Follow-up on the Squier 40th Anniversary Vintage Edition Jazz Bass: FOILED AGAIN!

OK, not really "again." I just wanted to give this video a (semi-) clever title.
Here you'll see a time lapse of me lining the Squier's pickup and control cavities with copper foil tape. It's a Faraday cage!
I also test out the bass at home, and wrap things up with a small clip from yesterday's gig by the West Metro Big Band, where the Squier made its performance debut!
Here's my original video about this bass: • I swapped a $2000 Fend...

[@room34]

Just a bit more follow-up on the follow-up. I've been using this bass as my main rehearsal/gigging bass for a couple of months now (although, granted, I haven't been as active this summer as in recent years), and I absolutely love it. I'm especially pleased with the characteristic bridge pickup "snarl" which is better than I got on the American Ultra! I only have one complaint: the 10th and 11th frets are slightly raised on the G string side, so I am getting a bit of fret buzz. I want to try to reseat them, but I know with my lack of luthier skills, my ham-fisted attempt to fix them would probably make them worse. It's not noticeable when played through an amp, but I can hear (and feel) the buzzing on the fretboard itself. The crazy thing is, for once I like this instrument too much not to try to tinker (and probably screw it up) myself! I'm going to leave it alone for the moment, but I have a luthier friend (and fellow KZbinr) I may call on for assistance. Watch for that in a future video!

[@bassworship50]

I've been playing over 40 years and I've owned many Fenders in my day. My 1st Squier was purchased in 2007 from the Indonesian factory and I've been buying Indonesian Squiers ever since. Its a No Brainer for me. Cheers my friend and thanks for sharing, peace. 😊

[@mpkelley20]

My son played the chicken last year in his jazz band at school. Was a challenge for most of them but they did an awesome job. You guys sound great and glad the Squier is doing well. For the savings, doing a little bit up upgrades including new pickups is still significantly less than and American. While my son has an American fender (not the ultra), he still plays much less expensive basses like his 5 string Marcus Miller Sire bass. Sire is making gorgeous guitars and basses these days. Think I mentioned in your other video that my son is building a custom bass from an older Squier p bass where the neck was not repairable. He just finished the first stage of sanding the original pain to be able to pain over it. But I’m going to make sure he looks to add some shielding like you did here as his has none either. Plus, we had two areas routed out for two additional pickups so now there will be more electronics in there that can cause issues. So thank you for posting this. Much appreciated!

[@room34]

Well I’ve been really critical of the American Ultra series here, but I do also own a 2018 Fender American Professional P-Bass that is pretty much flawless. That one I would still consider my “main” bass, but I also like the versatility and the slimmer neck of a Jazz Bass. At the moment I own three basses. The third is also a Squier - a 5-string Vintage Modified Jazz from 2017. That one is also really excellent quality. The only thing I don’t like about it is the gloss finish on the back of the neck… and the fact that it’s a 5-string. About 20 years ago I switched to playing 5-string exclusively, but then I took a long hiatus from regular playing, and since I came back I’ve mainly been playing 4-string again. One less string to dampen!

[@expansivegymnast1020]

Your band is great!!!

[@12to3Guitars]

Talking about the patience and misplacing things... geez man, I'm a member of the same club. Great video!

[@michaelbrohl1625]

You guys sound great !

[@johnhughes3796]

Love the band.

[@paxonearth]

Cool band!

[@colinmitchell7684]

That tortoise shell pick guard looks so much better than the gold anodized one

[@room34]

Agreed! I’m very happy with the swap. Was very convenient that I already had it on hand.

[@JamesCollington]

Thanks for posting this

[@BD-zg7is]

awesome videos!

[@coryburns13]

Good to know. I bought the sunburst version and so far I love it, but I haven’t pulled it apart yet. I’m a guitar player mainly and got it just to have a bass around to plunk on or for when friends come over because it was such a great deal. I’ll invest in a roll of copper tape. Thanks!!!

[@thefool2007]

Great vid.

[@BobbyKewley]

I own the sunburst version of this very bass and I'm delighted with it. Quality is fabulous for the money! Thankfully the anodised guard on mine is black, so no need to swap out. I also own a Dakota red P bass from the same range. That is also a great bass, same great quality and I adore the satin finish! Superb instruments 👌

[@room34]

Yeah, I'd probably be cool with the black anodized pickguard. I am very interested in that Dakota red P-Bass! I can't really justify owning two P-Basses though when my American Pro is actually nearly perfect. (I really like that color though, better than the "antique olive" of mine.)

[@room34]

Oh man! Sweetwater is really trying to unload these. They're even cheaper now… $299! So tempting...

[@BobbyKewley]

@@room34 the Dakota red P bass came with the gold anodised guard but I swapped it out for a black pearloid guard, it looks great! 😊

[@room34]

@@BobbyKewley That would be a great look! I was thinking that if I got one I may give it a try with the mint pickguard that came on my American Pro. (I've long since swapped that one out for a tortoiseshell, but I still have it sitting in the same drawer as the one I swapped onto this bass.)

[@BobbyKewley]

@@room34 Do bear in mind though that Fender and Squier pickguards don't tend to measure up exactly across each brand. The screw holes can be a tiny bit out in my experience. Best bet is to get someone to make you a custom pickguard, using the pickguard you are removing as a template. That's what I did with my red P bass. Best to be sure 👍

[@poltergeist3194]

I have 2 of the 40th Gold editions in the ruby red finish. Absolutely love these basses but they aren’t perfect. The neck had to be sanded because it had as much gloss as a basketball court. I changed the stock pickups to Dimarzio Area J pickup. I can’t stress enough about how many compliments I get on the look and sound of the bass. The best thing of all is that since I bought the basses used off Reverb, the total cost of 2 basses with mods still cost me less than $1000.

[@room34]

Wow, I didn’t realize the Gold Edition had glossy necks. I’m glad I went for the Vintage Edition then… the smooth satin neck is one of my favorite things about this bass!

[@room34]

A couple of additional thoughts: 1. Cost? The 1” X 50’ roll of copper foil was about $7 on Amazon. 2. I could possibly improve the isolation of the neck pickup further by applying some of the foil to the back of the pickguard around the pickup opening. That will be quick and easy, so I’ll probably do it if I notice any lingering issues.

[@martinheath5947]

I didn't see you attach any ground wire to the copper foil itself

[@room34]

Ah, good point! I completely forgot about that, because there was no ground wire available to attach. (I did look to confirm the bass has a ground wire running from the control cavity to under the bridge.) It doesn’t seem to be an issue at the moment, but if/when I install new pickups I will do that.

[@room34]

As a "quick fix" for this, yesterday I removed the control plate, and added small strips of the copper foil extending over the lip of the cavity, covering each of the control plate's screw holes. Then, reattaching the control plate creates a contact with the copper foil… at least for the control cavity and the neck pickup. Haven't had a chance to really test out the results yet.

[@grantkoeller8911]

I like the historic gold anodized pick guard, and many will want to buy that from you if you sell it.

[@room34]

For sure… I never get rid of any of the parts I swap out, and on the occasions when I sell instruments, I include both the originals and my mods.

[@TheDinosaur82]

The new DiMarzio Sixties J pickups are fantastic. They will probably cost more than what you paid for the bass, but they are dead quiet, even in the most hum-inducing environments.

[@room34]

Yeah, I'm trying to avoid pickups that are > 50% of the total cost of this bass. :D Honestly the stock pickups do not sound bad at all and now that I've got the copper foil in there, I'm getting almost no noise. (Still a bit of single-coil hum if only one pickup is on, of course.)

[@fandango321]

I installed Dimarzio dp 123 pickups and 500 k pots which the manufacture recomends beung they are humbuckers. I had to ream out the volune holes alittle but what a differnce.

[@DanBerens2112]

Limelight at 4:53 hasn't gone unnoticed! 🤟

[@DanBerens2112]

Also, just got the precision version of the 40th anniversary vintage in Dakota Red. Very impressive and actually selling my American P.

[@room34]

@@DanBerens2112 I have one of them sitting in a box ready for a new unboxing video right now! Couldn't pass up that super closeout deal at Sweetwater. I'm going to do a head-to-head with my American Pro P, and I am not beyond considering selling that one as well!

[@room34]

Any time I'm playing a Jazz with both pickups and I hear that tone I can't resist playing it! :D

[@DanBerens2112]

My only minor complaint is the flat finish. Feels a little plastic-like. But not a deal breaker. Got mine on Prime Day for under $300.

[@cflores1889]

I just got a squier pbass. Fun to play but it is noisy amd suspected they cheaped out on noise cancelling

[@wysiwyg2489]

Just a couple of comments I am assuming someone raised already: Add copper tape to the back of the pickguard, which MUST have positive contact with the cavities tape, if possible add a stripe of copper tape in the flat are near a screw to ensure the contact,. same should be done with the control cavity / plate. As a belt and suspenders idea, drop a bit of solder to connect all the cooper pieces in the cavities, to ensure good conductivity. You can also use small screws and a ground wire to connect all cavities to the pot grround.

[@room34]

Yeah, I thought about adding copper tape to the back of the pickguard, but decided against it since I haven't seen that even on the high-end Jazz Basses I've had. (Might reconsider that if I notice any lingering issues.) I mentioned this in another comment, but after shooting the video, I did remove the control plate and add strips of tape extending onto the top of the body under the control plate's screws, to create contact between the plate and the copper tape. The copper tape I bought supposedly has conductive adhesive, so soldering the strips together should not be necessary. Anyway… with this work I've done I am noticing virtually no noise in any environments I've used the bass in so far, but I'm open to additional work if I notice an issue later.

[@wysiwyg2489]

@@room34 Awesome, and remember this will payoff specially if you gig a lot and go to new places with different lighting/etc. BTW the bass sounds great, I'd recommend trying up an Audere preamp if you want the ultimate improvement.

[@yurii_chynchyk]

@@wysiwyg2489 I'm looking in direction of Audere preamp too! Once I found out about it I can't throw it out of my head. I think it's a cheapest option on a market to upgrade JB type guitar into active one. The only thing I miss is that none of their options has a switch. As I understand after installing it will be only active and you can't switch back to passive mode. I wish they'd have that feature too. It's absolutely not difficult to implement it technically for them so I don't understand why they didn't include it in a setup. Otherwise the standart $99 setup is incredible.

[@wysiwyg2489]

@@yurii_chynchyk You are correct, they don't have a sytem with an active/passive switch. However, they offer the switch as a separate option in their website I believe. They probably don't include it in their preamp because it takes up additional room, and will require routing the controls cavity (this is my guess).

[@yurii_chynchyk]

@@wysiwyg2489 Thanks for mentioning. I will write them a letter with a question about it. Although as you know there are 2 types of switches. One as separate little “stick” and the other as one of the knobs popping up or back down hence turning Preamp on or off. I wander which option is easier/cheaper to implement and being more reliable. Do you have their Preamp in your bass?

[@Svett357]

did this bass have any humming problems for you at all i just bought it from guitar center on the 27th and once i got it home and plugged it in i was brought with an awful humming/buzzig that doesn’t go away no matter what i do to the controls

[@room34]

Pretty much just the standard Jazz Bass single coil hum, and it depends on the amount of RF interference in the room. Sounds totally clean in my house, but a lot of buzz at a place where I rehearse that has fluorescent lights. But like I said it's the standard Jazz Bass thing - if I have one pickup soloed, I get the buzz, but if I have them both up all the way, it's silent. Anyway, in the next week or so I'm going to swap in some DiMarzio noiseless pickups.

[@Svett357]

@@room34 okay good to know this is my first jazz bass and wasn’t aware of the buzzing problem that single coils bring. but what is weird is my squier affinity PJ the j pickup never had any buzzing until after i took it to get a setup then it started buzzing like crazy nothing in my main playing environment has changed much besides getting rid of clutter and hmm i wonder why mine doesn’t cancel out when i put the volume full on both pickups

[@room34]

@@Svett357 Interesting… keep in mind that the P pickup is a split coil so it has built-in humbucking (meaning it should always be silent even if soloed) but the J pickup in a typical PJ configuration would, I imagine, still have that single-coil buzz. (I've never owned a PJ, so I can't say from experience, but I think you'd need a special noiseless J pickup not to get the buzz when it's soloed.)

[@Svett357]

@@room34 would you recommend taking it to a luthier to assess it or would that be a waste of time/money cause i’m definitely bothered by the noise and if it could be reduced a decent amount i feel like i could tolerate it i’d just rather know if it would be better to return it and get a p bass

[@room34]

@@Svett357 Well I'm a DIY guy (to a fault), but I would say that if it seems like it's excessive noise, not just the soloed single-coil hum, there's probably an issue and a skilled luthier would need to have a look. I imagine it wouldn't cost much (maybe nothing) to just have them take a look at it and give you an idea of what's wrong and what it would cost to fix it.

[@jacquesguitars]

Am I wrong or is there no ‘before and after’ to judge the effect of all your work?

[@room34]

Compare here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5m1lat_gbx9iNk

[@timmy334]

Why not try the American Professional II? To me those seem more Ultra than the Ultra.

[@room34]

I gave that some consideration. I do think they're probably better than the Ultra. But I'm actually so happy with the Squier now that I don't feel I need to look for anything else.

[@dw8395]

because those are 2000 these are around 400 new. Fender is way overpriced these days.

[@ArleyMcBlain]

copper looked great with the color- make a copper pickguard!?

[@room34]

I agree I think a copper pickguard might look great on this bass!

[@rustyshackelford4503]

No shielding is super typical of most import basses.

[@gerd5479]

What is the approximate weight of the bass please?

[@room34]

I don't have an accurate means of weighing it but I believe these are usually in the vicinity of 9 pounds.

[@gerd5479]

@@room34 Many thanks.

[@Bowhunterwt]

All that work putting the foil tape and didn't soldered a ground wire to them is a watse of time.

[@room34]

As I’ve noted in other comments, after making the video, I added strips of the copper tape over the lip and connecting with the screw holes for the control plate.

[@pvm0607]

I’d look on Reverb for an American standard jazz bass. I bought one several years ago and have had to perform relatively few adjustments on it. You can hear it on my channel.

[@missingremote4388]

Needs a green doctor's surgery mask

[@joebodynobody764]

Definitely need a mask while playing outside.

[@room34]

For the record, I have covid (wasn’t testing positive yet but knew I’d been exposed) and I wore the mask in consultation with the leaders of the band as a precaution. I’d rather look like an idiot than get my bandmates sick!

[@joebodynobody764]

@@room34 well pardon the fuck outta me

[@1959LP4U]

@@room34 Come on man, admit it, your just a rabid devotee of the Herr Dr. Fauci, the Grand Poobah of Libtard indoctrination and disinformation!!!

[@missingremote4388]

Sorry. I didn't know it was still going around. I didn't do pandemic lockdown nor meds. I went out and drove uberX - I thought it would look cool if, the mask color matches the seafoam paint on guitar/bass

[@sebg2086]

why the mask??

[@room34]

I had covid.

[@Bodiddley788]

Whats up with the mask?

[@room34]

I have covid. At the time of the gig I was still testing negative, but I knew I'd been exposed so I was taking precautions.