Pimped budget basses.......

[Rayman]

I just wondered how many of you were happily spanking your more affordable gear and being perfectly happy with it.

This is a bass guitar forum, and many many players here have top end kit costing many thousands of pounds. I've had some nice gear in my time too, as have many of my mates, but....last year, for Christmas, my Mrs bought me an OLP Tony Levin 5. I'm a bit of a fan and fancied his signature bass because it was cheap, and if I hated it, it wasn't the end of the world.

Now, out of the box is was very nice and comfortable to play with some nice meaty tones to play with, but the EQ wasn't great, noisy and cheap it had to go. It had a shocking nut and a flimsy battery compartment too. I tried a few alterations, different pups etc, but after a few changes it's come back from my techs with a John East 3 band EQ and a beautifully made brass nut fitted, also a good quality battery box has been slapped in.

I had the original pickup put back in after a couple of emails from Tony, who informed me that the design of them was intentionally meant to echo the tone of his alnico original.

So after the changes were finished, and it'd had a setup, I plugged it in, and fell in love with it instantly. NOT your typical Stingray tone you understand, but still it now has a voice and playability all of its own. Live it sounds immence, it plays great too, and with the superb EQ you can dial in almost any tone you like.

So the Fenders have taken a bit of a back seat because of this, allbeit [i]pimped[/i] budget bass guitar that I just love to bits.







I've spent the same amount doing it up that I did buying it in the first place, but I reckon it's now a much [i]much[/i] better instrument, and worth the effort. Worth it? You decide.

[Aaren J]

Beautiful axe, dude. I've been after a Tony Levin OLP for a while now.

[Huge Hands]

I have a Squier P5 which I love and is now my main workhorse.

It's definitely a "marmite" thing, but I love the cricket bat sized neck. I wanted a five with 4 string spacing after I kept tripping up over the tight spacing on my Cort C5.

The only mods are a set of custom Wizard J pups and a set of Labella flats.

I know there are much more expensive basses out there that will feel tighter and better put together, but I prefer the fact that this is something I have worked on myself and feels good to me. I can't justify the outlay on a more expensive bass all at once.

I have bought a second one which I've stripped ready for painting and bought a "proper" precision pickup for (thanks Old Horse Murphy), but I haven't got round to carving up the body to fit it yet. My theory is I'll always have this one to go back to if it doesn't work out..

I think the recent birth of mini HH has put all this on hold for a while.....

Edited June 11, 2009 by Huge Hands

[neepheid]

I love doing this. Currently in my arsenal are:

[b]Fecker Imprecision[/b]: The neck and body of a Chinese Squier Precision (Affinity) I had lying around. From top to bottom I did the following:

1) Reamed out the tuner holes and fitted full size tuners instead of the enclosed cheapy things
2) Applied a custom logo (Fecker logo and IMPRECISION BASS in the late 70's style)
3) Fitted a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder pup
4) Rewired it with CTS pots and Orange Drop cap
5) Filled and redrilled the pickguard screwholes for a standard Fender Mex pattern
6) Fitted a Badass II
7) Shim the neck to get the action down low enough

Result? A nice growly P with probably the lowest action of all my basses

[b]Epiphone Les Paul (Not So) Standard[/b]: A beautiful black model with cream binding and a carved top. Fell in love with the looks, wasn't so impressed with the sound. So I swapped the pickups out for EMG-HB (active P in a humbucker housing basically) and added an EMG-BQC 3-band EQ. Also gave it it's "gold tooth" - I found the G saddle sat too low when all the other strings were fine and being the Gibson 3 point bridge, you can only raise/lower either side of the bridge, not each individual saddle. So I stole a D saddle out of a gold bridge I had lying around which is the nearly the same height as the D saddle in my bridge and swapped them. Result - correct curvature of strings, and a "gold tooth". To finish off the sophisticated look, I obtained some East knobs from Alan at ACG.

Previous mention goes to my [b]Squier Bronco[/b] which got a similar treatment to the Fecker Imprecision, namely:

1) Again, reamed out the tuner holes and fitted regular sized tuners
2) Swapped the ugly thick 1 ply white pickguard for a sweet looking black/white/black one
3) Fitted a lipstick pickup
4) Changed the useless 2 saddle bridge for a 4 saddle one
5) Modified the body for through body stringing

I sold it a while back because it wasn't getting played enough to justify it hanging around.

I really enjoy doing this to "budget" basses (I never understood this terminology - surely most people have a budget when they go bass shopping, it might be a grand?) - I love exceeding people's expectations when they get down and play these basses. Maybe it's a "championing the underdog" thing. Yes, in some cases I've spent more on mods than the initial obtaining of the instrument, but I build for fun and I always intend to keep my modded basses.

[fender73]

Great Thread, and a subject close to my heart. I've had loads of pricier basses (JD/Status/MIA Fenders etc), but currently gigging and loving two basses, an OLP MM, a Squier Classic Vibe Precision and a Peavey Zodiac. Great basses, reliable etc and don't mind handing them over on Jam nights etc.

The OLP has only had a good setup, the Classic Vibe P Bass has had a chrome pickup cover added for that 60's look, and the Peavey has had an EMG active circuit added.

Will add some pics of the Classic Vibe soon as it looks great (IMHO!)

Cheers

Graeme

[attachment=26877:10062009028.jpg]

[Jobiebass]

Nice work with the OLP. Whats the B like on it now? I had a 5HH olp and the B was realllly weak.

I pimped my first ever bass, altho thinking about it, the only original things on it are the body/scratchplate/tuners.
Mightymite fretless neck
Fender knobs
fender pots
Semour Duncan 1/4 pounder pickups
Badass Bridge
Toped off with a crazy paintjob in a marble purple colour.

Im quite happy with it, sounds really nice and plays really well, there is a link to it in my signiture.

[ped]

Modded budget basses are cool. One of the most enjoyable basses I have had was an OLP MM3 with a status neck. It was just groovy and fun, in a way which is impossible to replicate by throwing money away in search of it.

[ped]

P.s I can't see the pics because work blocks photobucket etc but I bet it's gorgeous!

[WinterMute]

Lovely work mate, well worth the effort.

My Squire VMJ has had a few mods, it's got a Gotoh 201 bridge and I shimmed the neck (thanks t the great "Shim Your neck" thread).

I grabbed some Wizard 84's from obbm here on BC, but have yet to get them installed, that's next on the list.

I might throw an East into it at some point, although with the earthing and shielding done its not noisy and the Wizards are going to make a big difference.

I'm really liking the passive thing atm.

I'm also planning some seriously radical mods for my Geddy Lee... a black pickguard1

Edited June 11, 2009 by WinterMute

[Rayman]

[quote name='Jobiebass' post='510991' date='Jun 11 2009, 11:07 AM']Nice work with the OLP. Whats the B like on it now?[/quote]

The B is lovely and punchy. I've recently sold an Overwater 5er which also had a cracking low B, and I was nervous of how the OLP would compare. Now while I'm not expecting the OLP to seriously sit along side an Overwater in terms of quality, it actually does so quite well. Obviously the EQ has helped, but out of the box, before any mods, this bass had lots of low end thump, it was just lacking in any decent clarity at the top end.

Another critisism aimed at this model is how tightly packed in the strings are copmared to a genuine MMSR5, well, all I can say is, all basses are different, and if the player can't adapt to the different designs on different instruments, then maybe they shouldn't try. This is [i]not[/i] a Musicman, but a great model in its own right that just happens to be 'ray shaped.

Here comes the GAS for a Musicman SR5 to partner this cracking little bass...........[i][size=1]help me baby jesus[/size][/i].........

Edited June 11, 2009 by Rayman

[escholl]

details in my sig/profile. it's not perfect but it is soooo much fun to play.






:wub:

[Aaren J]

Guys, these are awesome! I need to get my MM/P project off the ground

[hubrad]

[quote name='escholl' post='511130' date='Jun 11 2009, 01:01 PM']details in my sig/profile. it's not perfect but it is soooo much fun to play.






:wub:[/quote]
Man! How shiny is that?
Here's mine, an erstwhile Ibanez Roadster.. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=44673&hl=ibanez+roadster"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...ibanez+roadster[/url]

[Paul_C]

I've just de-fretted an Affinity Jazz for a local music school, and I have to say it's a nice bass for very little cash, having done it I'd quite like one myself

[fender73]

Nice Job HeavyJay.

Edited June 12, 2009 by fender73

[Rayman]

[quote name='Paul_C' post='511306' date='Jun 11 2009, 03:26 PM'][/quote]

That's the spitting image of the one Tigran brought to one of the bassworld bashes in Northants with the Villex pickups in it. It was a really nice player. I seem to remember that was the one where you had that [i]rasberry[/i] coloured Fender Urge?

[sixshooter]

Here is my latest:-

[attachment=26917:55_P_Bass_relic.jpg]

[Rayman]

That's stunning, I love that.

[neepheid]

Because entries in this thread are useless without pics:

Fecker Imprecision:











Epiphone Les Paul (Not So) Standard:

[Rayman]

Tasty couple of basses there mate, love the colour of the P, and I've been gassing for a Les Paul for a long time. Nice.

[TGEvans]

Currently sporting my spector legend /performer.its the one with the hz pickups and black hardware.love it too bits.not sure if its because i learnt on it and did my first 300 gigs with it but it feels more natural to me than anything to play. I have had it defretted and may look into doing something with the electronics in future.paid 300 pounds for it brand new about 8 years ago.not sure if its a good price but feels like it to me.t

[EdwardHimself]

Get ready for it....










Yep it's my "ratified" bass. Thread in build section.

[velvetkevorkian]

The basses currently gettig played a lot in my household are my Peavey Dynabass 5 strings, fretted and fretless- dirt cheap but after a lot of work (amateur fret dress, filing saddles, incessant truss rod tweaking) the fretted now plays better than my Conklin 7 string which cost substantially more. Its quite satisfying actually

[mike257]

I'm sneaking my modded Squier P into the set for a song or two at the moment - was my first bass, so it's nice to have it back in action. It's been given a Wizard Thumper/84 set, Badass 2, CTS pots and a new W/B/W scratchplate, and is an animal compared to how it used to sound.

I've made a start modding up the 'Extreme' Jazz copy I won in the Basschat raffle too! It's become my main 'playing at home' bass, but I'm about to start doing some pub covers gigs, and I'm not sure I want to take the posh basses to some of the places!! So far, it's had a new B/W/B scratchplate, a Gotoh 201, and the control plate/pots from a Geddy Jazz. I tried to throw some new pickups in it, but the bridge p/up cavity isn't standard sized, so I've been thwarted. Spoke to Andy at Wizard though, and he reckons if I send him the pickups, he can rebuild the guts of them as 84's for me I'm still undecided whether Wizards or a J-Retro are the next move for it.

[peted]

My first bass, a Japanese Squire Precision, which I could never bring myself to sell but I'm not a fan of the P sound. Had it pimped by Jon Shuker.