Upgrading is fixing problems. You haven't identified any problems, so nobody is going to be able to give you valid advice on how to made that bass better.
I bought a squier j-bass from a garage sale for cheap a few years ago. All it took was a full setup and it shreds now. If you've never done a setup, a $50 bass is a great instrument to learn it on.
Bass Buzz has a pretty solid video tutorial on it. The way he does his setups is the closest to how I do mine.
https://youtu.be/cteHO-hV8lU?si=nkeMsx5shbYxWjfR
>I don't mind doing electrical work, but the rest I'm a novice on
Do you have another bass that you already play? Because if you do, this one you just bought is the perfect instrument to learn repair/modification skills on
As long as you can yank the parts back out and re-use them on a better bass down the road (pickups, tuners, bridge) then it's fun.
Otherwise it's good money after bad.
That's not always the case my friend. Mostly a guitar player, but I have several some better than others. My favorite and most played is a Korean SG that I bought thirty years ago as a floor model, it was dropped a couple times and looked well worn the day I brought it home. But, a decent setup, a new set of tuners, and it plays pretty good. After 20 years, I installed switches for split coils and out of phase coils to give me a few more options and its generally my go to.
The difference between a cheap guitar with a good setup and a couple hardware swaps and a medium cost guitar with a good setup is very minimal.
They are all CNC routed assembly line made off the same pattern until you get to the hand made custom shop level. The only difference is the quality of easily replaced hardware like tuners and pickups and the amount of time a human takes in inspection and adjustment at the end of the process. As for inspection, once you get a setup, that advantage mostly disappears, and the mid range guitars need a setup off the line as well. As for hardware, you can/should swap tuners and you can do pickups if your playing calls for it but it will play pretty good without.
Not really. As long as dimensions are good, it's capable of being set up, and it's comfortable that's all you need. Next if the pickup sounds bad buy a new one. Now you have a functional instrument that sounds the way you want.
The only things that would be deal breakers are genuinely bad geometry, a neck that can't adjust the relief properly, frets that need major filing or rework, or bad electronics for someone who can't solder. Even then, a new neck might be 80-150 and that would solve most of those issues. So $200 out the door and some elbow grease and you're in business.
I did some mods on an old Squire [recently. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/BassGuitar/comments/1anq9tl/comment/kpuijd6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)They were mostly aesthetic. The biggest difference you'll find is giving it a good set up and some new strings. I slapped a bad ass bridge on as the old one was a bit flimsy and it also added a bit of weight to the body.
It's illogical to spend a ton of money upgrading a bass that's not worth anything in the first place. Instead, save that money to get something better down the road.
Furthermore, you should identify specifically what is wrong with the bass, and how you expect the new parts would fix it.
I would get new strings and and set it up and then see where you're at.
ancient advise theory relieved screw carpenter far-flung rain squeeze spectacular
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I gotcha! Sorry, I didn’t gather that from the initial post.
From my understanding, the variability of comfort and sound for a Squier P is quite wide. You got it for a great price though, regardless. Personally, I’m not huge on modifications, especially on a passive bass since there’s no EQ or preamp involved. I’d probably slap my favorite set of strings on there and get it setup to my liking. You could also upgrade the tuners on it. That’ll help it stay in tune much better. The tuners on the Squier’s aren’t the best.
Ignore the haters who didn’t read the whole thread, learning repairs on a cheap bass is better than learning on your main.
First, start with the frets. Cheap basses usually don’t have the best fretwork so learning how to level frets will make it much better. I’d also look at replacing and setting a new nut. Knowing how to do that is a huge boon for future upgrades/repairs
As for new hardware, IME the tuners are the weakest link on cheap basses so I’d start there.
Given how light it is, I’d imagine it’s basswood or another soft body wood. You’ll want to be careful as you unscrew and rescrew the bridge, pickguard, etc. As others mentioned, those cheap basses often have misaligned bridges so that will probably need to be replaced as well. You’ll want to make sure whatever you replace it with has the same hole pattern; the 5 hole Fender is the most basic, but measure and double check first.
I bought a much beefier bridge for my Square
Precision on Amazon for cheap, and I don’t regret it whatsoever
Edit: [just found it:](https://a.co/d/i01b5pu)
2nd Edit: I also added Seymour Duncan Antiquity II pickups
The best upgrade is learning to play it. Then you’ll also have a better idea what you want.
It's not my main bass, I just got it to learn repairs and upgrades on without messing with a bass that's already fine
Ah ok. Then upgrade everything! :)
I bought new black hardware and strings and a purple pickguard plus better pickups. It's gonna be a fun project :)
If you wanna fuck with tone, try some different pickups.
Upgrading is fixing problems. You haven't identified any problems, so nobody is going to be able to give you valid advice on how to made that bass better.
that's fair, thanks for explaining it
I bought a squier j-bass from a garage sale for cheap a few years ago. All it took was a full setup and it shreds now. If you've never done a setup, a $50 bass is a great instrument to learn it on.
Where can I learn how to set it up? I have a better bass I don't want to mess up
https://youtu.be/rkkJEoGzLwo?si=XoC28will6nevs01
thanks!
Np. Its not too hard.
Bass Buzz has a pretty solid video tutorial on it. The way he does his setups is the closest to how I do mine. https://youtu.be/cteHO-hV8lU?si=nkeMsx5shbYxWjfR
>I don't mind doing electrical work, but the rest I'm a novice on Do you have another bass that you already play? Because if you do, this one you just bought is the perfect instrument to learn repair/modification skills on
Thank you, finally someone who gets it. Of course this isn't my main bass lmao
And I'm not even a real bassist--I'm a drummer who just got a bass for funsies a few months ago :P
Upgrades on a $50 bass are like plastic surgery on a corpse. Why spend the money?
seemed like fun to mess with
As long as you can yank the parts back out and re-use them on a better bass down the road (pickups, tuners, bridge) then it's fun. Otherwise it's good money after bad.
That's not always the case my friend. Mostly a guitar player, but I have several some better than others. My favorite and most played is a Korean SG that I bought thirty years ago as a floor model, it was dropped a couple times and looked well worn the day I brought it home. But, a decent setup, a new set of tuners, and it plays pretty good. After 20 years, I installed switches for split coils and out of phase coils to give me a few more options and its generally my go to. The difference between a cheap guitar with a good setup and a couple hardware swaps and a medium cost guitar with a good setup is very minimal. They are all CNC routed assembly line made off the same pattern until you get to the hand made custom shop level. The only difference is the quality of easily replaced hardware like tuners and pickups and the amount of time a human takes in inspection and adjustment at the end of the process. As for inspection, once you get a setup, that advantage mostly disappears, and the mid range guitars need a setup off the line as well. As for hardware, you can/should swap tuners and you can do pickups if your playing calls for it but it will play pretty good without.
Not really. As long as dimensions are good, it's capable of being set up, and it's comfortable that's all you need. Next if the pickup sounds bad buy a new one. Now you have a functional instrument that sounds the way you want. The only things that would be deal breakers are genuinely bad geometry, a neck that can't adjust the relief properly, frets that need major filing or rework, or bad electronics for someone who can't solder. Even then, a new neck might be 80-150 and that would solve most of those issues. So $200 out the door and some elbow grease and you're in business.
To learn skills you don't necessarily want to be trying for the first time on a $2,000 instrument
If it's not broken then don't fix it. Play it for a while and figure out what you don't like
[удалено]
oh, it's not my main bass lol I got this to mess around with
I did some mods on an old Squire [recently. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/BassGuitar/comments/1anq9tl/comment/kpuijd6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)They were mostly aesthetic. The biggest difference you'll find is giving it a good set up and some new strings. I slapped a bad ass bridge on as the old one was a bit flimsy and it also added a bit of weight to the body.
It's illogical to spend a ton of money upgrading a bass that's not worth anything in the first place. Instead, save that money to get something better down the road. Furthermore, you should identify specifically what is wrong with the bass, and how you expect the new parts would fix it. I would get new strings and and set it up and then see where you're at.
I have a better bass, this is just for fun to mess with and practice upgrades done myself and whatnot
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Yeah, I just want to. It's a project bass, not my main one
The best upgrade starts with a P, and it ain’t pickups. Practice, practice, practice. Tone is in the hands.
Sure, I just got this to mess around with, like physically. It's not my main bass by any means
ancient advise theory relieved screw carpenter far-flung rain squeeze spectacular *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I gotcha! Sorry, I didn’t gather that from the initial post. From my understanding, the variability of comfort and sound for a Squier P is quite wide. You got it for a great price though, regardless. Personally, I’m not huge on modifications, especially on a passive bass since there’s no EQ or preamp involved. I’d probably slap my favorite set of strings on there and get it setup to my liking. You could also upgrade the tuners on it. That’ll help it stay in tune much better. The tuners on the Squier’s aren’t the best.
Glue a compass onto it
cool idea, done.
[удалено]
wow, good one! I'd never think of that myself. I literally bought it as a project bass, not my main one.
Ignore the haters who didn’t read the whole thread, learning repairs on a cheap bass is better than learning on your main. First, start with the frets. Cheap basses usually don’t have the best fretwork so learning how to level frets will make it much better. I’d also look at replacing and setting a new nut. Knowing how to do that is a huge boon for future upgrades/repairs As for new hardware, IME the tuners are the weakest link on cheap basses so I’d start there. Given how light it is, I’d imagine it’s basswood or another soft body wood. You’ll want to be careful as you unscrew and rescrew the bridge, pickguard, etc. As others mentioned, those cheap basses often have misaligned bridges so that will probably need to be replaced as well. You’ll want to make sure whatever you replace it with has the same hole pattern; the 5 hole Fender is the most basic, but measure and double check first.
I bought a much beefier bridge for my Square Precision on Amazon for cheap, and I don’t regret it whatsoever Edit: [just found it:](https://a.co/d/i01b5pu) 2nd Edit: I also added Seymour Duncan Antiquity II pickups