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Post subject: Upgrading Suggestions for a MIM 98'-99' P Bass
Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:28 pm
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New to the forum but alot of great info since signing on. I am hoping that with all the knowledge out there in the Fender Lounge, I am going to get some great help with my first bass project.
As I said, i have a MIM Fender P-Bass (Serial #MN8145442) that I have been playing for about 7 or 8 years now. I bought it from a friend for about $100. When i got it, it was totally stock and for years all I did was change the strings. The last few years I have played off and on but have learned to take better care of my equipment.
So I recently decided that instead of buying a new bass, I would keep my classic and give it some upgrades. When I originally purchased it, I immediately upgraded the stock pick-ups to some nice Batolini ones/ I very recently installed a new 3 ply pick guard (black-white-white) which gives it a much more bad $@! look than the original white that it came with. I updated the knobs for a contrasting look with the chrome dome knobs. However my biggest upgrade so far has been the Full Contact Hardware that gives it awesome sustain and such a smoother feel.
And that is as far as I got! I need your help! As you can tell, in my opinion, this Fender not being a very desirable production year, I have decided to modify it to bring it up to speed. Any help on this would be fantastic.


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Post subject: Re: Upgrading Suggestions for a MIM 98'-99' P Bass
Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 4:43 am
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:54 am
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Location: Alabama, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Tennessee seasonally
If there are no current mechanical issues such as a warped neck or loose tuners and you are satisfied with the bass, then there are a couple suggestions:

The Leo Quan Bridge (BA II) for your P-Bass would be a good addition if you want even more sustain and an extremely rugged design. -

Click for details: http://www.leoquan.com/html/bass2details.html

Also, since your P-Bass has some mileage on it, you may wish to clean the volume and tone pots with a contact cleaner nozzle-wand spray product from CRC. This will make sure that there are no contaminants inside the potentiometers that can affect tone, create distortion or a scratchy sound when the controls are turned. Use a very small burst of spray through the wand into the opening in the pot where the wire terminals exit. Work the pots through their entire range several times and do one more SMALL burst of contact cleaner to flush out any loosened debris.

Click for Details: http://www.crcindustries.com/ei/content ... x?PN=03070

This product is normally available at ACE Hardware stores in the Automotive Accessories aisle.

Just a side note - If you are considering an 'Ashrtray' bridge cover for a Retro look and will also be installing the Leo Quan BA style on your bass, take measurements of the Quan bridge before you purchase a cover. The Quan bridge is taller than the OEM Fender bridges and most 'ashtrays' will not fit over the Quan bridge. I believe that "AllParts" does have a generic cover to fit over the Quan bridge - check with their parts department because they also sell the Quan bridges and may already know which one will fit.

If you do change out the bridge, as you remove the original, you will see the ground wire pigtail under the original bridge. CAREFULLY clean that bare wire with a small knife blade but do NOT apply enough pressure to break the wire, or you will have to run a new one from the control compartment. Just a light scraping with the blade will remove oxidation from the wire and allow it to ground the new bridge better.

Keep us posted on your choices...

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Post subject: Re: Upgrading Suggestions for a MIM 98'-99' P Bass
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 6:56 pm
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I agree with cleaning the pots routinely whenever you open the control cavity. Preventative maintenance is the best maintenance.

I disagree with the Leo Quan BAII bridge being an "improvement." Yes, for some people whose style requires more sustain they will work for that, however the return for dollar invested ($100) TONE-WISE is a disappointment. More sustain yes. More of the same tone, yes indeed! A better tone? That's a definite NO! In some styles of play more sustain is not an improvement at all!

I can get a better playing setup with a Fender vintage bridge and actually prefer the old Fender one with the threaded saddles. Further I have had ZERO success contacting Leo Quan for a support issue I had with one of their "SUPER AWESOME" bridges. Two courteous emails to them pleading for help that I was WILLING to pay to receive went unanswered. That is frankly pathetic! Leo Quan cares NOTHING about the customer after the sale at all. Obviously a customer is not worth answering AFTER we buy a Leo Quan bridge.

A capacitor change can make a ton of difference in the tone delivered. Your bass likely still has the stock Fender green Poly Chicklet cap of the day in it. This was the cheapest cap available in mass quantity at the time. Fender bought them by the BOXCAR load. Some people upgrade to a better Poly cap like the huge Sprague Orange Drop Poly cap that sounds a bit smoother for about $3. Recently Fender themselves turned back the clock and started using a newly reproduced CERAMIC capacitor cloned from the ones used on their instruments in the 50's through the end of the Fullerton era. These Ceramic caps have a harsh grindy tone. They were the cheapest available cap of the day in the mid 50's through early 80's. Some people prefer them and for some types of music, especially live metal and Southern classic-rock or blues the ceramic is an excellent choice. I've had lots of basses with ceramic caps over the years including my favorite bass ever which was a '68 Telecaster Bass and my least favorite the 71 Jazz.

There are other tone capacitor options besides what Fender has used stock too. MYLAR sounds smoother that either Ceramic or Poly and the Sprague Orange-Drop MYLAR is really an economical upgrade for about $3. I've used them and I liked them a LOT. The Sprague Orange-Drop Mylar sounds darn close to the next smoothest which is a Paper In Oil. Mylar is a good choice for pop or for someone that records and plays live because it is pretty smooth, but you can still get an edge by cranking everything wide open. A Sprague Orange-Drop Mylar cap is harder to find than a Poly Orange-Drop but worth seeking out and the cost is about the same at about $3.

Paper In Oil (PIO) caps are similar in performance to the Paper In Wax caps used in the very first P-Basses, but the Sprague Vitamin-Q type Paper In Oil Aluminum foil caps are much more stable than the original Fender stock Paper In Wax capacitors. Paper In Wax caps (including BUMBLE-BEES used in early Gibsons) are in fact notoriously unstable and not recommended as an upgrade at all. There are also Paper In Oil Copper Foil caps out there now specially made in Scandinavia for tone addicts but those are really hard to find, are almost prohibitively expensive and these $30 copper foil caps don't sound much different to me in a bass than a good old Sprague Vitamin-Q PIO cap which currently goes for about $15 delivered to your mailbox.

Some people like their bass with a serious edge to it and for that I'd recommend the CERAMIC cap which is a 50 cent to $2 upgrade. It really is an exciting sound but I tire of it over time and the treble knob on the amp/mixer emphasizes the distortion that the Ceramic cap produces. Ceramic caps do deliver a very aggressive tone for sure. The Fender stock Poly caps of the mid 80's through mid 21st century had less edge than the ceramics and just sound vanilla.

The Sprague POLY Orange-Drop caps (the most commonly available Orange-Drops) have a bit less edge than the Fender stock Poly caps and bring more fatness too for about $3. BUT, the Sprague MYLAR Orange-Drop is a much cleaner sounding cap for about the same money as the POLY, however it is way harder to find. I have a source though and they also cost me about $3. If you only have $3 to spend on an upgrade, I'd go with the Sprague Mylar Orange-Drop.

Now we come to what I call the "Sprague Vitamin-Q Type Paper In Oil" caps. These are my personal favorite caps. Sprague made them for a number of military contractors including Philco. If it has the number "2" inside a CIRCLE then it was made by Sprague. The 200 volt size is preferable for basses as it is very small. The 400 volters are harder to fit in the small space you have to work with in the control cavity of a P-Bass, but you can make the 400 volters fit, they just are not my first choice and they do sound a bit different with less clarity in the highs. "Vitamin-Q Type" caps are military spec caps used in ICBM missile guidance systems TILL THIS VERY DAY. Yes the security of the FREE-WORLD still depends on these 1960's/1970's era caps being stable. They were designed to perform as cleanly as Wax caps but unlike Paper In Wax caps of the 50's, these PIO's will last virtually FOREVER. They are sealed in glass which is further sealed in an aluminum casing which is then fitted with shrink wrap for insulation. They were designed to survive a missile blast-off, the vacuum of space indefinitely, and then the violent re-entry to Earth intact. The main thing is, they sound smooth as a baby's bottom. No noticeable distortion at all. I have genuine USA Sprague Paper In Oil caps in EVERY passive bass I own.

(Of course the Soviet Union needed equally good Paper In Oil caps so they have a really good copy of the Sprague Vitamin-Q which of course the Soviets "invented from scratch." These are usually green in color and very large. The Soviet caps are so good some people actually like them better! But I never have tried one myself. Soviet caps are cheap as dirt going for $3 to $4 tops each.)

If your bass is noisy, you can shield it. If it isn't noisy then don't bother. Second generation P-Basses are usually pretty quiet. However first generation designs usually benefit from copper shielding. However, I have seen a few 2nd generation P-Basses that would have benefited from a shielding job. A shielding job is time consuming and tedious but a cheap fix. This is an INVISIBLE upgrade that ONLY you will know has been done!

A final key to good tone is GOOD STRINGS. Like tone capacitors, once you find the one set that makes your bass sound best to YOU, then you'll just know it. My favorite rounds and my favorite flats are MY personal favorites and you might actually hate them. Everyone is different! So don't be AFRAID to try different strings until you find the ones for you! Sometimes the right strings can make more difference than any other upgrade you can make.

JACK "UPGRADE!" Ok you may not need this, but on a bass nearly 12 years old it might be time to replace the jack. Get a Switchcraft brand to match what you have. Jacks age, lose function, wear out, oxidize. Cheap upgrade. $2 to $4.

One last upgrade suggestion! The instrument cable! Get a really good cable. There are differences. Do not overlook this critical link. Cheap cables are ok for practice/rehearsal...but investing in really good cables will pay off tone-wise when gigging or recording. If you can't hear the difference between a cheap cable and a really good cable then disregard my entire post because shielding and cap swaps won't be a benefit to you either. I KNOW for a fact that the recently discontinued M.I.T. Ripcord Bass Cable was the best cable ever developed for bass guitar. Yeah MIT is making other stuff, just not instrument cables. I have one and I'm looking for more. A good cable makes a difference. A big one. My distant second choice for a bass cable is a Monster Bass cable. After that there are some custom makers using Mogami wire. You can visit my site for more information on caps, shielding and custom made cables among a myriad of other topics.

My main point is this...if it ain't broke DO NOT FIX IT!


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