Mustang Mod

#21
Awesome! One more question: how much room did you have to determine the placement of the MM pickup? Were you restricted to one spot due to the existing J pickup routing, or could you have moved it more towards the bridge or neck?
 
#22
Johnny_Paps said:
View attachment 3299857 Hello all,

Just joining the TB site. Wanted to share a project I am currently working on. If this is the wrong thread, please let me know.

I recently bought a 2016 Fender PJ Mustang in Capri orange from a guy on Craigslist. Paid $380 for it and it was practically brand new. I’ve always wanted one of these and I was excited when they produced these with the modern PJ construction. The short scale is awesome and fits me a little better than a standard Fender bass.

So I’ve played it for a while, enjoyed it but I want to hot rod this baby out. I can never leave anything alone factory spec

I have a jazz bass my father & I modified a few years ago that has a music man pickup in the bridge position. EMG MMTW with the push pull option. Nothing in the neck position, blank pick guard. I’ll save that one for another thread if anyone is interested.

With that said you know where this is going........


I bought a set of Seymour Duncan SPB3 quarter pound pups for the neck position. I also got a Duncan SMB-4D musicman for the bridge.

I got a music man template from BestBassGear and it doesn’t fit exactly. The edges are more rounded than this Duncan pickup.. That’s the first dilemma. Second is the CTS pots are too big for the Mexi control plate. And third is the setup I’m going for the last tone pot won’t fit in the control cavity. Always gonna be something holding you back, but that’s what I love about projects (not really).

I got this cool vintage pearloid pick guard for it too. Without the dumb 3 way selector. If anyone has a PJ mustang bass they want a different guard on I can point you to a great guy who does them. He can do them any style and they are exact.

So here’s what she looks like now. And I will post updates as I go on.

Enjoy!
Click to expand...
Can you use mini pots? You’d need a blank control plate but maybe your pickguard guy could make you one. Or maybe get them to make you a one piece guard and control plate. Do it out of CF sheet for a racecar look.
 
#23
Update: I ended up having a different bridge pickup installed: a MM-style humbucker with maple wood cover made by Häussel. Strung it with D'Addario Halfwounds, added stacked V/T knobs for pickup blending. Got rid of the stock 3-way pickup selector switch but put in a 3-way mini coil selector switch for the humbucker (series, parallel, single-coil modes). Put in a hi-mass bridge and tort pickguard. The color scheme is not everyone's cup of tea, I know... but exactly what I wanted.

The MM pickup adds a whole new palette of options, and makes the bass even more fun to play and versatile. This modding game is a slippery slope.

Before and after shots attached...
 

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#24
93tilInfinity said:
Update: I ended up having a different bridge pickup installed: a MM-style humbucker with maple wood cover made by Häussel. Strung it with D'Addario Halfwounds, added stacked V/T knobs for pickup blending. Got rid of the stock 3-way pickup selector switch but put in a 3-way mini coil selector switch for the humbucker (series, parallel, single-coil modes). Put in a hi-mass bridge and tort pickguard. The color scheme is not everyone's cup of tea, I know... but exactly what I wanted.

The MM pickup adds a whole new palette of options, and makes the bass even more fun to play and versatile. This modding game is a slippery slope.

Before and after shots attached...
Click to expand...

Looks awesome! I love the pink, I wish they would’ve issued a version with a rosewood or pau ferro board.. I actually just took mine for a spin in rehearsals, I forgot how much I enjoyed playing it!
 
#25
Johnny_Paps said:
It is possible! This SMB-4D pickup in particular is pretty “zingy” compared to the emg mmtw I used in the past. It resembles the tone of Flea imo. The quarter pounders need no introduction! I found a liking to p-pickups all the way up with the Mm pickup halfway. It’s a nice blend of tone. Here’s a track my band & I recorded in 2019 with that same tone I mentioned.

Click to expand...

That bass tone sounds great. What bass were you using?
 
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