The Magic Bass

[joel406]

Let me explain.

 

I have... well...9 basses.

 

The current stable started with a Jazz and exploded from there.

 

Out of all of these instruments only one. Has never been modified. Other than strings.

 

All my instruments have had pickup changes. 

 

Except one.

 

 

This thing was born with perfect tone. With my favorite strings installed it plays like a dream and the tone is amazing.

 

Behold my magic bass!

 

Does anyone else have a magic bass? 

[neepheid]

Many of my 10 basses are stock and sound great:

 

Epiphone Jack Casady

G&L L-1000

G&L Tribute LB-100

Yamaha BB1200

Sire D5

Sire Z7

 

Does that make them all magic?

Edited November 21 by neepheid
Forgot I added a Freeway 10 way switch to my Reverend Triad...

[joel406]

39 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Many of my 10 basses are stock and sound great:

 

Epiphone Jack Casady

G&L L-1000

G&L Tribute LB-100

Yamaha BB1200

Reverend Triad

Sire D5

Sire Z7

 

Does that make them all magic?

Perhaps.

[Obrienp]

So far, I’ve not messed with my Nordstrand Acinonyx; Guild NS Starfire 1 (although the writing is on the wall for the tone circuit); Sire U5 Fretless Short Scale.

 

Are any of them magic? Well not really but they are good enough to be left alone, despite my local luthier saying the pickups on the Acinonyx are really badly made; I respect his opinion because I have one of his custom basses with his own pickups and they are brilliant. The Acinonyx pickups sound good but the thread for the adjustment screws is cut into the metal baseplate, which is made of cheese (according to said luthier). He has had to repair several after little use and it’s difficult to do without completely rebuilding them: so much for US manufacturing (the pickups not the guitar which is built in China). Also the wheel truss rod adjustment at the neck heel was completely maxed out on mine. Turns out the retaining screw can be loosened to allow more adjustment but you have to remove the scratchplate complete with electronics to do this.
 

Close to magic IMO, is my Maruszczyk Elwood Active medium scale but I did replace the stock bridge. I bought it used, so if I had done the specification, I wouldn’t have chosen the stock bridge. Apart from that, the standard pickups are really good, ditto the active circuit (although I use it in passive mode most of the time). If I had the cash, I would probably spec up a medium scale Jake

[Owen]

All my basses are magic. And lots of the basses I do not own but pick up to play are magic. I am a bass tart and will go with any bass. 

[LeftyJ]

I used to love modding mostly my guitars, but for some reason I've left nearly all my basses alone. I have modded my '75 Jazz Bass reissue pretty heavily (Hipshot tuners, Badass II bridge, MEC pots, De Gier / Vanderkleij FatBoost, battery box routed in the back) but all the others were pretty much left unchanged save for new Sadowsky-style aluminium knobs on my Streamer LX5 and Atelier Z Baby Z-4J. I just never felt the need to change anything. I've more or less stopped modding my guitars too in previous years, and embrace their quirks and specific characters.

 

If they don't sound the way I want to I always used to blame the gear, but now I've come to terms with mostly having myself to blame  

[BigRedX]

I haven't modded any of my instruments since the mid 90s.

 

I still have a 70s Ibanez Firebird copy in bits because I just haven't had the time to sort it out.

 

These days there are so many variations for guitars and basses that it should be possible to find exactly what you want without need to go changing things. Last time I looked at buying something for the express purpose of altering to exactly my spec, once I worked out how long it would take me at my freelance rate it would have been cheaper to get something custom made.

[Joebethell]

My John Birch modded Gibson EB0 it's magic just has that something don't get me wrong it has quirks but just has that thing you can't quite pin down but works. 

Throw a pedal or two at it and it is insane 

Edited November 21 by Joebethell

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Most of mine have had a little modding, even the JMJ mustangs which I opened up & shielded with anti-slug tape.

 

My Epiphone Vintage Pro Thunderbirds have had the tuners repaced with Gotoh GB-640 tuners and I've fitted thumb-bleeders (the little pointy indicator thingys) under the knobs.

 

My Gibson non-reverse thunderbird has a babicz bridge.

 

Anything that came with a flimsy (ie destined to fail at the least convenient moment) output socket got an upgrade to a switchcraft or pure tone.

 

Probably the smallest amount of modding was on my guild starfire II — I wasn't keen on the white switch tip so I replaced it with an amber one.

[tauzero]

My two four-string Thumbs, apart from one being a defret, are unmodded. Ditto the 5-string Thumb, the Ibanez SRF705, the Esh Poseidon V, and the Dean 10-string. Other basses have had replacement pickups or preamps. Other than the Cort Space with the faulty pickups and the Sei Original that had a preamp fail early on in its life with me, I could have lived with the sound of any of the modded instruments prior to their modification.

[Ed_S]

I think I have a tendency to only consider low-to-mid priced basses that impress me by not needing any work at all to be 'magic', as more expensive ones should be magic to justify their price tag. To that end, mine would have to be an Ibanez SR655 from 2018 which is just great despite not being a premium model and only having 'designed by' pickups etc. I changed the tuners as a prefer the shape of the keys on GB707s - there was nothing wrong with the stock ones, I just had a set of nicer-looking ones spare.

 

[Lozz196]

Shielding if not already done, and string retainers for the A string to give a better break angle, other than that I generally leave as standard.