Having lived with the L1500 and the god awful nails on blackboard screechiness of it and it’s preamp, I have no idea What he was thinking, probably other than compensating for his hearing loss, in particular high end hearing loss
Yeah those holes are fine for a BT7 (I think) drop tuner - did it on my DK and my old VS4.
The newer tuners I think only have 1 screw but on the side away from the nut
I think @scrumpymike has a short scale Ray, maybe he could do Some measurements, or track it down somehow.
The you’ll have the plans for a 34 and a 30, should be able to work out a 32 from that near as poss?
So far as shape goes, I prefer the old shape to look at, but to play the new shape is king.
The new tuners are cool, the only gripe being changing tuners now defo means another drill hole, and I don’t think there is a hipshot D tuner which matches
I am fairly sure the shape is the main difference, older one may have also had different tuners, but aside from that the guts should be mainly the same
No worries
The 58 creamery is very very good and not just vintage, it will do rock.
The Seymour Duncan is found in the Custom Shop Fender Dusty Hill bass is you want to check samples - good old ZZ Top. I really like them with no effects - they just sit well in the mix, possibly finger style better than pick, but do either.
APB-1 has sound samples on the website, but in a band context dUg Pinnick of Kings X uses them and they are on his signature Schecter bass
EMG GZR - well that’s Geezer Butler
and another for the mix Schaller PBX
happy listening and researching!
The following may give you what you need
Creamery 58 P pick up
Seymour Duncan custom shop 51 P hot stack
Seymour Duncan APB-1 (yes it’s active but the preamp is in the pick up and you use a passive tone knob)
Ulyate Tic-Tac
EMG GZR
Me’shell Ndegecello, 4 non blondes, alanis morisette, L7, St Vincent, Sheryl Crow, Esperanza Spalding, Janelle Monae, Ida Nelson
I know I have crossed a few genres But...
Why not get a dirt cheap body from anywhere, could be a kids guitar, and practice stripping, painting and relicing.
That whole process could be easily under £50
Thats what I did for various effects before trying it first hand.
The key is dont just take a belt sander too it
If you can hunt down a Mantic Beef Bag they are bloody awesome and getting very low and filling the sound, it almost gives an octave below effect unwittingly - and defo is a building shaker
Nah, skins not missing on that, just retracted a little, couple of stitches or glue and steri strips after pulling it across - right as rain as long as nowt damaged underneath.
It is a bit hurty tho
It’s pretty much as everyone says above, it will come down to a visual preference and sound preference. Amongst all configurations there are differences between all the pick ups. If you lean towards one sound naturally and visually then that is for you, and you can then mess about with changing pick ups as you see fit.
Careful of some basses that store a non soap bar pick up in a soap bar casing, there is nothing wrong with them but - for example The Sandberg 48 has a spilt coil in the neck, not a soap bar under the casing. Nothing wrong with this, but you may not get the preferred sound you were thinking of