Hi all,
It's been a long time since I've contributed to TB - maybe since back in the early-mid 2000s!
For a variety of personal reasons, I didn't play bass for many years but for the past couple years I've been back practicing 1-2 hours a day and even managed to play a live gig. Because of my renewed commitment to bass playing, I started to look into further improving (read: meddling) with my gear, because I'm an engineer and true fiddler at heart.
That being said, I have a 2005-2006 Fender Highway One Precision Bass (Honey Blonde) and was reading an old TB thread back from 2008 that talks about love for the Highway One basses while simultaneously replacing many key parts (LOL).
I was going through all sorts of GAS, looking at Lakland basses, Squier MIJs, etc. and after reading the old thread I decided that: maybe I do have a "special bass" that was only made for a number of years by Fender but really punches above its weight and holds a special place in Fender history.
That being said, here is a summary of mods I've done:
Strings: D'Addario Chrome Lights
Pickups: Fender Custom Shop 62
Circuit: Converted Greasebucket to Classic P Bass config (changed caps, rewired, etc.)
Here are my questions:
1. Bridge: In the old thread (linked above), some suggest replacing the BadAss2 bridge with either Gotoh 201 or Fender Vintage. Does anyone have any opinions on both of these? What the different in feel, action, or sound might be?
2. Strings: Has anyone seen a marked difference in continuing to use D'Addario Chromes vs replacing with TI Jazz Flats - in both sound + aging? I ask because I follow some great bassists on Instagram and some have TI flats that are over 20 years old and keep continuing to evolve while sounding fantastic - this is such a cool concept to me! Has anyone had the same success with the Chromes?
3. Tuners: worth changing? They seem pretty solid to me. I played an MIM P Bass for a one-off gig I did across the country (didn't want to bother dealing with getting my bass on and off a plane) and the inferior tuners made the memory of my H1 tuners seem like works of marvel engineering lol.
That's all for my questions!
FWIW: If not obvious, I look for a more vintage P-Bass sound. My sound output gear is as follows:
Amp: Ampeg PF-50T
Speaker: Ampeg PF-115HE
Thanks all! Excited to be back!
It's been a long time since I've contributed to TB - maybe since back in the early-mid 2000s!
For a variety of personal reasons, I didn't play bass for many years but for the past couple years I've been back practicing 1-2 hours a day and even managed to play a live gig. Because of my renewed commitment to bass playing, I started to look into further improving (read: meddling) with my gear, because I'm an engineer and true fiddler at heart.
That being said, I have a 2005-2006 Fender Highway One Precision Bass (Honey Blonde) and was reading an old TB thread back from 2008 that talks about love for the Highway One basses while simultaneously replacing many key parts (LOL).
I was going through all sorts of GAS, looking at Lakland basses, Squier MIJs, etc. and after reading the old thread I decided that: maybe I do have a "special bass" that was only made for a number of years by Fender but really punches above its weight and holds a special place in Fender history.
That being said, here is a summary of mods I've done:
Strings: D'Addario Chrome Lights
Pickups: Fender Custom Shop 62
Circuit: Converted Greasebucket to Classic P Bass config (changed caps, rewired, etc.)
Here are my questions:
1. Bridge: In the old thread (linked above), some suggest replacing the BadAss2 bridge with either Gotoh 201 or Fender Vintage. Does anyone have any opinions on both of these? What the different in feel, action, or sound might be?
2. Strings: Has anyone seen a marked difference in continuing to use D'Addario Chromes vs replacing with TI Jazz Flats - in both sound + aging? I ask because I follow some great bassists on Instagram and some have TI flats that are over 20 years old and keep continuing to evolve while sounding fantastic - this is such a cool concept to me! Has anyone had the same success with the Chromes?
3. Tuners: worth changing? They seem pretty solid to me. I played an MIM P Bass for a one-off gig I did across the country (didn't want to bother dealing with getting my bass on and off a plane) and the inferior tuners made the memory of my H1 tuners seem like works of marvel engineering lol.
That's all for my questions!
FWIW: If not obvious, I look for a more vintage P-Bass sound. My sound output gear is as follows:
Amp: Ampeg PF-50T
Speaker: Ampeg PF-115HE
Thanks all! Excited to be back!
