Some cosmetic upgrades for my J-bass today:
First stripped:
Volume knobs in black pearl and tone in black cat’s eye:
Black Abalone pick-guard from WD Music (and pulled off the gum-ball machine skull sticker):
Their MiM template was a bit tight on the pickup hole and I had to trim and file it to fit, as well as around the control plate where I was a little too aggressive, but I’ll look fine from a distance.
Gonna post pictures later, but talk about a comedy of errors…
I’ve been working on getting my sonic bronco back together, plan was to upgrade pickup and refinish the neck. Took it apart, also decided to work on the neck of a squier affinity pj at same time( this comes into play later).
Neck refinish went great. Newly finished neck feels great, also smoothed out frets and sanded fretboard edges, big improvement
Pick up upgrade is where things kinda start going off the rails, upgraded to a Fralin 51 split P. Needed to rout out the pickguard, I messed that up, bought a new pickguard, was more careful, new pickguard will work.
Ordered obsidian wire control harness, but its fixed control spacing won’t work in a bronco
Decided to learn to solder, bought some soldering stuff and pots/wires/jacks/soldering iron etc.
Wired my first harness using some 250k CTS pots and for S and G’s a .022 capacitor.
Installed all of it, and it surprisingly made the appropriate noises.
I had ordered a Wilkinson bridge for it, figured out that the original bridge screws were too big to go through the new bridge, ended up putting on the old stock bridge that came with my Mustang
Put the neck back on, tightened up the backing plate, strung it up, the figured out I’d mixed up the backing plate/screws between the bronco and the PJ affinity since the bronco neck wouldn’t come flush with the body. So, I changed all those out and the neck is good.
Restrung, all good…until…I tried one of the old knobs on the tone control. I didn’t press all that hard, but apparently hard enough and it broke, not off, but shaft was loose and just not right.
Took it all apart, replaced the tone pot, got it all back together
After all this, I haven’t had a ton of time to play it, it sounds good, but the tone knob seems to do less than on my other basses, I’m thinking its because of the .022 capacitor, I’m going to give it some time and see how it goes, I may end up going back to a .047.
When I replaced my pickups, the tech at Fralin recommended .047 with the 250K pot.
Yeah, I think that’s the usual, I listened to a couple of p bass comparison videos, using different capacitors, and I thought I’d try out the .022 and see what it would sound like. I’ll see, I haven’t had a lot of time to play it, but its definitely a different p bass sound than my others.
.047 would work fine as it’s a pretty standard all-around value for a bass. That’s the value that always works.
But the Fralin is a clear pickup, and I think that a .068 would be even better in this case.
.022 is the all-around value for guitars, but it’s clearly too small for a bass.
Admit it … you loved every minute of that adventure … cause: exciting???
What does that mean, Laurent?
My inner dialogue has gone from a toxic “you are a F’ing idiot” to a more constructive “Don’t F it up next time”, eventually I’ll get to “I sure do appreciate all the learning opportunities this project provided” but I’m not quite there yet.
Hahahaha … yes, I recognize that … it’s the modding mantra
As soon as you have a bass in your hands that you have modded and it plays and looks absolutely great, the feeling will set in.
After that, every bass you mod will remind you of the ups & downs and the total satisfaction in the end … and it will always be a great adventure of pure joy … you won’t make the old mistakes … and find pleasure in solving the new challenges & mistakes.
The only drawback is, when you have modded a bass until the very end … nothing can be changed to improve it.
It feels … empty…
To me it’s so much as it feels empty, as I want to mod some more. Gimme more. More is all I need.
That’s the feeling
I want to say that it’s not a dark/dull pickup, it’s a bit more on the bright/clear side, so a slightly bigger cap can help get a more balanced response when you turn down the tone knob
I have reached my three bass limit, so there is no more … “more”!
I really don’t know anything I could improve (within my budget).
So that’s that!
Need to do some final little things on my basses, but I already started modding my bikes again, as an alternative
PS Of course there is still my little travel bass, that lies taken apart under my bed
There’s no doll named Chucky down there too is there?
You, my friend, just found the new name for my travel bass! Thanks!!!
Band name…
Modding Junkies
I have another sonic p bass coming today. Not sure what I’m gonna do with it. But, should help with the emptiness. They went on sale last weekend and I couldn’t help myself. Probably should told my wife about it, but it’s been a busy week.
I became a big fan of the X model of active EMG pickups. I think they don’t get enough love on the internet…
No soldering … and if there is not enough space for the battery, you sure can dremel a cavity for it … just saying
After over 14h of not being able to play bass, charge phones, etc… due to storms crossing Ireland and the UK… I’m planning on buying a generator… is it too crazy? 
Is it also considered an upgrade?
Speeds went up to 186km/h… it would’ve taken off
