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Post subject: MIK Squier II P-Bass - info needed
Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 9:17 pm
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Hi all, newby here. I've had a 1989 MIK Squier II P-Bass (pearl white, no pick guard and maple neck) for 14 years that I used to hate and now I'm learning to love it.

I've read the postings here and on other forums and I'm trying to get some info on it. I take it they are fairly highly regarded.

- What pots does it have (500?)
- I read how changing caps can affect tone most easily - what cap does it have?
- General opinion on the pup?

I'm not one to usually modify my basses but maybe some upgrades are in order. I really need to compare it to a MIA P-Bass, maybe of 70's vintage.

Sorry - I don't know much about this bass and I'm learning as much as I can about Fender and Squier after being a Rickenbacker player all my life.
Thanks!!


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Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 9:38 pm
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Hey welcome to the Forum! Some guys here are pretty good with these tech answers, I'm not one of them...You can find posts by BrotherDave, he has a link you can email him with questions on his signature. One of the nicest people here. Enjoy the forums.

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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 11:18 pm
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4001 Player wrote:

- What pots does it have (500?)
- I read how changing caps can affect tone most easily - what cap does it have?
- General opinion on the pup?



The ranking of quality on Squier basses puts the Korean ones in the top 3 quality wise. That would be USA Squiers, Japanese Squiers and Korean Squiers as the top 3. (Yes there were some USA Squiers!)

I have two made in Korea basses and I like them fine. One was a passive P/J so I gutted the electronics and started over. The other is a top of the line active which I've never modified anything on other than strings.

The pots are PROBABLY 250K, don't know for sure but if you take the control cavity cover off the back you will probably see "250" stamped on them. If you see "500" on them I'd definitely suggest replacing them with 250k's. I have seen other Korean basses (typically made at the Cort plant) with 500's that would sound better to me with 250's.

It PROBABLY has a poly cap. Would have to see it to know for sure. Doesn't matter to me what it has because I'd upgrade it anyway.

Giving you an opinion on the pickup is hard to make without hearing it. But usually the electronics are the weakest link in any Asian bass, even the Japanese ones. Great wood, fantastic necks and mediocre electronics seems to be the rule in an Asian bass. Some of the Aria brand basses made in Japan actually had decent electronics, so they are an exception.

Since you are looking at mod ideas. This would be my mod list if I owned your bass.

1. Remove all electronics.

2. Fully copper shield the control cavity, the inside of the plastic control cavity cover and the pickup cavity. Solder a ground wire to the copper lining of the pickup cavity, channel it to the control cavity and solder the bared end to the copper shielding in the control cavity. Figure on about $13 to $16 for shielding copper tape and about 24 inches of vintage style cloth covered black and white wire. Cloth covered wire needs no stripping and is the only wire I mess with anymore.

3. Check pot values. If you have 500K pots, replace them with new 250K pots. If they are 250K, if they work fine and they are not noisy then there is no need to change them and no tonal advantage in replacing them. If there are push on knobs on the bass it will need split shaft pots, if knobs with set screws are on it then it will need solid shaft pots. Sometimes basses like these require pots with extra long shafts. So be sure to check whether they are extra long or not. You can usually tell by looking. 2 pots should be no more than $12 to $14.

4. Replace the pickup with a pickup that has the tone you seek. Don't forget you'll need pickup mounting foam too. Seymour Duncan makes a wide array of very affordable top quality pickups for a variety of tones. The Bill Lawrence WILDE pickup for Precision Bass is also an affordable choice that lots of people like. I have a WILDE P/J setup and I like them and consider WILDE to be good stuff for the money. The Fender Custom Shop 62 Precision pickup is an excellent choice for Motown stuff. Curtis Novak, Lindy Fralin or any of their competitors will make one to suit exactly the music you want to play. All you have to do is tell them what you want it to sound like, but will cost more than the ready made off the shelf stuff from S.D. or WILDE. For most people the WILDE is good enough. It is sort of a middle of the road pickup at a good price. $60 to $150.

5. Upgrade the tone capacitor. As with the pickup the type of music you play and the tone you want dictates cap selection. For metal or jazz fusion stuff try a ceramic disc for $1 because they have a serious edge to them. If you like the 80's/90's sounds then Sprague Orange-Drop Poly is fine for $2 to $3. For smooth jazz, country, Motown, pop go with either Sprague Orange-Drop Mylar ($2 to $3) or a paper in oil capacitor that is a Sprague Vitamin-Q type in the smaller 200 volt size. ($4 Russian to $15 Genuine Sprague). For me the value that seems to work best in a Precision is the Fender specified 0.05. Most of the cap companies make them labeled 0.047 which is so close to 0.05 it makes no difference due to the tolerance factor. The tolerance factors vary from capacitor type to capacitor type. Ceramic have the largest variance, next Poly & Mylar and then the Vitamin-Q type caps have the narrowest tolerance. It is a good idea to have the capacitor checked on a capacitance meter to make sure it is in the ballpark of the stated value. I would not suggest using any paper in oil cap unless it is military spec like the Sprague Vitamin-Q or the Russian copies of the Vitamin-Q as they are very stable and will never leak. Sprague made these under contract to a number of companies like Philco, Dumont, Raytheon and Gudeman. No matter what brand, if it has a CIRCLE with the number "2" inside the circle, then it is a Sprague. I prefer the genuine Sprague Vitamin-Q's because in addition to being paper in oil sealed in a glass tube encased in aluminum they also have a transparent plastic wrap around the aluminum case so they won't short against a pot or stray wire. They have been used in ICBM guidance systems since the late 50's up until today and they are very stable.

6. Replace the jack with a genuine Switchcraft. ($2 to $4)

7. Solder up all the connections per a diagram.

Set up the bass with a new set of Thomastik-Infeld EB344 PowerBass strings. ($55)

These mods will have a parts cost of from $146 to $250 depending on pickup selection, whether or not you have to change the pots and what cap you want to use. You can also use less expensive strings, but if I was doing it for me then those are the ones I'd use.

Why not upgrade the bridge you ask? Lots of people replace the bridge first thing, but this is mainly because they don't want to mess with the electronics or don't know how. A bridge is easy to replace as you just screw it on and set it up. I only replace the bridge if I absolutely have to due to lost parts, something being broken or due to an uncorrectable intonation issue. In spite of what the bridge manufacturers claim in their advertising about TONE, bridges do NOT contribute to better tone! What they do is POSSIBLY give an instrument the ability to sustain the same tone a bit longer. More sustain is not desirable in every genre of music. I sometimes will put foam under the strings at the bridge to actually reduce sustain so the last thing I want is more sustain. One of my favorite Fender bridges is the vintage Fender bridge with the threaded saddles which is getting hard to find around here. I'd not bother with the bridge unless there is some reason it needs replacing.


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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 11:44 pm
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Just one more thing.

HOW DOES IT PLAY? If it plays great and the only deficiency is the tone, then it is worth upgrading. If it is difficult to play, doesn't balance well, has sloppy fretwork, etc....I'd look for another Precision project.


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Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 7:48 pm
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Thanks for the detailed response, I really appreciate it. 1st change, the pots and cap. I checked and they seem to be 500K.
And yes, it plays really well, it's a keeper. I just want to work on the tone.


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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 5:30 am
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4001 Player wrote:
Thanks for the detailed response, I really appreciate it. 1st change, the pots and cap. I checked and they seem to be 500K.
And yes, it plays really well, it's a keeper. I just want to work on the tone.


Then you are starting in the right place. While I had it apart and the pots out I'd shield it too.

Won't add but about $10 overall to copper shield the control cavity, the pickguard and the pickup cavity. HOWEVER it is time consuming.

The correct pots and a cap upgrade will DEFINITELY be beneficial and if you decide to do a pickup upgrade later, you have a head start.

If I knew what kind of music you played I could give a specific cap suggestion.


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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 8:33 am
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Thanks Brother Dave. That's a good COA (course of action) - shield, replace pots and cap and evaluate. Maybe replace the pup if needed after evaluating.

Looking at your description of the caps, I think I would select the Sprague Orange-Drop Poly. The sound I'm looking for: the awesome growly tone of the opening notes of the Smithereens' "Blood and Roses."

I bought my P-bass after I learned Mike Mesaros used a P-bass to record that song and not the Rick 4001 he played live in the band's early days. I suspect it's a stock late 70's or early 80's P-bass.

is the Sprague Orange-Drop Poly cap the one I need?


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Post subject: Re: MIK Squier II P-Bass - info needed
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 4:14 pm
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New to Squire. I have the same bass, bought for 80.00 @ pawn shop, Any Updates on yours?


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Post subject: Re: MIK Squier II P-Bass - info needed
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 2:22 pm
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Congrats on your find!

I put the Fender Original '62 pickup in and changed the pots to Fender P-bass values and put in a different cap (can't recall the value). The mods made a world of difference! Coupled with Rotosounds, it has that P-bas growl (an Ibanez Bass Tube Screamer helps too).

One thing - the MIK pup is metric and the Fender pup is english, so the new pup will not quite fill the rout, but it's not noticable.


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Post subject: Re: MIK Squier II P-Bass - info needed
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 3:15 pm
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Cool, how do you know yours is an 89 ? I looked @ serial # on mine & it says they don't have accurate #s before 93 Mine starts S9087XX.John


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Post subject: Re: MIK Squier II P-Bass - info needed
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 7:09 pm
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I got this from Wikipedia: "S9" = made by Samick in 1989.

Mine is S9337XX. I bought it used in the late 90's.


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Post subject: Re: MIK Squier II P-Bass - info needed
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2012 6:30 am
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Thanks for the info, John


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Post subject: Re: MIK Squier II P-Bass - info needed
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 3:26 pm
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Bringing up an old topic, but would it be sacrilege to put a Squier II neck on an MIM p-bass? I have a red Squier II p-bass and I love the neck on it, though the rest of it is just kind of "eh". I assume the body and electronics of a MIM bass would be superior to the Squier II's. Also forgive my inexperience, would it be much of an ordeal to pull this off? I imagine I'd take it in to have the neck and action set properly. Thanks in advance everyone.


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Post subject: Re: MIK Squier II P-Bass - info needed
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 2:32 pm
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The Squier II's in general are noted for their popular necks...and that's about it. Is it sacrilege to transplant the necks to other basses? Someone who wants the Squier II basses to be stock for collecting purposes might say yes. I am not one of those people. Quite honestly, aside from the necks, those basses are pretty much junk. And I do not say this lightly as I am a Squier fan, but at some point you have to face facts. I think you'd be doing the neck a favor by placing it on a bass more worthy of it.

Now, as far as the process of transplanting the neck to another bass, it is fairly simple, BUT can take some work. The main things you'll need to check will be:

1. Does the neck fit nice and snugly in the neck-pocket of the bass you want it on
2. Do the mounting holes line up from neck to bass

If the neck has fitment issues, you may have to scrap the idea if the fitment is far off. If you have a neck that is barely, and I mean BARELY larger than the pocket, you may be able to "massage" the neck into fitting. If the neck is smaller than the pocket, you're better off looking for a different neck.

Concerning the mounting holes, if they line up with your neck holes, great, that's what you want. If they don't, not all is lost. This is where you'll need to work a bit, but in most cases it turns out fine if you're careful. What you'll do in this case is fill the neck holes with dowels that are slightly smaller than the holes but fit snugly in them, using some wood glue. Once the holes are filled and the dowels are trimmed to match the neck-deck, you can drill new holes to match your body holes.

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