Your best (and worst!) bass gear purchases of 2024?

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Best and worst was probably my Sienna Sunburst Player Mustang bass.

 

It was my best purchase due to it having a very nice grain pattern on the body, where I've seen others that are nowhere near as attractive, and I got in near mint condition for a very good price on ebay. It plays very nicely once I'd set it up with a fresh set of 30" scale chromes.

 

I'd say it was also worst as Fender don't specify the best electronic components for the player range, so I had to do some work to turn it into an instrument I'd be happy to gig with.

 

The stock switch was junk that did not always make contact when switching, the pots were Korean "Jin Sung" which I know nothing about, and the output socket, although looking like a switchcraft was of lighter construction. A bigger issue was that with the volume at anywhere less than 100%, rolling down the tone pot also reduced the volume which I have since learned is normal for this model and I have seen described as "50's style wiring".

 

I wasn't too worried about these issues as the neck, body, pickups etc were fine and I already had all the bits available to build a new loom, so I shielded the cavities with slug tape and built a new loom using a typical P bass circuit with CTS pots, a switchcraft switch, orange drop capacitor, and pure tone socket. The bass is now how it should have been originally.

 

I also fitted a Fender Hi Mass bridge as I had a spare one and I prefer these to a standard BBoT.

 

If I had not been confident and capable to take on the job to fix its shortcomings, I would probably be quite unhappy with the bass, but I quite enjoyed the project and the feeling of accomplishment when everything worked perfectly first time once I'd reassembled it.

 

Details of the upgrade project are outlined here ->

and here ->

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

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Edited 19 hours ago by Jean-Luc Pickguard
double post