Bass Tech South

12/21/2023

Hey everybody! BassTechSouth is still alive and well! I've been busy with a small handful of loyal customers and honestly haven't had much desire to document my work, but looking back on some of my projects, I wish I would have. There's been some very cool high custom mojo that came and went. Here you have my very own Dean Z Select. I purchased this bass on a whim, (suckered by free financing) fully expecting to return it. The build quality of the bass was impressive however, so impressive, I decided to keep it, but the stock Fishman electronics just weren't hitting it for me. Inspired by vintage Japanese explorers with 3 and 4 pickups, I decided to roll with a triple threat Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder combination as well as a Schaller Roller bridge and some other odds and ends. What I ended up with was a Rock-n-Roll BEAST, suitable for any heavy metal bassist on the planet. Make your bass your own!

09/26/2020

I recently acquired a 90's era Ampeg VB4H amplifier. It sounded divine but it just couldn't keep up at band practice at moderate sound levels. Unbeknownst to me, two of the cathode circuit fuses were blown. The plate current was still humming and the tubes were glowing, but with no cathode action, the amp was running on 1/2 output. I suspect a bad V1 tube caused this in the past. The tubes had been replaced but the tech that serviced the amp did a poor job and didn't notice two blown fuses. How long the previous owner had this amp banging on two cylinders is unknown. In order to ensure this never happened again, I decided to get crafty and install an LED array that would indicate an "all is well" situation for my tube cathodes. The LED's are powered by the preamp but grounded with the cathode fuses. Fuse pops, light goes out! I also re-biased the tubes using a straight current draw at the socket. This allowed me to set the tube draw exactly where I wanted it to be, which is 5% higher than the "normal" setting and a true sweet spot for this amp/tube combination. Anywho, this isn't something I'm advertising, but if any of my current customers or for anybody that actually reads these posts, I am offering biasing and minor service work on tube amplifiers now. Hit me up if you need anything and be safe out there!

04/09/2020

Who's up for some 6 string action? I purchased this locally as a resell project. It was in in fair shape and required some BassTechSouth attention. This is my first 6 string and my first Spector. I'm no Anthony Jackson, being way more comfortable on my 4 stringer Fender Jazz, but I won't be too disappointed if this beast doesn't sell. The playability, tone and overall quality is impressive. I know I only have about 4 or 5 followers here LOL! (if I could only get every customer on here!) but if anyone is interested. here's a Reverb link.

Spector Legend 6 bass for sale with upgraded 3 band 18 volt Bartolini preamp. Bass is in good condition with some dings and chips, no large gouges or abuse marks present, no fret wear to speak of, however there is some very minor string slap marking on the fretboard under the E that wouldn't show...

03/18/2020

I'm not a bass player that believes that something "vintage" is somehow, automatically superior. There's no denying the mojo that oozes out of a 50 year old bass and the vintage price tags reflect that quality, but is it "better"? At the risk of getting to the top of someones hate mail list, I'll say no. I've recently been using vintage capacitors in my tone circuits however and I have to give credit where it is due. To my ears these caps (as compared to a new cap of the same value) sound smoother without the heavy midrange scooping and muddy bottom end. The tone you hear when you engage your tone pot is not flowing through the capacitor, the highs are diverted to ground by the cap, so you shouldn't be able to discern any difference in a cap other than its value. These caps are OLD however (40-50+ years), the values have drifted, the dielectrics have deteriorated and they can not hold their rated voltages. I speculate that this exactly why they sound better. They can't do the job they were designed for on a circuit board but they do something magic in my basses. I encourage everyone to try them out for yourself and see what you think. These old caps can be found for $10 or so online so the investment is minimal. You may discover something wonderful! Make your bass your own!

09/15/2019

A problem child Fender Precision required some TLC from BTS! I leveled, re-crowned and polished the frets on this vintage style (7.25 radius, 1 3/4 width) neck. I tapered the frets .30mm lower from the 12th to the 21st fret and added a neck pocket shim on the headstock side of the pocket as opposed to the traditional placement in the back. I like the StewMac pocket shims regardless, but they are especially handy in a situation like this. A set up later and the end result is a 2.5mm action at the 12 fret with zero buzz. No need to settle for fret buzz, poor action or mediocre playability on bass you love! BassTechSouth can make it rock!

07/06/2019

Time for a change? Testing out the upright...

06/23/2019

The first photo is a shot of the wiring that’s inside a $2300 Fender Select Jazz bass (the stock cap was replaced with a SoZo). The other pic is a control set up I just finished for a MIM Fender Jazz. Anybody notice the difference? Which one would you like under the hood of YOUR bass?

06/09/2019

In the BassTechSouth shop this week for a shielding job and a RWRP (reverse wound reverse polarity) pickup mod is this rare beast of a Rickenbacker. A "job well done" hats off to whoever did the 5er mod. I did't think those pups would be up to the task, being a little too narrow for the 5 string application, but the sound is surprisingly well balanced and check out that high quality CNC'd saddle carrier. Iconic high dollar basses need the BTC love just like the rest. Make your bass your own!

03/03/2019

Nothing says "mojo!" like a 60's era Black Cat capacitor!

02/16/2019

Speaking of "making your bass your own", this is my 2013 MIM Fender Jazz V that I modified and upgraded to my taste. When I plugged this in for a test run when first purchased, it sounded awful. When played unplugged however, it showed its true colors and was very tonefull. With a tight neck pocket, low action and level frets, I knew I had good bones here and so the process began! I polished the frets and put a 45 degree smooth taper on the ends, lightly sanded and heavily oiled the rosewood fretboard, applied a distressed lacquer finish in Jungle Green, wet sanded (to match the matte body finish) and grounded the pickguard, applied full body cavity shielding, installed Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder pickups, CTS potentiometers, Switchcraft jack, a .022uf SoZo cap, and Hipshot HB7 tuners. Now this bass is a killer! I have plans for a Schaller roller bridge install that will require a fill and drill procedure which I'll document later. Some may argue against upgrading a bass to this extent, after all, you can't throw money at a low quality bass and make it a gem, but having a good bass to start with makes all the difference. My total cost in this project is just a little more than this Fender sold for new (this could have been done a lot cheaper too without the tuners, [tuners are often upgraded needlessly], I just happened to have a set in my parts bin) and as it sits now, not only is it 100% unique, you can compare its tone, playability and quality to any bass regardless of price. Make it your own!

02/09/2019

All kinds of cool things can be done with a push/pull potentiometer. Here's one used as a dual capacitor tone control that I installed in a Precision. Switches open up options galore! Make your bass your own!