It also sounds like its picking up more sounds from the body after the re-work.

definitely not scooped. Might be your headphones, there's more crispy high end and the low has more clarity as if its edges have been sharpened. The earlier pickups had no definition between the lows and low mids so it sounds flatter, and more like a mumble - that's what I call muddy.

@@taliesinmusic KZfaq bitrate is 256.

Yeah, way too bright.

1. He didn't use EQ at all, we don't know how would it sound in other positions (some EQs have 0db at 0% and some at 50%). 2. The more hardware you use, the more important pickup quality is. There is a lot less noises in DiMarzio 3. DiMarzio is not the best choice for a bass guitar. For electric they are great. Fender, Aguilar, Seymour or MEC are main to go.

Dimarzio is the best! However, I really like the seymour duncan quarter pounders when it comes to bass

I think Ibanez does their preamp well. It enhances the sound rather than changing it (mostly it just allows for their EQ and mids selector)

How do you record? You're likely plugging to a preamp. There will be EQ somewhere there, whether you like it or not.

I was referring to the preamp on my bass, not preamps in general. My bass has a preamp but it also has a toggle switch where I can switch between active or passive tones. I prefer a more passive tone. If I want an EQ, I'll adjust my amp.

@@buffkangaroodog but it's still a battery sucking flat-sounding onboard preamp. I have no love for them. I have no love for that half-charged battery sound either.

😂😂😂

My daughter-in-law, Rachel Wammack, introduced me to both you guys. She pointed me your direction, Travis, years ago because of your collaborative work. After I built her a guitar, she told me I needed to familiarize myself with Justin’s work at NEO- she was right! Y’all do killer work, and this video was a fun study in the modding business. I wish you both well!

😂😂😂

The one with an alder body would make a more balanced sound, with equal doses of lows, mids and highs when it hits the concrete. While the mahogany bodied bass sounds more musical, with a warm sounding crash that sustains more.

@@MrClassicmetal yep

Sometimes a "good" cheapie gets out of the factory..ive seen it. (My E7 squier) and a 50 DOLLAR "trinity river" Chinese knock off. But its easier to get a selfie with a unicorn.

That’s cute. You’re funny, so funny

@davidwang1326 it’s literally the title of the video 😅 I’m saying that as a way of comparing the two.

I would have liked to have heard the Donner properly set up without the added electronics.

I agree but sometime one needs content.

I put Seymour Duncans into a cheap Squier Affinity and it sounded so much better

To me a must do is put a real bone nut.

@@brunoraffo6726 Why is that? Just curious. I don't think I have ever had to change a nut unless it broke.

@@budizen3104 Bone is way harder than plastic. You don't need a soft material that dampens the vibration of the string. Great Spanish guitars use bone nuts even today.

I've not tried potting but it on my wish list. I tend to just use EMG active pickups - no noise. 100% agree with you.

@@stephenhookings1985 try it out with some cheapie eBay pickups and paraffin wax, you’ll like the results. 👍🏻

@@Daddy53751 I have a plethora of pickups front my guitars and basses (taken apart on my channel). From what I see I need a stove, some wax, a lot of patience :-). I am quite happy with the EMGs - I guess potting these things reduced the microphonic but I still have to shield. And I find that OK except it takes me an age. Dropping in a quiet at rest pickup ... about the same time as a noisy pickup. But agree - it would likely be fun - even with today's energy prices. Do it after a BBQ cookout:-)

The bigger issue with $100 basses IMO is playability. Cheap necks with very bad fret work kills tone and playability.

@@Funkbass85 A few simple procedures would expose any neck/fret defects. One of the first things I always check on a new bass, is the neck bow. On some cheaper basses, the truss rod doesn't extend far enough along the whole neck, which causes the neck to be completely flat from the 12th fret to the heel.

True. Get a good neck or fret level. Possible that the tuners a may not even need to be replaced. Even the nut may not need replacement

@@Funkbass85 I bought a new Ibanez GSR200 for $185 from Guitar Center. I ALWAYS check the neck for bow, and flatness after the 12th fret. The one I bought HAD NO ISSUES WHATSOEVER. Not all basses are the same. The only thing I replaced, were the pickups, which I removed, and then installed a PJ pair of Dimarzio's, which I already had removed from an older Ibanez bass. The bass sounds awesome.

@@user-xf8is8qs2wImma bout to do the exact same thing, just because i love the softness of my $400 ibanez, EMG 40 pups for me

His trading income stream is mind blowing, I also trade with him . I've made $62,000 so far trading with his guidance/advice .

Wack ass bots lmao

Yessir that is the best way..those appreciate in value also..70s Ibanez , matsumoku, vantage, electra, even some harmony and hondos were MIJ. Seek and ye shall find..

Yes a bot got in here 🤣 lmao. Stocks anyone?

I genuinely thought they were talking about the guitar ...

Yeah - I'm glad I'm not the only one - I actually preferred the tone of the bass pre-mod - much more balanced and spread across the range. Having said that, I'm sure a bit of time dialing in the pre-amp and the tone controls of your amp would help.

...or routed? The pickguard will cover changes. Additional or a different style of pickups could've been added or placed in a different area. There are a lot of possibilities.

Yep. Hiding the battery behind the pickguard is regrettable.

@@cameronfrost3225 I was thinking the same thing however I get the feeling that the video was to make the mods as easy as possible. Personally I would not have bothered with the active preamp and used the money to upgrade the bridge and machine heads.

Cost isn't everything. If it's a really good player or happens to sound really good that would matter more but given what was changed it would seem to be neither in this case.

Thats $500 less, but i get what you mean

@@sortextheguy Without putting any value on Justin's time or knowledge, although to his credit he did say it was easier to just go buy a higher end instrument. Which would have less risk of will it work or not.

...and not run the risk of having a rogue pot making all sorts of noises when it gets dislodged.

remove the pot and use jumper wires. A resistor is not needed

@@Steve-mp7by He literally said in the video that he wanted it to be 100% blended with the other pot, ergo you do need the resistor. No resistor=No blend

@@forkless Oh well I see you know nothing about electronics. I guess ignorance is bliss

@@Steve-mp7by Resistance of a piece of copper wire is effectively 0 Ohm, a potentiometer however depending on the type used (for guitars) while fully extended is somewhere between 250k and 500k Ohm. Like it is stated in the video he uses the pot at 100% for blending purposes, ergo 250k (or 500k) Ohm resistance. So you tell me, where is that 250k-500kOhm for the desired blend coming from?

👆👆👆,. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment, expect more videos. (Text me above to claim your prize).

That was my first thought too. Replacing the stock bridge for a Badass II would be a must imo

I mean.. “guitar builder” and doesn’t just route the cavity for the electronics. My expectations weren’t too high.

Exactly. People forget that wood choice is 95% structural concerns, ie, does it resist string tension well over time. The tone you get from XYZ wood is hardly noticeable, but, you will notice if it pulls a twist or if it has too much or too little bow or bow in the wrong places. If all that's good, fret work, or replacing them altogether is usually a big upgrade in terms of playability, and then pickups and a preamp. Sure that'll still land you 500-600 bucks from where you started, but, you'll land in a place where nothing else you can just go buy will feel right, and instruments that don't feel right only get in the way, life's too short for that brand of nonsense.

That’s so kind man, I’m really thinking about doing something like that in the future that’s affordable and great quality. What would you say would be a decent price range?

@@TravisDykes A lot of us respond to the $500 and above range. No instrument is perfect, but as you know, If it's a workhorse with good usable tones, it will work on gigs. Thanks for all you do, we need the encouragement. 🕆

True. They're not bad to begin with, especially for the price. The same goes for Mexican P basses and with some minor modifications you've got yourself a sweet bass.

Mexican Fenders are getting expensive. Brand new Strats go for $700 and the used market is getting insane. I have two Hoppus signature basses that have appreciated 3x for what I paid for them since I bought them about 5 years ago.

Their prices have skyrocketed unfortunately. I got mine new in 2013 for $400 and now they’re double that… I’ve put about $250 into upgrades and it’s still my number 1. Amazing instrument. Yet to find a more playable bass.

My thought as well. Move that Jack. Very simple to drill the hole.

Same what I wanted to write. A pot turned fully to one side is just a direct connection on one side and a resistor on the other. This takes no space at all.

this was my thought too

For real, this doesn’t sound like a $1k bass. Honestly it doesn’t even sound all that good for what it costs. Definitely better, but I would take a $5-600 Ibanez or especially a Sire over this. And if you look used? Forget it

100%!! This preamp was a plug and play system so there was minimal soldering involved. We felt that most musicians that we know personally don’t know their instrument on that level so we felt that doing more of a plug and play system would be easier for the average person, rather than replacing all the different parts individually. If that makes sense.

You are absolutely correct. Everything that touches the string is important. And the frets could also be upgraded. However we were just trying to change the things someone could possibly do at home. We felt that most people wouldn’t have the tools to start replace a nut, cutting the slots to perfect depth, etc. And almost no one would have the tools for a refret. So we decided to keep things simple.

I mean, if you are going to basically change everything, you're getting close to $1000 anyway. It was $300 just for the preamp, $120 for the pick ups. New bridge, new nut, new tuning pegs, new frets, labor, you are talking close to $1000. It's worth it if you are doing it for the enjoyment of it. It's certainly worth it if you like the feel of the bass and love the way it plays. I bought a guitar kit from Solo. I didn't use any of the hardware and electronics it came with, just went with upgrading everything. It probably costs around $650-750. I wrapped it instead of painting it. With all the labor, it was probably close to $1200. But, it plays like a $1200 guitar. I own a couple of expensive guitars, and this one ended up being one of my favorites. Not only do I love the way it plays and sounds, I feel connected to it , which makes me play it with love, like it's my baby. I guess the only downfall to going to route of a cheap instrument with upgrades is you are stuck with it. If you ever want to sell it, you'd have to sell the parts to make money back, few will buy a cheap instrument, regardless of how much its upgraded.

You are 100% correct. The better option would be to get an instrument and rebuild it from the ground up. Not only do you make it the way you want but it also means way more to you. We definitely would have done more to this bass but we had one day to film this and we just didn’t have the time to do everything we wanted. So we tried to go with something that most people could try at home that would make the largest impact on the sound of the bass. The other stuff definitely needs to be changed if someone was going to really create a special instrument. But like you said, at the end of the day it’s an upgraded $100 bass. If the core things in an instrument are there then I believe it can be made into a great instrument. But as for this one we just didn’t have the time, nor did we want to get into crazy stuff that someone wouldn’t have the tools to do at home.

Bullshit, Jim lill has done tests on that. Delusional people still gotta cope.

There's a video from a channel that goes to great lengths to figure out what makes a guitar sound the way it does. If it's just a good sound you're after, the only things that matter (and this more than likely applies to basses as well) are strings, pickups and the distance between the strings and the pickups, assuming everything else is kept the same. So for a 34" scale bass, changing the pickups, strings and adjusting the string to pickup height for best output is all that's really needed to get a good tone. Obviously set ups will have an impact on how the bass is played and therefore the tone produced. But this is personal preference. The wood makes almost no difference at all. Some say it makes a little difference. But I think even that opinion is an overstatement. So a cheap bass, provided it's sturdy and has a straight neck and decent truss rod could be relatively inexpensively upgraded to sound very expensive indeed. Stuff like neck wood and body wood or colour has almost no impact at all (with the exception of maybe roasted maple for tuning stability). The nut is just a zero point for the scale, so that doesn't need to be changed for tone. Maybe for longevity as plastic nuts aren't very durable. So the takeaway here is that the big brands really are ripping you off and if you have a reasonable degree of skill in woodworking or crafts then there's no reason you can't or shouldn't go out and buy a cheap bass that's sturdy and has a straight solid neck and decent truss rod and modify it. In fact since a lot of players end up doing that with a certain Mexican variety of a well established household brand, I would suggest that those who do that (and I am one of them) seriously consider finding a stockist of cheap instruments first and see if they can't find a well built budget bass instead of forking out almost $1000 on an instrument that is really only fit to be a starting point for a project anyway. I have a Mexican instrument. I modded it because after some time with it I realised it wasn't any better than the second hand Yamaha BB300 I sold to buy it. In fact I think the neck on the Yamaha was slightly better. I'm happy with my bass now, but wish I'd just bought a cheaper one instead. The total cost would have been less than half what I ended up paying after mods. And it would have sounded and looked (minus the name on the headstock) almost exactly the same. I'm seriously considering selling my two most expensive instruments and finding a good cheap starting point now so that I can actually afford the upgrades to get the bass I really want. There is, as with any opinion, a caveat to all this. And that is that I'm a lefty and there's hardly any choice for us lefties in the first place. If I were a righty I might just spend a bit more and get a great bass without having to do the upgrades. But because I'm not, and because most manufacturers don't really make their high end basses for lefties, I do feel like I'm kind of limited. Plus, the bass I want is an attitude and I'm not forking out $4000 for an instrument, even that one, even if I were a righty. I may even post a video in the future if I do decide to go ahead and mod a cheap bass with relentless and willpower pickups just to demonstrate the tone.

Yep!

@TravisDykes. what does that mean?