Fill in the blank in the thread title, and share if you so desire!
In my case, a recent project completion has me smitten and looking back on the start of my "modding" or working on basses, specifically the first bass I ever owned: a 2001 Squier Affinity P bass that I received as a christmas present from my parents my freshman year of high school. I first started on an Aria Pro p bass copy that I borrowed from a friend, and after a few months I was hooked.
December 2001
It started out looking like this, as most of them did in December of 2001:
I eventually ended up pulling off the frets, getting a white pickup cover, cutting/removing the pick guard (except the part that held the pots/jack,) and slapping a big Adio shoes sticker right in the middle of it. I also (inexplicably) decided to decorate the body with some heavy duty staples.
The addition of various stickers over the years eventually had it looking like a complete piece, but it was my piece, and still all original except the pickup cover.
I unfortunately don't have any pictures that I could locate of the bass in this shape. I need to get to my parents house and see if there are any on their computer, and if I find them I'll surely upload.
Once I got more into playing/gigging, I purchased a few other basses along the way including a Bryce SG copy, Bryce 5 string fretless jazz, and an 81 Fender Bullet. During this time, I had disassembled my Squier with dreams of refinishing grandeur in my head, and a neck without its frets pulled out. However I came to a point where my first bass was lying in a pile of abused pieces in my closet for several years, which didn't sit right with me. It was time to.... restore?
Mid 2007
The first obvious step step was body "prep" and "refinishing." And by "prep" and "refinishing" I mean crudely removing the paint, primer, and some of the next clear/protective layer of the factory finish, exposing some bare wood. I took to the body like a madman with sand paper, manually removing the factory paint and primer. Now I'm still not sure to this day what it was but noticing that some of the staple holes penetrated into this mysterious and seemingly extraneous finish layer, I decide it was a great idea to proceed and remove it where necessary to remove the holes.......
........ Upon researching and realizing I was in way over my head, I left the body as it was.
As for the rest of the bass, I purchased a no name (I think it was a Mighty Mite maybe) neck... with frets, replacement tuners from stew mac, a new PG, a Dimarzio split P, new pots and knobs, and a Badass II bridge. After roughing my way through assembly/wiring, the finished product was not terrible:
Better picture:
There was a pretty awful buzz that I had unless the tone knob was rolled all the way back, due to a sloppy wiring job and a non-existent shielding job... much more so due the shoddy wiring job. However since I was playing loud death metal with no professional aspirations, it never really made a difference.
After reliably performing (albeit like the substandard low quality instrument it was) over many sweaty shows and assorted abuse in its life, the replacement neck had finally had enough and cracked on me after a pretty intense show and being thrashed around like a rag doll for years. Since I was going to be upgrading the neck and would have the bass semi apart, I decided I'd do another "refinish."
The remaining original parts at this point were the body, neck plate/screws, and strap buttons- but the soul of my first bass was still firmly entrenched therein.
Late 2009
This time, the "refinish" entailed painting the body with standard bright white glossy wall paint with a brush. I did several coats and what I was left with was a pretty sweet looking job actually, complete with the texture of the brush hairs. It was incorrectly done with no primer or actual correct prepwork, but it still looked cool. Along with another fresh PG, I went for a 2008 MIM Fender P bass neck (serial number confirmed with Fender) which yielded me the below result:
I loved the look of the black on white, and rode with the bass like this with no real hiccups for a while, save for the same annoying buzz from my crappy wiring/shielding job years before.
At this point, the original parts remaining were still the body, neck plate/screws, and strap buttons- soul still intact.
Mid 2014 (could have been 2013, forget at this point)
The next paint job was another crude one, however not as haphazard as the previous two because I was playing guitar in a pop rock band at the time and could take my time with my inadequate tools/knowledge and space, instead of rushing with my inadequate tools/knowledge and space. This time it was blue/purple color changing paint with a black primer layer. I did an even worse job clear coating the body but it still looked sharp to me, especially with the black bridge, hardware, etc. I only have one picture of the bass in this form since I had no reason to take any, and have GAS'd my way to three other basses in the meantime.
The chrome bridge here is the one I bought recently and used on the latest rendition of the bass below:
April/May 2016
And now to the final restore/repair/fixing... This time around, being older/more financially stable/somewhat wiser than I was each previous time I went down this road, I wanted to do this right. I figured that with my living situation being a one bedroom apartment with Ms. Grv, I didn't have the space or tools for a proper refinish... as if I ever did! As such, I went with a Mighty Mite sunburst Ash precision body.
It was a fresh template with no holes (except neck), no shielding, and more important, a finish that was professionally done. I got it for a great deal from here on TB, along with a 58 vintage style pickup made by a company out in Minneapolis called Revel; hand wound/RWRP/Alnico 5's, measuring at 11.6k. Along with this body and pickup, I decided to go all in on everything BUT the neck, since it is still in great shape with acceptable fret wear, working truss rod, etc.
After shielding:
So the parts list for this build included the following once the GAS dust settled:
Already had:
2008 Fender MIM P neck (nut beat to hell...
)
Purchased for this rebuild:
MM ash body
Stewmac 22:1 bass tuners
Tusq synth ivory nut, filed to fit
Fender genuine neck plate/screws
Fender genuine tug bar/thumb rest
Allparts strap buttons
Stewmac prewired p bass harness with 250k CTS pots/knobs
Stewmac PG/hardware
Body cavity/PG shielding kit
Aforementioned chrome Badass II bridge
Upon getting all the parts in over a month or two long period, I set out to put this bad boy together the right way, buzz free, for the first time since it was brand new. Well.... there was a bit of noise when it was brand new, but it was much worse once I got my amateur hands into the electronics in 2007.
After four bouts of tweaking the wiring, shielding, and bridge angle over the past week, it finally looks, sounds, and plays like it's been wanting to since it was born as a Squier Affinity. The biggest hurdle I ran into was having two screw heads break off the shaft of the screws while installing the bridge. These broken screw shafts then caused the new screws to go in uneven, (was unable to extract them and didn't feel like ripping into the body quite yet to remove them) which pushed the bridge uneven by a few degrees; it had no effect on tuning or intonation, but it bothered me immensely seeing it off by ~2mm.
I finally got the bridge squared away, along with eliminating the p bass buzz that has been following me for over 10 years. Upon first installation of the pickup, I still had a slight buzz while not touching the strings/bridge, and then a louder one when I'd touch the pickup screws- but this louder buzz would go away when I simultaneously touched the pickup screw and a string or other metal part.
As it turns out, making a larger overlap of the body cavity shielding so that it contacted the shielding on the back of the PG appears to have brought the noise to dead quiet. Now with the shielding(?) fixed, sheer p bass tone bliss has been bestowed upon my ears. It also doesn't look too shabby if I do say so myself.
Current final form- properly finished/wired/assembled and after this afternoon, set up with zero fret buzz, low action, ringing sustain, and healthy sounding harmonics
By itself
With the family
To the abstract...
With the hours and money that I put into reworking and reworking this thing over 15 years, it has evolved to such a point where there is now not a single original part left. Not one screw, wire, or piece is original (see parts list above.) But I feel the original soul remains in a way, as I've dedicated and infused my own energy into it for a decade and a half and it's been through so much over a decent chunk of years.
Perhaps the soul of the bass has split, like our own cells do while our bodies develop in utero... leaving half of itself in the newest incarnation of my first p bass to grow as I use it for the next 15+ years while the other half still lurks in the remaining original Squier body and neck plate, waiting to be incubated and nurtured with new energy until it develops into a fully functional instrument again.
*sips on a peaty islay and gazes into a roaring fireplace, reflecting on the meaning of bass*
Does anyone else have a similar journey that they have traveled with their first/most expensive/cheapest/favorite/whatever bass? Let's hear them!
In my case, a recent project completion has me smitten and looking back on the start of my "modding" or working on basses, specifically the first bass I ever owned: a 2001 Squier Affinity P bass that I received as a christmas present from my parents my freshman year of high school. I first started on an Aria Pro p bass copy that I borrowed from a friend, and after a few months I was hooked.
December 2001
It started out looking like this, as most of them did in December of 2001:
I eventually ended up pulling off the frets, getting a white pickup cover, cutting/removing the pick guard (except the part that held the pots/jack,) and slapping a big Adio shoes sticker right in the middle of it. I also (inexplicably) decided to decorate the body with some heavy duty staples.
The addition of various stickers over the years eventually had it looking like a complete piece, but it was my piece, and still all original except the pickup cover.I unfortunately don't have any pictures that I could locate of the bass in this shape. I need to get to my parents house and see if there are any on their computer, and if I find them I'll surely upload.
Once I got more into playing/gigging, I purchased a few other basses along the way including a Bryce SG copy, Bryce 5 string fretless jazz, and an 81 Fender Bullet. During this time, I had disassembled my Squier with dreams of refinishing grandeur in my head, and a neck without its frets pulled out. However I came to a point where my first bass was lying in a pile of abused pieces in my closet for several years, which didn't sit right with me. It was time to.... restore?
Mid 2007
The first obvious step step was body "prep" and "refinishing." And by "prep" and "refinishing" I mean crudely removing the paint, primer, and some of the next clear/protective layer of the factory finish, exposing some bare wood. I took to the body like a madman with sand paper, manually removing the factory paint and primer. Now I'm still not sure to this day what it was but noticing that some of the staple holes penetrated into this mysterious and seemingly extraneous finish layer, I decide it was a great idea to proceed and remove it where necessary to remove the holes.......
........ Upon researching and realizing I was in way over my head, I left the body as it was.As for the rest of the bass, I purchased a no name (I think it was a Mighty Mite maybe) neck... with frets, replacement tuners from stew mac, a new PG, a Dimarzio split P, new pots and knobs, and a Badass II bridge. After roughing my way through assembly/wiring, the finished product was not terrible:
Better picture:
There was a pretty awful buzz that I had unless the tone knob was rolled all the way back, due to a sloppy wiring job and a non-existent shielding job... much more so due the shoddy wiring job. However since I was playing loud death metal with no professional aspirations, it never really made a difference.
After reliably performing (albeit like the substandard low quality instrument it was) over many sweaty shows and assorted abuse in its life, the replacement neck had finally had enough and cracked on me after a pretty intense show and being thrashed around like a rag doll for years. Since I was going to be upgrading the neck and would have the bass semi apart, I decided I'd do another "refinish."
The remaining original parts at this point were the body, neck plate/screws, and strap buttons- but the soul of my first bass was still firmly entrenched therein.
Late 2009
This time, the "refinish" entailed painting the body with standard bright white glossy wall paint with a brush. I did several coats and what I was left with was a pretty sweet looking job actually, complete with the texture of the brush hairs. It was incorrectly done with no primer or actual correct prepwork, but it still looked cool. Along with another fresh PG, I went for a 2008 MIM Fender P bass neck (serial number confirmed with Fender) which yielded me the below result:
I loved the look of the black on white, and rode with the bass like this with no real hiccups for a while, save for the same annoying buzz from my crappy wiring/shielding job years before.
At this point, the original parts remaining were still the body, neck plate/screws, and strap buttons- soul still intact.
Mid 2014 (could have been 2013, forget at this point)
The next paint job was another crude one, however not as haphazard as the previous two because I was playing guitar in a pop rock band at the time and could take my time with my inadequate tools/knowledge and space, instead of rushing with my inadequate tools/knowledge and space. This time it was blue/purple color changing paint with a black primer layer. I did an even worse job clear coating the body but it still looked sharp to me, especially with the black bridge, hardware, etc. I only have one picture of the bass in this form since I had no reason to take any, and have GAS'd my way to three other basses in the meantime.
The chrome bridge here is the one I bought recently and used on the latest rendition of the bass below:
April/May 2016
And now to the final restore/repair/fixing... This time around, being older/more financially stable/somewhat wiser than I was each previous time I went down this road, I wanted to do this right. I figured that with my living situation being a one bedroom apartment with Ms. Grv, I didn't have the space or tools for a proper refinish... as if I ever did! As such, I went with a Mighty Mite sunburst Ash precision body.
It was a fresh template with no holes (except neck), no shielding, and more important, a finish that was professionally done. I got it for a great deal from here on TB, along with a 58 vintage style pickup made by a company out in Minneapolis called Revel; hand wound/RWRP/Alnico 5's, measuring at 11.6k. Along with this body and pickup, I decided to go all in on everything BUT the neck, since it is still in great shape with acceptable fret wear, working truss rod, etc.
After shielding:
So the parts list for this build included the following once the GAS dust settled:
Already had:
2008 Fender MIM P neck (nut beat to hell...
)Purchased for this rebuild:
MM ash body
Stewmac 22:1 bass tuners
Tusq synth ivory nut, filed to fit
Fender genuine neck plate/screws
Fender genuine tug bar/thumb rest
Allparts strap buttons
Stewmac prewired p bass harness with 250k CTS pots/knobs
Stewmac PG/hardware
Body cavity/PG shielding kit
Aforementioned chrome Badass II bridge
Upon getting all the parts in over a month or two long period, I set out to put this bad boy together the right way, buzz free, for the first time since it was brand new. Well.... there was a bit of noise when it was brand new, but it was much worse once I got my amateur hands into the electronics in 2007.
After four bouts of tweaking the wiring, shielding, and bridge angle over the past week, it finally looks, sounds, and plays like it's been wanting to since it was born as a Squier Affinity. The biggest hurdle I ran into was having two screw heads break off the shaft of the screws while installing the bridge. These broken screw shafts then caused the new screws to go in uneven, (was unable to extract them and didn't feel like ripping into the body quite yet to remove them) which pushed the bridge uneven by a few degrees; it had no effect on tuning or intonation, but it bothered me immensely seeing it off by ~2mm.
I finally got the bridge squared away, along with eliminating the p bass buzz that has been following me for over 10 years. Upon first installation of the pickup, I still had a slight buzz while not touching the strings/bridge, and then a louder one when I'd touch the pickup screws- but this louder buzz would go away when I simultaneously touched the pickup screw and a string or other metal part.
As it turns out, making a larger overlap of the body cavity shielding so that it contacted the shielding on the back of the PG appears to have brought the noise to dead quiet. Now with the shielding(?) fixed, sheer p bass tone bliss has been bestowed upon my ears. It also doesn't look too shabby if I do say so myself.
Current final form- properly finished/wired/assembled and after this afternoon, set up with zero fret buzz, low action, ringing sustain, and healthy sounding harmonics
By itself
With the family
To the abstract...
With the hours and money that I put into reworking and reworking this thing over 15 years, it has evolved to such a point where there is now not a single original part left. Not one screw, wire, or piece is original (see parts list above.) But I feel the original soul remains in a way, as I've dedicated and infused my own energy into it for a decade and a half and it's been through so much over a decent chunk of years.
Perhaps the soul of the bass has split, like our own cells do while our bodies develop in utero... leaving half of itself in the newest incarnation of my first p bass to grow as I use it for the next 15+ years while the other half still lurks in the remaining original Squier body and neck plate, waiting to be incubated and nurtured with new energy until it develops into a fully functional instrument again.
*sips on a peaty islay and gazes into a roaring fireplace, reflecting on the meaning of bass*
Does anyone else have a similar journey that they have traveled with their first/most expensive/cheapest/favorite/whatever bass? Let's hear them!
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