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Post subject: Playing my squier today...
Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 11:44 am
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I was playing my Squier Jazz Bass today because I need to play it at practice because my other bass is getting set up (Epiphone Les Paul Bass).
I saw a video about intonation so I decided to mess with the bridge on my Squier and in about 20 minute I had it back in playing condition and intonated. I'd had problems intonating my Epiphone so I was nervous but my Squier was nice and easy.

So I was thinking, would my Squier sound good with better pickups?
It's made of basswood and has a maple neck with rosewood fret board.
If anyone has done this or has a similar instrument let me know.
Also, I'm pretty new to the forum. Hi.


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Post subject: Re: Playing my squier today...
Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:00 pm
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Welcome,new pickups would make a huge diference.sorry about bad spelling. :oops:

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Post subject: Re: Playing my squier today...
Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:06 pm
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Spellings no big deal.
I'm mostly just curious. Mostly about how much the wood will affect the tone. I've played Ash P-bass that are too brittle for me and ash Jazz Basses that sounds great. As well as alder P-Bass that are sick and alder Jazzbass that sounds too dull.


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Post subject: Re: Playing my squier today...
Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:16 pm
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That was a little unclear. I like alder P-Basses the most but alder Jazz Basses sound pretty cool to me.
Here's what it looks like:
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Post subject: Re: Playing my squier today...
Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 1:51 pm
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I dropped in Custom Shop PUP'S into my Mod Fretless.Sounds great.Nice growl but also has that deep upright sound when using the neck PUP :mrgreen:


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Post subject: Re: Playing my squier today...
Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 5:21 am
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As it got later into practice our drummer wanted more definition out of my bass and it was already doing the best it could. :lol: thus illustrating the crappy Squier pick ups


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Post subject: Re: Playing my squier today...
Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:40 pm
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So I was thinking, would my Squier sound good with better pickups?
It's made of basswood and has a maple neck with rosewood fret board.
If anyone has done this or has a similar instrument let me know.
Also, I'm pretty new to the forum. Hi.[/quote]

I may be wrong but your bass is probably Agathis,Squiers used basswood for a few years while being made in Mexico which is the old wood of choice for the MIM standard line.
I would save up and use the Squier as a downpayment on a good used bass insted of packing money into a Entry level bass,for 400.00$ you can get a good Japanese made bass with the trade-in,or a new Mexican 60's or 70's style Jazzbass which are like 500.00$ TOPS used,its your bass to play and best of luck with it
:mrgreen:

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Post subject: Re: Playing my squier today...
Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 2:11 pm
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Before doing any upgrades, keep in mind that the money invested in upgrades is almost never recovered in resale or trade. So that being said, if you plan on keeping the bass...mod on!

I concur that a pickup change would make a definite difference. Basswood is often bemoaned by alder fans but I love it. It is a legitimate tone wood for basses in my opinion. As Lawsuit pointed out it may be agathis which to me doesn't resonate as well as basswood as a rule.

If you do decide that you are going to keep it indefinitely then upgrades make sense, otherwise they don't.

There are so many pickups out there it is difficult to say for sure you should buy this one or that one. Pickup selection depends not only on what tone you are seeking but your budget. I'd stick to the mass produced end of the aftermarket pickup market which means you'll be looking at Fender & Seymour Duncan. If you want to spend a tad more then look at Curtis Novak or Bill Lawrence Wilde pickups. The top end would be Lindy Fralin.

The Bill Lawrence Wilde would allow you to change the controls to Master Volume/Blend/Tone. Unless you have some very important reason for wanting that type of control setup, I wouldn't do that again on a 2 pickup bass because even though it is very convenient it is not sonically the best solution for me. If you go with the Wilde I'd strongly suggest wiring them standard Volume/Volume/Tone.

One thing to watch out for is that the replacement actually will FIT the pickup routing hole. Some of the aftermarket pickups might not. So measure carefully.

Two other upgrades I'd strongly suggest doing simultaneously with the pickup upgrade are copper shielding of all cavities and capacitor replacement. Depending on your cap choice both of these upgrades are less than $15 to $25 total. Unless your pots are noisy or otherwise not working right there is no need to replace them.

The copper shielding will significantly improve any buzz, hum, RFI issues inherent in single coil pickups. If using Fender Noiseless or Duncan Stacked pickups it isn't as critical and in fact could be a wasted step.

A better tone cap will make a difference too, even when the tone is wide open to the treble side. However it won't make as big a difference as better pickups or copper shielding.

There are four major types of caps I've used in passive basses: Ceramic (most edgy sound), Poly (what is probably in there now and the second most edgy), Mylar (much smoother sound approaching the PIO cap) and lastly Paper In Oil/Vitamin-Q Type (the smoothest most distortion free and usually the most expensive.) All the tone caps will cost less than $3 except the Paper In Oil which can cost from about $5 to $20 each depending on choice of make. The less expensive Russian PIO caps are very cheap often selling for just a few dollars and some people like them better than the real Sprague Vitamin-Q's. The Russian ones are about one-third the cost of real Vitamin-Q's and basically are the Russian copy.

A good source for the shielding materials is http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/middle_bass.htm and the widest selection of tone caps and one of the few places you can get the Sprague 225P and 275P Mylar capacitors online is here: http://axegrinderz.com/

Finally string selection can improve definition, so you might need to reevaluate your string choice too and try a different string set.


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Post subject: Re: Playing my squier today...
Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 8:04 pm
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The strings on it right now are MASSIVE. I can go down to drop A and their tone stays pretty solid, relatively speaking.
Any kind of upgrade is mostly just little thoughts in my head, I was just curious, but thanks for all the response.
It just blew my mind that I could pick up my beginning bass and get it in playing order in 20 minutes, while my Epiphone is in constant need of tweeking and is not friendly to the inexperience "seter-upper". That's what made me think about using it....because it works :lol:
This may be blasphemous, but the tone reminds me of a Rickenbacker I was fortunate enough to record with a few weeks ago. The Rick was nicer but they both share a more mellow, even a little muffled, tone. Also, I only got to play it for about an hour so I didn't get to really dig into it.


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