Playing bass is dangerous. It is a gateway drug to carpentry, upholstery, electronics and metalworking.
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On a different application, I found that hard neoprene (?) crafting foam blocks from Michael’s are perfect for going under pickups, and you can buy them in 2’ lengths of 3/4" square stock.
EDIT: They market it as Eva foam square dowel
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I can’t believe this hasn’t been reviewed as a bass gadget.
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Ok - so this seems like a cheap experiment: $16 for 12 foam types - and enough to do a couple mutes out of each type. I miss being a professor - because it’s fun to think up an experiment I want an answer to, and then give some poor student the burden of actually doing the work. We need a control recording - maybe a nice middle of the road J-bass playing a scale, and then recordings for each foam density. Then we can do a poll to determine best overall - but keep the reference recordings so people would have a good idea of what would work for them.
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Foam = P bass historically
I’d use that.
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it is true that it came from the P, but it was also a thing on many other old basses. J under the cover, Rick 4001 also, Mustang, and even my 70’s Grabber has this foam (very hard in this case) stuck under the bridge cover. it was a real thing at the time, when the purpose of a bass was to take the place in the mix of an upright. very interesting subject in my opinion.
and a lot to experiment for dirt cheap. great tones to expect, I swear.
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I got a great deal on a Squier Paranormal Jazz Bass so I decided to do a few upgrades. I had some Hipshot tuners from another project so I installed them. Then I bought a Hipshot B style bridge and installed it. I also replaced the string tree with a 3 string retainer. Finally, I threw on some light gauge Labella DTB’s.
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Well I got the Barden into the D5, and it’s a killer pup. It’s articulate, all the strings sound good, quite, hot enough but not too hot. It has good highs and mids, and a fat low end. It really thumps on the E string.
Best of all, it sounds like a P bass, not a single coil. Which tells me I have more to learn about pickups because this is a humbucker with rails for poles.
This is a really nice pickup.
If I were to go go gigging, I would probably bring the D5 with the Barden and Deep Talkin Flats along with the FGN with PV 63 pups and Thomastik Infeld flats. I think i can cover a lot of the musical spectrum with those two.
The D5 with the Stinger also has TIs on it. That would be my number 3 bass.
Next up - get the 50s Squier back together. I moved the Fralin out and put it in the Tele bass before I returned it. I kept the Fralin and put the old crappy SD back into the Tele. I have a set of D’Addario Chrome Flats coming tomorrow for the Squier. Already have the Fralin installed, just need strings now.
Then I’m going to put EMG CS and DC pickups in the Stream, which is Dave Ellefson’s setup, and put on a set of stainless rounds on.
Then we’ll see what’s next
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I’m thinking about replacing the pups in my Paranormal and someone suggested Bootstrap pickups. Does anyone here have experience with them?
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I have a set of the Bootstrap Oatmeal Stout Strat pickups in a Squier strat that sound great. I would buy more of their stuff.
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Thanks, that’s good to know.
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So this isn’t a major upgrade but I didn’t like the cheap looking and feeling plastic knobs that came with the EMG preamp I had installed in my Spector so I replaced them with metal knobs. I set the plastic ones next to the new ones to show the difference.
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looks better indeed, but don’t you miss the little white position indicators ? I’ve always had a problem with knobs without a position mark
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I don’t. I use the set screws as position markers.
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I do the same. Have to. I don’t have a bass with knob position indicator marks.
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I find mine are always at either extreme for both the volume and tone pots anyway 
EQ though - yeah, indicators help.
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I do the same
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Mini upgrade. Thanks to some encouragement from The Great Enabler, @MikeC , I swapped my Squier P Bass and a Gretsch Jim Dandy for this 1992 Peavey Foundation. I had to hand over a few dollars after the swap but that’s better than hanging on to two instruments I knew I’d never play. That Squier neck was … chonky.
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The barter system is alive and well!! @sakkasie how do you like the Peavey so far?
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That Peavey is sweet!
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