Squier Precision MIC re-birth * FINISHED!*

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

Hey there people,

I am a fairly new bass player (since Christmas - I got an SR300 for my present! ) and whilst I love it to bits - it is very much cosseted and taken care of and metaphorically wrapped in cotton wool to keep it pristine and nice.

However my normal style at least in my clothes, appearance and personality is sort of surfy, hairy and laid back which would suggest more a beaten up or rat-look (as they say in the VW Beetle community) bass. So I really wanted something to make my own and customise. I was looking for something classic looking like a Fender/squire etc or something a little bit odd like a Vox/Danelectro etc. I didn't want to pay more than £50 for a do-er up-er.

So after scouring ebay, gum-tree and other sites I managed to land myself a black Squier Precision MIC Bass I think of the year 2000 with a white scratchplate. It is in relatively good condition overall and cost £50.

The bad points:

1) It is really grubby (and not in a cool, used kind of way! ),
2) the tuning pegs are the closed back type and they 'wiggle' and feel loose in their housing
3) the scratchplate is cracked across where the jack plug is.

Other than that the pots work without crackling, the neck is straight and the body is in nice condition apart from 2 dings one is just cracked and pitted laquer (the paint and wood I think are not affected) and the other is a small chip out of the laquer and paint down to the wood - but in an inconspicuous place.

Never having undertaken a project like this before I was a little disappointed when I found that any decent replacement tuning pegs would not be the right diameter so the peg holes in the headstock will likely need to be widened. I also found that my scratchplate is a 14(!) hole one - all the ones on sale seem to be 10 or 13.

So whilst pontificating on whether I have taken on too big a task as I am not very practically minded, I ended up thinking 'Sod it - what is the worst that could happen?'

So this will be an ongoing project but I have ordered everything that I (think) I need to get the bass playable and I have decided - at least for the short/medium term - that I want my bass all black (apart from the neck/head).

So I have ordered black Wilkinson Machine Heads, black 3 ply scratchplate and a black bridge. Will keep you updated.

Let me know if you have any advice or thoughts!

Cheers, Jonny.

Edited March 31, 2014 by Jonnyboy Rotten

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

Heres some pics:

Edited June 12, 2013 by Jonnyboy Rotten

[discreet]

I think you got a bargain there. And it seems you know what you want and how you're going to get there, so I'll just sit back and look forward to seeing pics of the completed project. And welcome to the forum, by the way.

[Truckstop]

A quick tip;

Doesn't matter how many holes the scratchplate you buy has, you can drill new holes and fill in the old ones with filler. If you're going for a re-finish then that's a way to sort that out. Obviously as long as the pickup hole is centered properly and the cavities are all covered.

You could do a lot worse than to get in touch with kiOgon. He's a member on this forum and he builds incredibly high quality wiring harnesses for P basses; he gets the best quality pots, capacitors, knobs and wires and charges £23 (iirc). It's an effective way of turning a low-value instrument into something a little more competitive!

Wizard pickups are awesome and great value. You can get them custom wound and great emphasis is placed on recreating the type of pickup sound you prefer. Well worth getting in touch with them! Or, put an ad up in the 'Wanted' forum here for Wizard pickups and I'm sure someon'll have a set kicking about.

Good luck, looks like fun!

Truckstop

[Myke]

+1 about KiOgon Awesome guy


Edit. Was this on gumtree? Ex Kill Kenada?

Edited June 12, 2013 by Myke

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

Thanks for the encouragement Discreet! I look forward to posting the photos and of course playing it!

Thanks for the tips Truckstop. As I am on a budget - buying machine heads, bridge, scratchplate is enough for the first month (as well as buying the bass itself). Also - as all the electrical bits seem to work - I think I will stick with the stock pups and pots until I have played it for a while and got used to its own sound.

I do plan to do a dramatic new finish on it - but again - I want to get to know the guitar's character before doing too much!

I liken it to a garden. When you buy a new house - as long as the garden is in reasonable condition, there is no point in digging everything up and replanting it for at least a year as you will miss what the garden already has to offer during the various months and seasons. And only by watching it and living with it do you notice where the gaps are and what can be improved! - Hows that for philosophy!

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

[quote name='Myke' timestamp='1371031243' post='2108764']
+1 about KiOgon Awesome guy


Edit. Was this on gumtree? Ex Kill Kenada?
[/quote]

It was from Gumtree but I got it from Essex from a chap who's brother in law had recently passed away and was selling his collection of guitars (There was just the one bass but about 15 electric guitars).

[Myke]

[quote name='Jonnyboy Rotten' timestamp='1371032638' post='2108791']
It was from Gumtree but I got it from Essex from a chap who's brother in law had recently passed away and was selling his collection of guitars (There was just the one bass but about 15 electric guitars).
[/quote]

Ah I saw one almost exactly the same and for the same price. Thought it may have been that one

[Grangur]

[quote name='Jonnyboy Rotten' timestamp='1370942721' post='2107642']
....Never having undertaken a project like this before I was a little disappointed when I found that any decent replacement tuning pegs would not be the right diameter so the peg holes in the headstock will likely need to be widened.....

So I have ordered black Wilkinson Machine Heads, black 3 ply scratchplate and a black bridge. Will keep you updated.

Let me know if you have any advice or thoughts!

Cheers, Jonny.
[/quote]

Hey Jonny,
You're doing well. I've got an almost identical project on the go with a Squier P Bass, but I paid a bit more for the bass. (Dammit all!)

Mine has the same prob with the headstock and getting tuners that don't hang over the side is near-on impossible with the dinky Squier heads. Sorry to say this but the Wilkos will over-hang top to bottom and may be too long on the width.

Ones I got, that are actually slightly smaller, and mine are chrome, but you could look at these:
[url="http://www.giggear.co.uk/p/Guitar-Gear-P-Bass-Style-Machine-Head-Set-4-In-Line/"]http://www.giggear.c...-Set-4-In-Line/[/url] (Call them I believe they do them in black)

I hope this helps

Edited June 12, 2013 by Grangur

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1371053265' post='2109213']
Hey Jonny,
You're doing well. I've got an almost identical project on the go with a Squier P Bass, but I paid a bit more for the bass. (Dammit all!)

Mine has the same prob with the headstock and getting tuners that don't hang over the side is near-on impossible with the dinky Squier heads. Sorry to say this but the Wilkos will over-hang top to bottom and may be too long on the width.

Ones I got, that are actually slightly smaller, and mine are chrome, but you could look at these:
[url="http://www.giggear.co.uk/p/Guitar-Gear-P-Bass-Style-Machine-Head-Set-4-In-Line/"]http://www.giggear.c...-Set-4-In-Line/[/url] (Call them I believe they do them in black)

I hope this helps
[/quote]

Nice looking bass BTW What are you doing to/with it?

Oh bugger... just when I thought I had it all covered! I was trawling the net and on *ahem* a different bass forum, some guy seemed to have fitted the Wilkos and got them to fit by grinding a few mm of one of the edges. I hadn't even considered that they might actually poke out from behind the head along top.

Thanks for the link - I have ordered the Wilkos now so if I can make them fit with a little jiggery-pokery then I will, if not, someone one here might get a good price on them and I will see if Gig Gear do the smaller-footprint black ones.

[Grangur]

With me being new to bass (3 yrs) and my first build, it's interesting our start-point should be so similar.

I don't want to gate-crash your thread. I may do one of my own. I must start taking some pics.

I've already started one thread about mine but starting by asking a question:

http://basschat.co.uk/topic/209618-upgrading-a-p-bass%3B-but-how-much-is-it-worth-spending/page__fromsearch__1

Good luck. I recon it's going to be interesting to watch each others progress and share ideas.

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1371063410' post='2109433']
With me being new to bass (3 yrs) and my first build, it's interesting our start-point should be so similar.

I don't want to gate-crash your thread. I may do one of my own. I must start taking some pics.

I've already started one thread about mine but starting by asking a question:

http://basschat.co.uk/topic/209618-upgrading-a-p-bass%3B-but-how-much-is-it-worth-spending/page__fromsearch__1

Good luck. I recon it's going to be interesting to watch each others progress and share ideas.
[/quote] still here!

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

Just a quick update - all the parts except the Black Beauty strings have arrived! Unfortunately I have a wedding this weekend so it looks like I will start getting to work next weekend!

I am pretty excited.

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

OK So on Saturday I went to a friend's workshop. We did the following:

Replaced the Jack input socket.
Replaced the bridge
Changed the old broken white scratch plate for a BWB one.
Installed new knobs on the volume and tone pots.

We also noticed that the Wilkinson tuners (as has already been pointed out) fitted to the headstock fine but the last one (G String) had a corner of the tuner base plate overhanging the very end of the headstock so you can see in the photos below my mate grinding the corner off to eliminate any protrusion.

We then had to drill out the holes in the headstock for the new tuning pegs to 14mm. Then we tried to find a drill bit 18mm wide to widen the hole at the front but couldn't. We even took a trip down to Wickes and they did them in 16mm or 19mm but not 18. The only option left was to use a Dremel to get rid of the last few mm round the edge of the holes.

We then hammered the ferrules in, and screwed the tuners to the head. Took it outside and strung it with a set of black beauties. I tell no word of a lie - the bridge didn't need any tinkering to get the action or intonation right. Is this normal!?

We plugged it in and lo - there was sound! No buzzing or grounding/earthing issues. The sound is somehow softer than my Ibanez SR300 but still clearer than I was expecting given that as far as I know the pickups are the stock ones it came with and it is a fairly budget Affinity Squier. Suffice to say I am incredibly happy with the result especially as I have never done anything like this before!

I think the only thing I need to do now is change the scratch plate screws and strap studs to black ones! Look forward to hearing your feedback.
















So now I have begun my collection!



Cool eh?!

[Nibody]

None more black! Jealous of the workshop, I end up on a black and decker workmates in the garden and pray it doesn't rain!

It's odd, I have a 2012 US Factory Short Run Precision (hand stained Ash body, Custom Shop 60's pickups) and yet I prefer the Amber frankenstine I recently built (two piece squier body from the states, MightyMite licensed neck, Wizard Thumper Pups, Wilkinson tuners, Fender high mass vintage through strung bridge, sprayed by can with Amber tinted Nitro) it looks sounds and feels "right"

My next one will be black on black .

[Grangur]

It looks really cool. I'm also pleased you've got the sound you're looking for too. Great all round!

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

Small update. Just ordered black pickguard screws and black strap pins. More black, more cool!

[Thunderbird]

Nice job looks good

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

Just taken delivery of a set of Seymour Duncan SPB-3 Quarter Pounders to replace the stock Squier Affinity units.

When I played the Basschat charity relay Baton recently I was impressed with how good it sounded given that it was a £150 Stagg. That was fitted with a set of P/J Seymour Duncans (not sure which ones) so they made it to the top of my list.

Next thing I need to work out is - do I change the pots at the same time? If so then...

I am fairly sure that, at some point in the next few months, I want to add another set of P pickups nearer the bridge as this seems quite uncommon, though not unheard of, and everyone who has done it says the sound is amazing. So if I was to replace the stock Affinity Pots now (I am looking at you for advice and possibly a wiring loom KiOgon!) then should I get perhaps a stacked tone/ pup balance pot and a volume and leave one of the stacks disconnected until the additional pickups are fitted?

Any help or advice anyone can offer would be appreciated. As I'm not really sure what is possible or worth doing in one go rather than piecemeal

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

Bump for some pup & wiring help...

[yepmop]

You can't go wrong with a [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]wiring loom from KiOgon, I've bought about 4 off him over the past year, top quality and no soldering involved!![/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Oddly enough I've almost finished a re-work of a black Squire P-Bass, turning it into a 59(ish) with Mighty Mite Maple neck, Gold scratch plate, vintage BBOT (KiOgon loom ) and custom wound vintage pickup.Just deciding if to add vintage tuners.[/font][/color]

[Grangur]

There have been a few discussions on here about the value of changing pots. I used to be of the opinion that it was worth doing, now I'm not so sure.

I would now say that it really does depend on the condition of the old ones. If there's no crackling when you adjust them, the cables all look good, the solder joints all look neat with no excess bare wire at the joins etc, then I'd say leave them alone if everything works ok.

However... on a good number of basses I've had to work on I've found the capacitor in the wrong place. So if you've bought a s/hand bass it's worth looking to see if someone not so skilled has "improved" it.

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1386513233' post='2300867']
There have been a few discussions on here about the value of changing pots. I used to be of the opinion that it was worth doing, now I'm not so sure.

I would now say that it really does depend on the condition of the old ones. If there's no crackling when you adjust them, the cables all look good, the solder joints all look neat with no excess bare wire at the joins etc, then I'd say leave them alone if everything works ok.

However... on a good number of basses I've had to work on I've found the capacitor in the wrong place. So if you've bought a s/hand bass it's worth looking to see if someone not so skilled has "improved" it.
[/quote]

Good advice! Thanks... There is no crackling and both pots turn smoothly and seem to work fine (though I haven't checked the wiring yet) so its probably ok just to leave them in for now and get those SD pup bad boys wired in..

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

Ok So I replaced the pups last night. As I took the bridge off to release the earth wire, the head of one of the screw sheered off! I hardly touched it so Im not sure why it did that. I am going to sort that out tonight.


Some pics of the changeover:


Can you tell I am the world's worst solderer?


scratchplate on:


So after swapping them over and soldering and fitting the scratchplate, I screwed the bridge back on with the four remaining screws and re-strung it. I plugged it into my practice amp and it sounds great! Can't wait to put it through my Hartke when I have some room for volume!

However I have noticed that there is a slight but very noticeable crackle. It doesn't seem to be the pots which don't increase or reduce the crackling when turned, but the crackles do increase when I touch the pups and they get louder as I turn the volume up. So I think I have essentially bodged up the soldering which doesn't really surprise me as I haven't done any since I was at secondary school!

I am taking it round to my mate's tonight (the one who helped me do the original mods at the beginning of the thread) to sort out the embedded bridge screw and resolder the pup connections. Updates to follow!

[rOB]

Good on you for getting stuck in.