Modding a bass - pickups or EQ first?

[franzbassist]

So I am loving my new Sire P8, but I'm already thinking of what I can mod to make it even better.

 

I've added straplocks and lightweight tuners, so the next candidates are pickups and EQ, but which to do first?  There's nothing wrong with either, of course, but I do love to fettle!

 

My gut tells me pickups first and see how they sit with the existing preamp?  I could even just do the P pickup as that will do most of the work.

Edited December 19, 2023 by franzbassist

[Geek99]

Not many people mod them that I know of - what exactly is wrong ?

 

 

I’ve trodden this path myself and it leads to Mirkwood

[franzbassist]

2 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Not many people mod them that I know of - what exactly is wrong ?

 

There's nothing wrong, I just enjoy modding basses!   I may well leave it as is.  Just curious to see what others would do if they went down the mod path.  

[ped]

I would probably only mod the pickups if I was changing to different types completely, like a pair of Tbird pickups. Replace with different P/J pickups? Probably wouldn't bother as I don't find the brand as important as the type and location. 

[chris_b]

In the late 80's I replaced the pickups in my old Precision with Bartolini. The improvement in the sound was amazing, 1000% better, like the difference between black and white and Technicolor. After this success I added a Bart pre amp and, disappointingly, the improvement was minimal!!

 

I'd always upgrade the pick up first, but I'd only change them if I knew I could get a better tone out of the replacement.

[franzbassist]

10 minutes ago, chris_b said:

I'd always upgrade the pick up first, but I'd only change them if I knew I could get a better tone out of the replacement.

 

And as Wishbone Ash said, "there's the rub"!  I would imagine that a Nordstrand pickup sounds better, but will need to see if I can find any videos to compare online.

[franzbassist]

Having played around with pickup heights I can now confirm there will be no pickup retrofit.  The original set sound just fine.

[pn_day]

Have you tried changing strings? Swapping from rounds to flats or tapes can give a different feel & sound without messing around with the original (or in my case, making it worse)!

Also on most PJ basses I've had (except for a Japanese Yamaha BB2000 which was perfectly balanced between the pickups) the jazz pickup has to be set much closer to the strings in order to get any sort of parity of output with the P - which will naturally change the tone. I've usually then had to set the P pickup lower than 'ideal' to avoid string contact on the jazz PU - but that might be because I'm hamfisted and tend to dig in with my right hand when I get excited (i.e. when playing in a band rather than noodling at home). 

 

Apologies if these suggestions are painfully obvious - and you've already done them.

 

I'm firmly in the camp of flats & tapes are great. Give me a couple of years and I'll be loudly extolling the virtues of rounds and half rounds

 

Phil

[franzbassist]

25 minutes ago, pn_day said:

Swapping from rounds to flats or tapes can give a different feel & sound without messing around with the original (or in my case, making it worse)!

 

Also on most PJ basses I've had (except for a Japanese Yamaha BB2000 which was perfectly balanced between the pickups) the jazz pickup has to be set much closer to the strings in order to get any sort of parity of output with the P - which will naturally change the tone.

 

I'm firmly in the camp of flats & tapes are great. Give me a couple of years and I'll be loudly extolling the virtues of rounds and half rounds

 

Thanks Phil.  Yes, as I said in an earlier post I have decided to leave the stock pickups in the bass as they do the job just fine.  They are also quite well balanced, output-wise, so no issues there.

 

Funnily enough, I decided to put a set of La Bella flats on a couple of days ago and it has revealed the true calling of this bass: it is an absolute tone monster with flats!   

Edited January 4, 2024 by franzbassist

[Chewie]

On 19/12/2023 at 10:39, Geek99 said:

Not many people mod them that I know of - what exactly is wrong ?

 

 

I’ve trodden this path myself and it leads to Mirkwood

Mirkwood...... I think that's near Shitsville.

 

[Chewie]

On 19/12/2023 at 09:28, franzbassist said:

So I am loving my new Sire P8, but I'm already thinking of what I can mod to make it even better.

 

I've added straplocks and lightweight tuners, so the next candidates are pickups and EQ, but which to do first?  There's nothing wrong with either, of course, but I do love to fettle!

 

My gut tells me pickups first and see how they sit with the existing preamp?  I could even just do the P pickup as that will do most of the work.

I'm in a similar boat to you; or at least paddling down the same river.

 

I have new pickups for something and I'm going to see how that sounds first.  

 

[Geek99]

1 hour ago, Chewie said:

Mirkwood...... I think that's near Shitsville.

 

I was referring more to darkness and foreboding as in Tolkien 

[Chewie]

3 hours ago, Geek99 said:

I was referring more to darkness and foreboding as in Tolkien 

My dad was a welder............

 

[Geek99]

1 hour ago, Chewie said:

My dad was a welder............

 

And ? Mine was a farmer 
pretty sure Shakespeare’s dad wasn’t a playwright

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 19/12/2023 at 11:39, Geek99 said:

Not many people mod them that I know of - what exactly is wrong ?

 

 

I’ve trodden this path myself and it leads to Mirkwood

Is Mirkwood a great tonewood?

[Geek99]

2 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Is Mirkwood a great tonewood?

It depends, if you don’t like the idea of sentient bass bodies that are fairly unhappy about being cut, chamfered, sanded etc then I’d say “avoid”. Unless it’s old wood and thus magically better somehow 

Edited January 8, 2024 by Geek99