skippy_moogoose

Hey guys!
So, I got this Squire SS Jag a while back, with the intention of it becoming my first mod bass, since it was pretty cheap (about £180 new IIRC) and I absolutely adore the look of the thing! (It's the black one with matching headstock, and the offset body gives it a great 90's alt rock vibe)

I came up with the idea of maybe turning it into a piccolo bass quite recently, since I already have a Mustang for getting the old school tones down or if I fancy playing short scale, and I've been messing around a fair bit on my guitar of late as well, so having an instrument that's tonally a really nice variation of the two, whilst also being a bit of a different animal in its own right and with its own creative potential seems a pretty awesome idea!

I was also thinking of changing the PU's out whilst I'm at it, the P style one's pretty solid but the J PU at the bridge really can't hack it solo and doesn't bring enough bite rolled on with the P for my liking.
I know you can buy piccolo strings, and maybe I'd need a new nut, though it came set up with very thin gauge strings, so I'm not sure on that. What else (apart from a good set up) do I need to do, to convert it? And what kind of PU's can you guys suggest? I'd probably use it a fair bit with distortion and play around with tones, so maybe some with a high output?

Please assume I'm an absolute noob about this kinda stuff, because I essentially am and I know a ton of you guys are awesome modders and such! Hence posting this here thread for advice!!

In a nut shell:
Converting a SS jag into a piccolo, how do I go about this, wats a good P+J PU combo to go along with it.

assume a reasonable budget, up to £200 or so

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OtamotPuhctek

I put some piccolo strings on an old medium scale a number of years back. I didn't need/bother to mess with the nut. The issue I came across was the plain steel G string and its timbre in relation to the EAD, which were wound steel. Tonal color just didn't blend.

There's a lot of threads on piccolo tuning in the strings forum at TB.

skippy_moogoose

Cheers!!

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FatalGear41

Piccolo bass strings are as thin as electric guitar strings, so it is quite the different animal. As for pickups, Michael Manring has made a career out of playing a three-octave bass with piccolo strings, and he uses Bartolini humbuckers (Music Man size), so I would look at what Bartolini has to offer.

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Spaz91

I made a piccolo bass a while back and I found that bass pickups are a little too "fat" sounding for guitar strings. Try replacing the bridge pickup with a stacked strat or tele pickup.

GAPendragon

How strange. I had no idea these things existed. I may have to find one to try out.

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skippy_moogoose

Thanks Jon...I figure for now, I'll buy the strings and take it to the shop up the road from BTP for the setup...I'll then see how I like the feel of it before droppin moolah on PU's

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