Modified the hell out of my bass! Thought I'd share.

[Painy]

4 1/2 years ago I received a Squier Vintage Modified Precision 5 string as a valentines gift from my wife. I fell in love with the feel of the neck instantly - enough so that it straight away became my number one over all my other more expensive basses. I have a habit of tinkering with my gear though and since then I've gradually changed bits and pieces here and there. This week I finally finished making changes and thought I'd share the end result. 

Quick disclaimer - the modifications do include a Fender decal. This has been discussed to death on here already but its my bass, my choice and this bass will never be sold on (in fact it will have to be prised out of my cold dead hands). There's also a Fender logo neck plate but that was only fitted because the original Squier one got a nasty scratch across it and I had this one kicking about already. 

Here are the other modifications:-

Bar string-retainer on the headstock swapped for a pair of round string-retainers. 

Pickguard changed to gold anodised aluminium (cut by myself by hand from a blank sheet). 

Black thumb rest added. 

Chrome pickup and bridge covers added. To make access to the bridge easier for string changes, the bridge cover attaches with magnets which are counter sunk and epoxied into the body. 

Again to make string changes easier, the bridge itself I've adapted to be quick release by drilling though the tail piece alongside each string hole. Crude but works perfectly! 

The pickup I've swapped for a Nordstrand NP5V. This originally came from Dave Swift's White Sadowsky P5 so the shell is branded Sadowsky rather than Nordstrand. 

Dunlop Straploks fitted. 

I originally installed an active preamp which was an old Dan Armstrong Yellow Humper that @KiOgon kindly repaired for me and modified to include a true bypass switch. It was a simple circuit that just had a 3-way toggle switch to select between a flat eq, bass boost or bass and treble boost. To install this I had to route out some extra space under the pickguard. I also routed battery access through the back of the bass and made a little plastic plate to cover it. 

Unfortunately the Yellow Humper gave up the ghost a little while ago so this week I've installed an Artec Semi-parametric preamp. Stacked treble and bass, stacked mid frequency and mid level, volume and an optional pickup blend.

Because I had, the option of a pickup blend control with the preamp, and because I still had the original pickup, I decided to add a bridge pickup to get a bit more clarity - particularly from the low B. As the original pickup is a split coil I decided to go for the kind of V-shaped pickup layout that you see on the Warwick buzzard bass to try and get more articulation from the lower strings. I don't particularly like the look of bridge pickups on P-basses however so I also wanted to make it a 'stealth' pickup. My first thought was to route the pickup cavity in through the back of the bass so it would sit just below the surface of the body but a quick test showed that it wouldn't get enough signal from there to be effective. Instead I opted to fit it into the front of the bass in the normal way and to just make a wooden pickup cover for it. I made it by hand from a piece of ash and stained it a similar colour to the centre of the sunburst. I think it blends in fairly well. 

At this point the only original, un-modified parts are the neck itself, the frets and the tuners. I had thought at one point about fitting some Hipshot Ultralights but there's honestly nothing wrong with the original tuners and the frets aren't showing any wear just yet. 🙂

[Daz39]

Wow, nice work.

[LukeFRC]

I like the pickguard- was it hard to get the edge corners smooth without taking too much of the annodisation off? 

[PaulThePlug]

...Again to make string changes easier, the bridge itself I've adapted to be quick release by drilling though the tail piece alongside each string hole. Crude but works perfectly!

Nice touch...

[Painy]

1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

I like the pickguard- was it hard to get the edge corners smooth without taking too much of the annodisation off? 

It wasn't too bad to do. I cut it fairly roughly with a jigsaw first to within about 1mm of the outline. After that I used a file to get it down to the final shape and then it was just a sanding block with a bit of wet and dry to get the edges smooth which let me be quite precise. 

Edited August 29, 2020 by Painy

[stewblack]

Really nicely done. I too dislike bridge pups on a P. I love your solution, all the benefits of flexibility without spoiling the classic look. 

[therealting]

Nice work with the pickguard! I am toying with getting a sheet metal nibbler to do my own pickguards.

[ped]

Great stuff, I love a well modified bass. There’s nothing like taking ‘the one’ and making it yours.