More "bass" than "VI"?

[ThurberMingus]

My beloved Bronco Bass died. Just in time for the band I'm about to play bass in. Truss rod is fucked so I decided it was time to upgrade my bass. After looking around at things in my price/aesthetic range I decided on a Bass VI for some reason. What can I say I'm an offset addict? Anyway I was wondering what specific mods anyone here has done to make their VI more commanding in the lower registers? I saw someone on TB (god kill me) mention installing a concentric preamp pot (treble/bass) and that has me intrigued. Normally active anything is a no-no in my book, but I seem to remember jwar mentioning that he could get pedals with low end cut to sound good due to his preamp, which seems like a cool mod that'd be cheaper than new pickups. What did you do to yours?

[Iommic Pope]

Nothing of worth to contribute but

relevant to my interests.

[ognoy]

I wired the middle pickup to a 250k pot and it's own output-jack. The 250k pot helped a lot to make sound more like a bass.

[lefchr]

what about just using a octave to get lower?

[ognoy]

Why would you want to go one octave lower, when you already is in the bass guitar range?

New pot and some thicker(than stock) strings will get you a long way.

[karmablock]

I've planned to do either one of these.

This you don't need to buy anything extra


This one requires specific on/off/on that will fit in the plate.


BoatRich (I think) used a Fender TBX tone pot.

[karmablock]

Also found this one.

[Mudfuzz]

I don't have a fendler and for reasons like this. Both my Bass VIs and frankensteins, both have gibson stile pickups.. my SG one has a Rio Grande muy grande hum bucker in the neck and in different projects I've had it in [my tele basv VI] and have had it so I could run it in single coil mode and it is just as base and round sounding, I'd say putting the single could version in either the middle or neck position would get you closer to a normal bass sound.. our you could just get a EQ pedal..

oh look! https://www.riograndepickups.com/muy-grande-3

[Achtane]

I put a GFS Loudmouth right next to the neck and it ruled.

[aen]

a big 15" speaker cab also goes a long way.

[kosta]

a big 15" speaker cab also goes a long way.

This is a very good point.

[ThurberMingus]

My rig will be Fender PA100 into a PV 1x15.

So far I've got a set of Kalium strings coming in. I'm really considering one of those Seymour Duncan treble/bass tone circuits. And of course Staytrem and a new nut when I recover from the purchase a little bit. I'd rather not replace the pickups, but probably will in the distant future. I can't wait! It's showing up tomorrow!

[kosta]

Have fun, that's a helluva rig! Staytrem made a big difference on mine.

[ThurberMingus]

Update- have the bass, it's awesome. Haven't gotten a chance to use it with a bass rig yet, but so far it sounds pretty fucking bassy to my ear. Kaliums will be in an installed next week. Good god that low e is just miserable. After those are installed I'll see how I feel about doing more "bass specific" mods vs just modding it to be nicer (i.e. new pots and Staytrem - which I can already tell is a must)

Now to track down a TAFM...

[JonnyAngle]

I have the squire vi. Mods I performed include, star trem, Avri trem, wired in series, wired straight to output jack (no knobs)

I also put on the labella strings which are a higher gauge and have balanced tension.

My vi has a more louder feel now. The range is much fuller, not necessarily more bassy