is it possible to modify a bass so much?

[cool-beans]

i was planning to get the BB 414 as recommended by some kind guys here, but i'll take quite a while to save to that amount..

so i was thinking of maybe buying a cheaper alternative like SX basses, samick fairlane or yamaha's rb-170, then modifying them bit by bit, pickups, tuners etc. when i have the dough. will it work out?

actually i'm a little more keen on the p-bass sound, not really a big fan of funk/jazz, but i figured it'll be safer if i try both first, then make a concrete decision..

 

[rylche]

do try it. i personally am on a mod project on a SX too. try going to www.talkbass.com and read up on what people have done with their SXes. quite entertaining!

 

[Z3r0_G]

yea! i was quite amazed at the starter packs for the SX bass. pretty solid tone for that price.

 

[tim_1002]

well some people have gone so far that the only thing stock on their sx is the body itself.

weakest link on the sx are the pots followed by the bridge.

 

[RentaBass]

I suppose such a project is fully workable, but take pains to get hold of a bass with a good body. There is only so much all the electronics and bells and whistles in the world can do to make crap wood sound good.

I don't diss cheaper alternatives, but if you're going for a project bass, it's good to get one made from decent tonewoods, so you have a good fundamental tone to work with.

Just my two cents worth.

 

[exin]

+1 to what RentaBass has said .. i'd rather find good woods to work around with first .. before modding my bass upside down .. think of doing that to my current warmoth but i'm just going to change out pickups and preamp when i have the cash .. hopefully ..

 

[cool-beans]

what are some of the finer woods? I've checked out SX basses on the web, seems like most of em are made of solid alder.. is that okay-wood or crap-wood?

also.. tim mentioned something about pots.. what's that? the only pots i know are the ones my mum chased me around with..

 

[tim_1002]

what are some of the finer woods? I've checked out SX basses on the web, seems like most of em are made of solid alder.. is that okay-wood or crap-wood?

also.. tim mentioned something about pots.. what's that? the only pots i know are the ones my mum chased me around with..

alder is good. most fender basses are made out of alder or ash. i really don't like basswood for bass guitars as odd as that sounds.

pots as in the volume and tone pots. the knobs on your bass. replace them as they're known to be of low quality (sx ones)

 

[half-grown-idiot]

yea man. totally agree on what Renta said. you might have the best electronics but its only that much of technical tone it can produce. its the sound of the wood it matters ! wood woot~

 

[rylche]

tone is highly personal. sometimes, i like the sound of poorer quality woods with good electronics? modding a SX is pretty cheap, compared to buying a higher-quality bass. it's good for trying out stuff i guess.

 

[reyrey]

i guess the pickups and the woods that you gonna choose must compliment each other...
you must do lil bit of research on this dude,and you must calculate the cost of upgrading those things as well...
let's say you want to uprade your sx so it will sound like jap fender,if the upgrading will cost you more or less the same amount,just get the jap fender,be patient and save up lil by lil...
i modified my olp change the pickups,electronics,drill a place for the battery socket,well it cost me less than half a price of a musicman,i think its worth it....
one thing bout modifying,just know your stuff really well and you're safe...otherwise,its not worth trying

 

[rylche]

+1 to what reyrey said.

however by calculation, a modded SX bass costs much less than a jap fender. head over to talkbass to see the actual calculations

 

[cool-beans]

i've been lurking around talkbass for a while now.. but i haven't seen anything about SX basses.. they're always talking about fenders, sadowskys and all that high end stuff

can someone point me in the right direction?

also, is there anywhere i can read up on woods?

 

[RentaBass]

I'm not too sure about the calculations for modded SXs, but you can go to www.warmoth.com to check out their section on tonewoods.

I used to go there a lot of find out more about woods. Found it quite informative, and mostly true. You also get to learn a little about how to identify tonewoods.

Also, you can check out what some of the customers of Warmoth have done with their guitars and basses, just to get a few ideas of what you can do.

 

[rylche]

i think you gotta search for "ESSEX" basses, as that is what they call them over there. cheers!

 

[RentaBass]

Think they're all known as "SX"s now. It's like an updated name, so that they'll look more sophisticated or something.

Bor rylche, you're right about the "Essex", tho'.....that's what they used to be called before they were rebranded.

 

[rylche]

actually they called it ESSEX because when you searched in talkbass for "SX" , the search will not occur as it is only two letters in one term. so they lengthened it for easier access. that's what i think i saw

 

[bin4christ]

hey,wat bout changing a passive bass to an active bass?how 'extreme' will tt be?gotta buy active pickups,send it to tech,drill wood 2 allow space 4 batts,etc?izit worth doing this to an sx jazz bass or ltd,say,B-50?

 

[slapwalkpop]

hmm you might as well buy an active instead..save all the trouble and extra cost. you know, its like a tranny. you can change everything but then its not gonna be the real thing !

 

[Guest]

lol good point. i still say passives rock :lol: