NBD: Cheapo Precision

[hooky_lowdown]

Been needing a beater bass for a while to mess around on at home, played a cheapy gear4music LA bass last week and found I liked it, neck was nice and really liked it being lightweight. Now, I do like modding cheapy basses, and this seems a good start. So pulled the trigger on a silver sparkle one today, which by accounts is more of a champagne colour than a true silver, so I've photoshop'ed what it should eventually look like.

Obviously the pups, electrics and hardware are poor, but for now I will be leaving the tuners and bridge alone, and will be replacing the pup with an old Fender MIM one I have in my parts box, adding full sized Alpha pots, neutrik jack and 0.1 PIO cap. Tug bar, as I may be one of a few who likes to play using my thumb. Slapping on some old Chromes, and will sand off the headstock logo, to be replaced with a cheeky ESP vinyl decal I've seen on fleabay. Should end up with a pretty decent looking and sounding cheapy bass.

 

 

Edited October 1, 2018 by hooky_lowdown

[tom1946]

Good choice Hookey, I've modded 3 of these now. Changed the necks for their 35 quid maple board ones, had to dress the edges of the frets, (whaddya want for 35 quid?) but it's no big deal.

All 3 necks are straight and true. One of them has a Dimarzio dp 127 and it's absolutely brilliant! Got John on here to make me a proper loom for it and fitted an expensive Schaller bridge and I have a really good P bass that I would put up against any other P bass.

All 3 weigh 6.1 lbs each. The others are configured a bit differently. No neck dive either although lightweight tuners are fitted.

The necks are only 61mm but their maple ones are too so no problem.

hope that helps.

**edit** your MIM neck probably won't fit as they are 63mm?

Edited October 3, 2018 by tom1946

[hooky_lowdown]

Nice one tom1946

Bass arrived yesterday, amazingly light which is great for my back. The pickup I'm going to be adding is MIM (not the neck), keeping the neck stock, though I do have a one piece maple one should I wish to change. I did notice the neck's heel is smaller than standard 63mm.

Will be having a little noodle on it (stock) tonight, as I like to give basses 24hrs to acclimatise.

Edited October 3, 2018 by hooky_lowdown

[tom1946]

Great stuff! I got things muxed ip there 

Let us know how you get on and what you think.

[TheGreek]

A drummer I used to work with had one...for the money you wouldn't complain. Very playable if not refined, nothing that your local luthier (or yourself if you have the tools) can't put right in a couple of hours. Stop calling it "cheap"..."value for money " or "inexpensive".

[hooky_lowdown]

I think I must have got a good one, played it with some old/dead strings (stock ones are horrible) as I don’t like the zing of new strings, and without doing any setting up, it sounds really good stock. The neck is super easy to play with a lovely low action (less than 3mm at 12th fret), and being so lightweight it still somehow maintains a nice balance. The pickups (after adjusting the height) to be more bass bias sound good, warm and good articulation up and down the neck, even with the tone at 60%. The highs are a bit harsh, so the only mod I now plan to do is change the cap to 0.1 instead of stock 0.047, which should round the sound off nicely.

Machine heads and pots turn firmly and work well. I don’t think I will do any of the upgrades I had planned, they may improve the bass, but only very marginally so isn’t worth doing imho. I may add Chromes, but the old roundwounds sound really nice and are different to my other basses (which all have flats) that I may keep them on.

After I do a proper set up, this is definitely a keeper. It’s super fun to play, was noodling on it for well over an hour, felt like 5 mins.

[hooky_lowdown]

4 hours ago, TheGreek said:

A drummer I used to work with had one...for the money you wouldn't complain. Very playable if not refined, nothing that your local luthier (or yourself if you have the tools) can't put right in a couple of hours. Stop calling it "cheap"..."value for money " or "inexpensive".

The bass isn’t refined, you’re totally right there, but it reminds me of  Danelectro basses which were made of cheap parts but sounded decent and are fun to play.