My bass player friend in my band has a cool Spector Bass with EMG pickups.  I think I wanna play some bass in the band so he can play harmonica.  I want my bass to sound cool like his, so time for some upgrades.

My bass started out life as a Squire Classic Vibe ’70s Jazz Bass.  This is a wicked bass for the money and has very few things that need upgrading.

Back in 2021-ish I did some work on it.  Ilin addition to TLC, I swapped the bridge out for a high mass Hipshot Kickass bridge.  I also replaced the shitty Squire tuning machines for some Chinesium Guyker ones from Amazon that are actually really nice.

Fast forward to 2025 and I decided to do some more work to it.  Follow along with me as I…

• Swap the pickups for a set of EMG PJ pickups.
• Add a battery box for the pickups.
• Make a new pick guard that works with the Precision Bass pickup.
• Relocate the output jack to the side of the bass.
• Add a kill switch
• Change the tuning machines for ones that fit better.
• Paint the body and headstock a cool color

That’s a big list!

Here is what it looks like when I started.

Time to disassemble it

I need to chip some wood out so the P Bass pickup will fit.

I also drilled a hole on the bottom of the bass for the output jack and chopped a hole to mount. A battery box for the 9V the pickups need.

I made the hole where the output jack was much bigger so it will fit the kill switch.  This was a huge pain in the ass.

Next step is to take the gloss off the original paint with some Scotch Brite and sand paper.  I also used eleventy feet of blue tape to keep the paint out of the places I don’t want it.

Now I need to wait for a nicer day to paint it outside.