Fender Player Mustang Bass Upgrades

[WishIcouldplay]

Just purchased a Fender Player PJ Mustang Bass which plays extremely well.

 

However I was wondering about upgrades. Almost every thing. Bridge, Pickups. controls, jack and switch, and machine heads.

 

Anyone done this or have recommendations, suggestions?

[shoulderpet]

4 hours ago, WishIcouldplay said:

Just purchased a Fender Player PJ Mustang Bass which plays extremely well.

 

However I was wondering about upgrades. Almost every thing. Bridge, Pickups. controls, jack and switch, and machine heads.

 

Anyone done this or have recommendations, suggestions?

Honestly I think the P pickup on these basses is great, you can upgrade but imo it is not necessary, the J pickup is worth upgrading, bridge can be upgraded but again I don't think it's necessary.

 

I think the thing that is worth upgrading is the machine heads as the stock ones are junk and if I still owned a Mustang I would put some Gotoh tuners on it.

 

With regards to the controls, if you are looking to upgrade them then I would put in a series/parallel switch in place of the pickup selector and swap the volume tone for 2 volumes or stacked volume controls plus a tone control.

[WishIcouldplay]

16 minutes ago, shoulderpet said:

Honestly I think the P pickup on these basses is great, you can upgrade but imo it is not necessary, the J pickup is worth upgrading, bridge can be upgraded but again I don't think it's necessary.

 

I think the thing that is worth upgrading is the machine heads as the stock ones are junk and if I still owned a Mustang I would put some Gotoh tuners on it.

 

With regards to the controls, if you are looking to upgrade them then I would put in a series/parallel switch in place of the pickup selector and swap the volume tone for 2 volumes or stacked volume controls plus a tone control.

Hi thanks for your suggestions.

Which J pickup would you recommend?

Will the Gotoh tunes drop straight in?

Where would you source the stacked controls and switch etc?

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

The stock tuners are the same dimensions/design of the Gotoh G10 set. Another set that use the same design are Hipshot HB10.

 

The £30 Fender Hi Mass bridge will be an easy upgrade if you want a chunkier bridge.

 

 

[shoulderpet]

18 minutes ago, WishIcouldplay said:

Hi thanks for your suggestions.

Which J pickup would you recommend?

Will the Gotoh tunes drop straight in?

Where would you source the stacked controls and switch etc?

 

Not sure if the Gotoh tuners unfortunately, with regards to the J pickup it depends what you are after.

 

Vintage - Fender pure vintage 62 I think they are called

 

Aggressive, dark - Dimarzio model j

 

Aggressive scooped - Seymour Duncan SJB-3

 

Modern scooped - Dimarzio ultra jazz

 

I like the ultra jazz personally, nice and crisp sounding

[JohnDaBass]

+1 for the DiMarzio Ultra Jazz Pup. Powerfull, articulate and clear.(forgot to say that it is humbucking so silent)

Check out the Dimarzio web site as they have some very fine power compareisons and tone charts.

When ordering check the correct dimensions as the neck and bridge Pups are different lengths.

Edited March 3 by JohnDaBass
Update

[KevG]

+1 for the hi mass bridge. I find that the saddles on Fender's bbot strip the threads on the height adjustment screws causing bridge collapse. Probably my over aggressive playing. Also the p/u sector switch is a bit dodgy and a lot of folk seem to upgrade this AFAIK (haven't got round to doing that myself yet but would appreciate recommendations).

 

[Watty]

I thought I’d give a little update on this bass as I bought it from WishIcouldplay back in July. He’d already upgraded the wiring, putting a ‘jazz-like’ loom in, individual volume pots and a separate tone pot where the selector switch was, which I really like.
I’m only a relative newcomer and have put in many hours of playing since I bought it, I’m definitely improving which I think is a testament to the instrument.
I changed the strings to the La Bella flats that I had on my Bronco as I’d got used to the feel of them.

In an effort to correct the frankly ludicrous neck dive I’ve just this morning fitted a Fender Hi Mass bridge and Gotoh GB10 tuners as recommended in this thread. Initial thoughts are that bridge has improved the sound, which is a plus, and the neck dive is more manageable, but not perfect. Georgia from TLDP plays a gold Mustang like mine, so the neck dive is obviously fixable. Maybe I’ll try a different strap. Any recommendations?

Cheers!

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I acquired one of these in Sienna Sunburst a few weeks ago. The Pickups sound good to me so I had no compelling reason to upgrade. I decided to keep the wiring as volume, tone & switch however the stock switch was a bit temperamental and I discovered an annoying issue with these basses where unless the volume is at 100%, rolling down the tone also affects the volume. To fix these issues I replaced the loom using a more suitable circuit. As the pots were not CTS and the socket was not switchcraft I built the loom using new components — CTS pots, Orange drop cap, puretone socket, and switchcraft switch.

 

 

 

I also shielded the cavities with copper slug tape and fitted a thumbrest in the 70s position and fitted a Fender Hi-Mass bridge.

 

I have not swapped out the tuners but I will look into whether I can safely fit a spare set of Hipshot lollipops I have in my bits box (the same type as the ones on my JMJ mustangs minus the relicing) I believe I will need to ream out the holes in the headstock to accomodate these so it won't be a reversable operation.