help soon"----heard it
3""use it as a paddle in a flood emergency"-----heard that too
Before the flood of smartypants let rip id appreciate any ideas,im not doing it to sell and recuperate any cash just want to see how good/bad these peices of sh*te can be,and because i can

[Ou7shined]

John East P-Retro.
You may need to up the budget a bit though.

[captain black]

IMHO good pickups would be the main thing

[dougie]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1142601' date='Feb 26 2011, 06:04 PM']John East P-Retro.
You may need to up the budget a bit though. [/quote]
didnt know what that was so googled it,looks useful.ill read more about it later when this f***ing kids b/day party ends,got 20 of the noisiest,irritating,nosey bastards running round like the cakes been baked with speed rather than flour
thanks for the reply

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='dougie' post='1142621' date='Feb 26 2011, 06:14 PM']didnt know what that was so googled it,looks useful.ill read more about it later when this f***ing kids b/day party ends,got 20 of the noisiest,irritating,nosey bastards running round like the cakes been baked with speed rather than flour
thanks for the reply [/quote]


I feel for you man. My daughter had a birthday party today too.... thank god it was someone else's.

[dougie]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1142645' date='Feb 26 2011, 06:37 PM']

I feel for you man. My daughter had a birthday party today too.... thank god it was someone else's. [/quote]
Thanks i appreciate the sympathy lol,i offered to pay for it to be held in some kiddie soft play area-concentration camp but i can see my wifes point of veiw,why should i get tranquility on my firsy free saturday off in weeks,spent half the day in the garden picking up dog sh*te

[Cat Burrito]

There's a Marlin in my local shop in for repair & it appears perfectly fine to me. I wouldn't spend £150, I simply replace the pickup & replace the knobs as those look a bit cheap. I reckon you'll have a nice bass

[Blademan_98]

Pickups seem the only thing in the budget left to do!

(maybe a bit of copper tape in the routing and a new jack socket)

then you are done

[rOB]

[quote name='captain black' post='1142611' date='Feb 26 2011, 06:10 PM']IMHO good pickups would be the main thing[/quote]

+1

If it plays ok then I reckon pickups are the way to make the biggest difference.

[Ou7shined]

Dinnae listen to these guys Dougie, they have no ambition.
You said you had a budget of £150 not £50. Besides a JE P-Retro will make a light bulb sound nice.

[dougie]

[quote name='Blademan_98' post='1142724' date='Feb 26 2011, 07:42 PM']Pickups seem the only thing in the budget left to do!

(maybe a bit of copper tape in the routing and a new jack socket)

then you are done [/quote]
forgot to mention that,yea ive done the opper tape too,cheers all guys for the input,it was a pressie from the wife at xmas,i already had the sr800 and the Schecter and had to do an oscar winning performance xmas day tellingher it was a belter,a couple of times i got the"you dont play it much"and had to bullshit it was because it was my 1st split new bass and i wanted to keep it sweet,at first i was horrified,out of the box both pups were loose,one having a mounting screw missing,the neck was just tossed on and worse at the 1st string change the machine head started parting at the weld and another started getting so stiff i had to use pliers to turn the f***er,i replaced them with a set from ebay along with the DR,s and already after stripping it and setting it up it actually felt ok,as mentioned then the bridge and strap locks cos one stripped out the front hole when playing it,not under any illusion this is gonna be my holy grail bass but finding it good fun.

Edited February 26, 2011 by dougie

[dougie]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1142740' date='Feb 26 2011, 07:53 PM']Dinnae listen to these guys Dougie, they have no ambition.
You said you had a budget of £150 not £50. Besides a JE P-Retro will make a light bulb sound nice. [/quote]
Im reading about them as we speak,looks the biz,apparently depending on the knobs(dont say a word)they can be had for around £180.it,ll probably end up an obsession with me tossing scary money at it as this bass hobby is becoming addictive to say the least,ie-spent roughly £200 on effects pedals(mostly for guitars ffs)and ended up putting them on ebay cos i found one pedal that done the lot.coincidently it was a well known BCer that won them,exellent guy to deal with i,ll add.most pastimes i end up giving up on if not an overnight success,at the ripe old age of 46 this one is only getting worse....

Edited February 26, 2011 by dougie

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='dougie' post='1142753' date='Feb 26 2011, 08:02 PM']forgot to mention that,yea ive done the opper tape too,cheers all guys for the input,it was a pressie from the wife at xmas,i already had the sr800 and the Schecter and had to do an oscar winning performance xmas day tellingher it was a belter,a couple of times i got the"you dont play it much"and had to bullshit it was because it was my 1st split new bass and i wanted to keep it sweet,at first i was horrified,out of the box both pups were loose,one having a mounting screw missing,the neck was just tossed on and worse at the 1st string change the machine head started parting at the weld and another started getting so stiff i had to use pliers to turn the f***er,i replaced them with a set from ebay along with the DR,s and already after stripping it and setting it up it actually felt ok,as mentioned then the bridge and strap locks cos one stripped out the front hole when playing it,not under any illusion this is gonna be my holy grail bass but finding it good fun.[/quote]

The last couple of lines detail why people should mod basses- not because an Alembic's on the cards, but because you enjoy it and learn a lot about your instrument of choice. Not to mention the fact that you might just get an instrument that is really "you"

Good luck, and another +1 for pick-up change. have a look at the usual suspects;

Duncan
DiMarzio
Wizard
Armstrong

etc.
etc.

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='dougie' post='1142771' date='Feb 26 2011, 08:11 PM']Im reading about them as we speak,looks the biz,apparently depending on the knobs(dont say a word)they can be had for around £180.it,ll probably end up an obsession with me tossing scary money at it as this bass hobby is becoming addictive to say the least,ie-spent roughly £200 on effects pedals(mostly for guitars ffs)and ended up putting them on ebay cos i found one pedal that done the lot.coincidently it was a well known BCer that won them,exellent guy to deal with i,ll add.most pastimes i end up giving up on if not an overnight success,at the ripe old age of 46 this one is only getting worse....[/quote]
It's not like you'll be able to sell it ever. Pimp it right out.... I bet the Mrs will give it a green light coz it's "her" bass and it means more to you than all the others blah blah blah.

[dougie]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1142798' date='Feb 26 2011, 08:29 PM']It's not like you'll be able to sell it ever. Pimp it right out.... I bet the Mrs will give it a green light coz it's "her" bass and it means more to you than all the others blah blah blah. [/quote]
totally agree,with the dr greens and Fecker logo it looks slutty,as for the green light lol,i bought one of these to see my glowing strings
[url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/blacklight-uv-bulb-24245"]http://www.maplin.co.uk/blacklight-uv-bulb-24245[/url]
feckin waste of time!!!!
kid asks why i had a black lightbulb,explained it was opposite to a normal one,i got it because i work nightshift and cant sleep during the day so this black bulb makes the room dark when i switch it on.
when trying the bulb out he shouts"mum!!!dads in the downstairs cupboard in the dark staring at his bass!!!!"......i felt dirty lol

[LawrenceH]

Pickups and it will sound like a whole new bass. Then a fret dress and it'll feel like one too!

[dougie]

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='1142891' date='Feb 26 2011, 11:21 PM']Pickups and it will sound like a whole new bass. Then a fret dress and it'll feel like one too![/quote]
My Ebay fingers been in action yet again,guy said these are genuine,so couldnt stop myself yet again....
[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120689381946&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT[/url]
Also bought a chrome scratchplate for it....for anyone interested heres the sows ear im hoping to turn into a silk purse....

Edited March 1, 2011 by dougie

[Ancient Mariner]

As the owner of one 'cheap and slightly grinning' bass, I have to say that pickups are a good replacement. Bought a set of Fender Geddy Lees through the classifieds here for a budget J type, and they really did make a big difference (there's no mud in my bass now!).

[TRBboy]

Definitely change the pickup. I put Dimarzio Model P/J in a cheap Yammy recently and they are awesome! The model P is absolutely thunderous. You can get the Model P from Axiomatic for £62.95.

I've done the whole "Awesome active preamp teamed with s**t pickups" thing, and it only works up to a point. It's the equivalent of having a Ferrari with a milk float engine.

For your budget you could afford to buy a Dimarzio Model P and my Aguilar OBP2 preamp, then you'd really be in business......... ;-)

[paul_5]

I pimped (well, rebuilt) a cheap P bass last year. The single best thing I bought for it was a GFS pickup. overwound Alnico split P that was punchy, loud and clean. They're about £30 ish and worth every penny. A friend of mine has eve replaced his USA strat pickups with GFS ones, as they sound better, ad cost peanuts.
[url="http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-PB-Pro-PLUS-OVERWOUND-Alnico-P-Bass-style-VERY-hot_p_334.html"]GFS bass pickups.[/url]

currently out of stock though

[dougie]

Seems descent pups are indeed the next step,the set i"won" on ebay listed as "fender p bass pickups" turns out to be Squire items so didnt know if theres much difference but told him to keep them,looking for a set as we speak.

[hillbilly deluxe]

EMG select,about £35.

[dougie]

Spent all im spending on this now,replaced
1-stiffer black bridge
2-better quality machine heads
3-DR Neon green strngs
4-new chrome scratch plate5-black strap buttons
5-Fender P MIJ pup
6-Fender corona neck plate
7-brass nut
8-my favourite,the Fecker pretender bass logo
9-coppertaped all the holes.
Now onto my next project building a bass using quality stuff,gets kinda addictive,the Marlin inc what it cost new owes me about 180-200 quid and now actually sounds n looks ok....

[JTUK]

Assume this is done and dusted now, but IMV, to get quality you need to start with quality and it is your call what parts of the bass are any good.

As an exercise, fair enough, and you may be able to use it, but this isn't a route I would take.

[dougie]

[quote name='JTUK' post='1175782' date='Mar 25 2011, 12:04 PM']Assume this is done and dusted now, but IMV, to get quality you need to start with quality and it is your call what parts of the bass are any good.

As an exercise, fair enough, and you may be able to use it, but this isn't a route I would take.[/quote]
yea agree but as i said it wasnt intended to end up top class,merely usable,and on the basis that any bass is 2 lumps of wood with electrics and strings attached at each end i replaced the pups with ones Big Leo reckons are ok for his Jap efforts,the strings are descent quality so as i said it actually sounds ok..quality is better to a large degree when it gets you wondering if that 4k bass really is better than that nice 1k one you might have seen....