Bargain Bass(ment) Hunter

[bassatnight]

Following a recent clear out of my high end basses I have decided to pick up some cheap intsruments and upgrade them.

In the last week I have purchased a Squier VM Jazz and a J&D Fretless 4 stringer. I have no idea who J&D are but having dome some research and watched a few You tube clips at £160 I thought I would have a go. I must admit I am having a great time setting them up and replacing the Bridges, The pups and adding new pick guards etc. I probably won't get my money back but am enjoying seeing how good I can make them.

Next on my list a Squire Classic Vibe P!

Might start documenting what I have done with a few pics. I think in these hard times with finances perhaps its the way to go!

Anyone else doing this/done this?

Cheers,

Steve.

[JMT3781]

if you do make a diary kind of thing about this it would be great to have a look at your progress!

[TheGreek]

Hope that you're doing this for the love of the instrument as from my experience you rarely get your money back from upgrading instruments..

[neepheid]

I'll go one better and say you'll never get your money back on upgrades. That is why you should keep the original parts, so you can return the instrument to stock for selling. You'll get more money selling the fancy parts on separately than you will with them contained in an instrument.

Sticking EMG stuff in my Epiphone Les Paul bass does not double its resale value, even though it cost more to put in all the EMG stuff than it did to buy the bass in the first place

[Soloshchenko]

I've been a bit skint recently so picked up a £70 Columbus Jazz Copy from the 70s and am stripping/refinishing and upgrading the hardware. You're right, it's awesome fun. Not arsed about re sale value, as I have a number of the bits lying about it will barely get over the £100 mark in total cost and I'll have a cool bass for that.

Get some pics on the build diary mate!

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='bassatnight' post='996308' date='Oct 21 2010, 07:54 PM']Following a recent clear out of my high end basses I have decided to pick up some cheap intsruments and upgrade them.

In the last week I have purchased a Squier VM Jazz and a J&D Fretless 4 stringer. I have no idea who J&D are but having dome some research and watched a few You tube clips at £160 I thought I would have a go. I must admit I am having a great time setting them up and replacing the Bridges, The pups and adding new pick guards etc. I probably won't get my money back but am enjoying seeing how good I can make them.

Next on my list a Squire Classic Vibe P!

Might start documenting what I have done with a few pics. I think in these hard times with finances perhaps its the way to go!

Anyone else doing this/done this?

Cheers,

Steve.[/quote]

Exactly what im doing at the moment, and for the same reason.

I realised that no matter how good the bass was, i would sell it at some point. and the time i was keeping basses were getting shorter and shorter. I was loosing too much money so im now using budget basses.
Ok, i did try and get a MIA recently but that didnt work out, and i do have a HW-one Jazz that i love but my current bass is a CV P and i like it so much im spending money on it to get it just the way i want it.
Ive just got a Wizard thumper to go in it, and im getting a Fender vintage bridge put on it next week. I cant think of anything else that needs changing (other than a full respray)
Im not doing this with selling in mind, im doing this so i can have a bass as close as what i want, without breaking the bank. I want narrower string spacing, and more punch from the pup.
If i do sell it (highly likely i guess) ive only spent £100 on it, and no matter what people say it will be a better bass and people will pay a tiny bit more for it IME.

[Gust0o]

You'll make some coin from restoration, but upgrades should be for personal use - to make your money back you'll need to break the item down or charge a premium, and sometimes that can be hard to sell to buyers.

I've had two come in on similar terms - an 1987 BC Rich ST bass from the States, bought for $50; Wizard pick-ups, Gotoh parts, and now a real thumper. Likewise my 1990s-ish Platinum ST; yet more Wizards in for my birthday, it's being stripped at the moment.

Both great players, both fun to work on; I'll be doing it again - and, indeed, am on the hunt!

[paul h]

There's a lot to be said for buying cheap and modding. I personally have never spent much over £400 on a bass. I've tried but never gone through with it.

I went into Musical Exchanges in Brum once with £1500. I tried a couple of Warwicks, a couple of Stingrays, a couple of US Fenders and even a Ric. I came out with a MIJ P for £250 which ended up as my main bass for years.

I'm not saying the other basses were not better, just not £1250 better!

[dave_bass5]

At the end of the day your right, upgrades are a personal thing and whats good for you might not be good for everyone but if i was to sell the bass i would include the original parts as well, more as an incentive for someone to buy, and they might be able to make a bit of money selling the parts off.
At least this way you can ask for a bit more thna a stock bass. I did this with my old DJ5 that i had converted to a PJ. i never got my money back of course but i did sell it for more than the going price for a DJ5 at the time. If the upgrades appeal to someone they will pay a bit more for them IME.

I would probably keep the Thumper anyway and put it in my next P.

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='paul h' post='1005343' date='Oct 29 2010, 03:39 PM']There's a lot to be said for buying cheap and modding. I personally have never spent much over £400 on a bass. I've tried but never gone through with it.

I went into Musical Exchanges in Brum once with £1500. I tried a couple of Warwicks, a couple of Stingrays, a couple of US Fenders and even a Ric. I came out with a MIJ P for £250 which ended up as my main bass for years.

I'm not saying the other basses were not better, just not £1250 better![/quote]

I did a similar thing when looking for my first proper 5 string in the Bass Centre a few years ago. I had budgeted up to about £1500 and that was enough to get me almost any 5 string they had. I ended up buying a Lakland for £699.
Same with my recent MIA disasters. 4 MIA jazz bass and ended up with my HW-one Jazz at a saving of £400, plus it felt and played better.

[waldemar]

Yep. Did a similar thing last year [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=70330"]with this[/url]. Ended up costing me a pretty penny, but it's become my main bass. Seems to get better the more I get used to it. Caught the bug a bit since then, bought an old precision neck and badass II off shaggy for £50 a short while back and am in the process of fitting that to the original blue fernandes body - trying to do this for as cheap as this time around. Then just last week I [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=108033"]bought this[/url]. Just ordered some new electrics/pickguard/knobs/bridge/thumbrest/strap buttons/nut and will probably spend the next month mostly staring at it, smoking and drinking too many cups of tea.

Still, I'll have 2 new P's for Christmas!

[quote name='bassatnight' post='996308' date='Oct 21 2010, 06:54 PM']Following a recent clear out of my high end basses I have decided to pick up some cheap intsruments and upgrade them.

In the last week I have purchased a Squier VM Jazz and a J&D Fretless 4 stringer. I have no idea who J&D are but having dome some research and watched a few You tube clips at £160 I thought I would have a go. I must admit I am having a great time setting them up and replacing the Bridges, The pups and adding new pick guards etc. I probably won't get my money back but am enjoying seeing how good I can make them.

Next on my list a Squire Classic Vibe P!

Might start documenting what I have done with a few pics. I think in these hard times with finances perhaps its the way to go!

Anyone else doing this/done this?

Cheers,

Steve.[/quote]

[Lfalex v1.1]

Whilst you may not recoup all of your outlay IF you decide to sell on, it's still a worthwhile exercise, as what you learn about the instruments is invaluable. Not to mention what you learn about set-ups and solving problems which may arise. There's also a chance that you may hit upon a sound / tone / feel that you love.

[dan670844]

[quote name='bassatnight' post='996308' date='Oct 21 2010, 06:54 PM']Following a recent clear out of my high end basses I have decided to pick up some cheap intsruments and upgrade them.

In the last week I have purchased a Squier VM Jazz and a J&D Fretless 4 stringer. I have no idea who J&D are but having dome some research and watched a few You tube clips at £160 I thought I would have a go. I must admit I am having a great time setting them up and replacing the Bridges, The pups and adding new pick guards etc. I probably won't get my money back but am enjoying seeing how good I can make them.

Next on my list a Squire Classic Vibe P!

Might start documenting what I have done with a few pics. I think in these hard times with finances perhaps its the way to go!

Anyone else doing this/done this?

Cheers,

Steve.[/quote]

In my opinion the vintage mod and the classic vibes squiers are well good enough for for gigging. They are the JV's of our time. I just bought a CV strat its pretty amazing for the money. I was looking at a Eric Johnson strat but walked out of the shop with the squier instead. Well good enough for me just to noodle on play some live rhythm work etc.

Edited October 31, 2010 by dan670844