"Upgrading" for the sake of it.

[Rayman]

I wonder how many people, like me, have spent wedge, on putting new electrics, tuners etc into an instrument, when it really wasn't necessary?

 

I've done it..... Nordstrand into an OLP Tony Levin.... Villex pups into a jazz copy..... EMG pup and EQ into a Fleabass (water bass) etc etc, there are SO many .... all affordable basses with expensive upgrades, and all moved on shortly later, because I STILL didn't like them.

 

Now.... IF the upgrade turned an ok bass into a great one, and you KEPT it...... then fair enough, good move ..... but,  there MUST be a ton of money spent out there for no reason? I can't be the only one?

 

 

[Nail Soup]

I never upgrade my gear, just do essential maintenance and repairs.

Not that I have any objection to upgrades in principal, I'm just a) not knowledgeable enough about pick-ups and so on to make an informed upgrade and b) too worried about the OP's point... it not being worth it. 

The biggest/only upgrade I can think of is adding a strap button to the heel of an acoustic guitar... very cheap, very easy and defiantly an improvement.

 

 

 

[Paul S]

You're not.  I have 10 pages of feedback on here that is largely the same stuff as you - bought, modded, and moved on.😄

 

Trouble is, I don't regret it.  I've generally enjoyed the tinkering and learnt loads about what I like and dislike.  Paring down my preferences after trying out stuff.

[Lozz196]

I recently bought a Mex Fender Precision. I’ve changed the electrics, pickup, tuners, string tree & nut. This bass will be the one I’ll use for overseas gigs as don’t want to take my US Precision, but the changes I’ve made are practical. Given I’ll have to detune/tune it after flying I want better tuners & nut, the pickup I’ve changed to a Tonerider as they sound very similar to the Custom Shop 62, and the electrics are now the same spec as the US. I’d say the tuners, nut & electrics are upgrades. 

[fretmeister]

I like tinkering too.

 

I am a big fan of EMG because they are so quiet for recording and they really transformed my Sandberg TT4 (jazz). So I have EMGs in a couple of different basses.

And I put Aguilars in my Ibby EHB because the stock pickups were so muddy. If EMG's had done a set the same size as the routing holes I would have gone with EMG again.

 

For regular guitars - I change pickups a lot. For my strat I have ready made scratchplates with different pickup sets and it connects with 2mm banana plugs so no soldering is needed. My Strat is lovely so I like to play it for just about everything so I have single coils and humbucker set ups.

 

 

But - after saying all of that I seem to be playing my Precision more than anything at the moment. It has Hipshot Ultralites on it now but other than that it is stock and it sounds great.

[Ed_S]

Yup, I used to do the false-economy shuffle; want the nice one but buy a mid-range model instead, spend enough on upgrades to get worryingly close to the value of the one I actually wanted, realise that it didn't hit the spot because it wasn't the one that I actually wanted... but at the same time not be able to bring myself to unpick what I'd created, so trade it in as-is at a massive loss... repeat.

 

I often wonder whether some of those instruments are still doing the rounds, because most of them were actually pretty good to begin with and I sure didn't skimp on the futile overspend. Never seen any of them out and about, though.

 

These days I buy the one that I actually want and leave the spec alone as much as possible.

[Thunderbird]

I like the tinkering I've lost money on basses but hey it was fun

My 3 basses now just have electronics pickups etc changed to my personal tastes oh and hi mass bridges but they are my keepers I've thought about upgrading tuners but they work and hold tune so it would be a stupid thing to do as just a waste of time and money imo

[bassbiscuits]

24 minutes ago, Ed_S said:

These days I buy the one that I actually want and leave the spec alone as much as possible.

This. I can see the enjoyment in tinkering and modding so I’m not going to criticise that. 
 

But in terms of my own gear over the years, the stuff thats been right for me has generally been bang on right from the start.

 

The stuff where I’ve had to change this or that part to inch closer to what I want has just never sounded right, and eventually just gets moved on. 
 

 

[gjones]

I tend to 'upgrade' any new Jazz Basses I buy, with a J - Retro.

 

It makes them very versatile but recently I removed the J-Retro from my Road Worn Jazz and replaced it with the original electrics, and it sounds great.

[chris_b]

I upgraded my Precision once. The new pickup sounded fantastic, so I did it again and added a J pickup and preamp. Second upgrade was a complete waste of money. Never again.

 

I now buy basses that already sound like I want.

[Boodang]

Can't help tinkering! Every bass I've had I've enjoyed the ensuing conversation with the custom pickup guy, describing what I want for my latest bass.

Has worked out recently tho, changed everything on my Squier jazz fretless (the only thing original now is the wood) and not only is it a keeper but I literally couldn't be happier.

Maybe in the end you get there and all the tinkering is worth it.

[casapete]

I think the only ‘upgrade’ I’ve ever done to any of my basses was to swap the stock jazz pickup out on my Precision Lyte for a noiseless version. This followed a couple of gigs where interference was an issue. Otherwise I’ve always left things as they are. Same goes with amps - bought them because I like the sound they make without adding any other tone shaping stuff.

Think I’ve seen too many guitarists chasing something they’ll never be happy with while spending a fortune. 😆

[neepheid]

I used to tinker quite a lot.  That's when I wasn't restoring basses from neglected, abused husks.  It was for the sake of it.  Because I could.  I've lost the patience for it nowadays.  Upgrades/mods are a mug's game in the financial sense but I didn't do it to make money.  At the time it was fascinating and interesting to me.  Nowadays it's necessity only.  That's probably just a consequence of me easing into middle age.

 

Also as a consequence of all the tinkering and bass butterfly routine over the last dozen or so years I've narrowed down what I like, so I just buy that now.  In my opinion there is no mythical holy grail bass tone to chase - just a subset of preferences to narrow down to.

 

Modding was fun, now it's a chore.

[LukeFRC]

like @chris_b said - the best thing is to buy basses you like.
However if you know what you're after and what something is going to do then it's worth changing something... 

And also sometimes it's fun to experiment with things, and £100 on a set of pickups is cheaper than buying a new bass. 

[stevie]

I replaced the (thin-sounding) rear Jazz pickup on a Yamaha P/J bass with a Stingray-type humbucker and was really happy with it. I also replaced the tuners with lightweight Hipshots,  which made for a much better balanced instrument. 

 

On the other hand, I put lighter tuners on my current Ibby and I don't notice any difference in comfort or balance - which is odd, but there you go.

[WAYNESWORLD]

Sometimes it’s like a comfort blanket syndrome. It’s like buying a new bass that is completely different from your usual choice and spending ages trying to make it sound like the one you just sold. Or as my musician friends tell me no matter what I buy I sound the same which probably means crap😂👀🤫

[adamg67]

I like messing about with electrics, but tend to leave the rest alone (apart from setups). I specced my #1 bass with the wrong pickups, for me (Delanos) and swapped to Nordstrands and that turned it into a proper keeper. I've got a bitsa guitar a bit like that, although for that one I bought a load of second hand pickups, did proper back to back tests (recorded them all) and picked the ones I liked best, which also happened to be nice and cheap ones. I bought a Maruszczyk Hellwood but felt the pots weren't right so I tweaked it and that's nice (though maybe not a keeper because I'm still not 100% sold one the jazz thing).

 

Tweaking an instrument so it's just right is a good feeling.

[peteb]

I don't know if any one has seen the Know Your Bass Player YouTube channel (a couple of senior US session players talking to various old bass players), but there's an interview with (I think) Rick Wills where they talk about the mods they've all done to their old Fenders. They all agreed that a bass isn't really 'yours'  until you've drilled a hole in it! 

 

I've always modded every Fender that I've ever owned (and a few Fender 'inspired' basses) - a few quite substantially. The secret is to try and make it so that you can get back to its original state if you decide to sell it. I lost quite a lot of money on a 70s P bass that I had modded. Everything that I did to it made it a better bass, but unfortunately I also stripped the olympic white paint job back to natural wood, which not something that you can easily reverse!   

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by peteb

[Nicko]

I tend top leave what I have alone.  The only exceptions are that I had the stock p/u on my mid 90s Mex Telecaster upgraded to some Seymour Duncans a few years back.  It made a massive difference and  it went from being a guitar I rarely played to one that is my first choice.  I'm also toying with the idea of upgrading the machine heads on my Squier CV Precicion because one of them has started rattling - I'll try a cheap fix first and if that's unsuccessful new tuners will be a necessary upgrade.

[casapete]

9 minutes ago, Nicko said:

I tend top leave what I have alone.  The only exceptions are that I had the stock p/u on my mid 90s Mex Telecaster upgraded to some Seymour Duncans a few years back.  It made a massive difference and  it went from being a guitar I rarely played to one that is my first choice.  I'm also toying with the idea of upgrading the machine heads on my Squier CV Precicion because one of them has started rattling - I'll try a cheap fix first and if that's unsuccessful new tuners will be a necessary upgrade.

I had a similar problem with my spare bass, a vintage style Precision. After tightening everything I could, it turned  out one of the metal tuner buttons was rattling in the split shaft. Bit of superglue sorted it. 😊

[peteb]

55 minutes ago, casapete said:

I had a similar problem with my spare bass, a vintage style Precision. After tightening everything I could, it turned  out one of the metal tuner buttons was rattling in the split shaft. Bit of superglue sorted it. 😊

 

I had that with a Stingray once. I couldn't find the rattle anywhere and ended up taking it to Chris Dobson (who builds Alpha basses). After he had identified what the issue was, he fixed it by dripping superglue into the tuner. 

 

[Doddy]

I've changed quite a lot on my main Jazz Bass over the years- Badass bridge, Hipshot X-tender, Dimarzio Ultra Jazz pickups, series/parallel switch, phenolic nut, Jaco neckplate, and chrome pickup cover. It's a bass I bought new in '95, and it's one that I'll never get rid of, so all the mods are just for my satisfaction. Other than that, I'd rather buy an instrument that doesn't need anything doing to it.

 

The thing with a lot of upgrades is they just don't add a lot of value to an instrument. You could buy a Squier Affinity and spend 3 times the price on hardware and electronics to make it a good bass, but ultimately it's still a Squier Affinity with a resale price to match. If you're doing it all for yourself, cool, but with how quick some people seem to flip basses on here, it's always a consideration.

[Nicko]

4 hours ago, casapete said:

I had a similar problem with my spare bass, a vintage style Precision. After tightening everything I could, it turned  out one of the metal tuner buttons was rattling in the split shaft. Bit of superglue sorted it. 😊

 

3 hours ago, peteb said:

 

I had that with a Stingray once. I couldn't find the rattle anywhere and ended up taking it to Chris Dobson (who builds Alpha basses). After he had identified what the issue was, he fixed it by dripping superglue into the tuner. 

 

Yes. that's the plan.

[franzbassist]

I don't normally upgrade stuff because I tend to budget until I can buy what I really want. However, a recent exception was my purchase of a Cort multiscale bass, which I bought as a "that looks interesting" treat to myself after having a pretty crappy year at work.

 

It was a good bass to start with, no doubt, but I reshaped the nut, added Straploks (which I do for all my basses: a very valuable upgrade!), stripped out the electrics, re-shielded, added threaded inserts for the pickups and control cavity (switching to bolts rather than screws at the same time), and then dropped a new Bartolini pre and pickups into it.

 

It's made what was a decent bass into a really good one, and it was a fun project too.

  

Edited December 8, 2021 by franzbassist

[Barking Spiders]

Because I'm really picky I've always only ever bought whatever meets my exact  requirements.  Besides, as I know I'd    probably sell hear at some later stage I wouldn't do anything that'd affect best price