Better to mod my Pilot Pro, or sell?

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Hi yall
I bought this Pro 4 last year. Love the neck and playability, but Im wanting a good passive P bass. I dont have a lot of money to spend, so I wonder:
Would it be difficult to mod this to make it passive? I know the pots are fused to the preamp, so im assuming id have to take the entire preamp out and start from scratch.
or, would it be worth the trouble to sell and put the money towards a good traditional P model? I don't think these have a high resale value.
I love the neck on this, and any P i get would ideally have a jazz neck.Any advice appreciated. Thanks
 

mavuser

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not sure we can give real advice on this one, more just opinions. my opinion is do not cut into the body of the bass, or sand the neck or anything permanent like that. changing the pickups and electronics is ok...best if it is a reversable mod and you can change it back to factory spec down the road.

you can also look for a different Pilot that has different pickups. you can find some of them at pretty reasonble prices
 
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Hey thanks for the reply. Yeah I really don't want to do anything irreversible to it. Ideally id just bypass the preamp, but im not sure that its possible. Its a great playing bass, I just dont like the active sound.
 

fronobulax

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I don't know how expensive/difficult the mode will be but I expect it will be reversible because you would just be removing a bunch of stuff and replacing it with things that fit in the vacated space. But I expect you would have to empty the cavity and replace the pots.

I have been halfheartedly looking for a passive Pilot and it seems to me like they are reasonably rare. So your best bet might be a reversible mod.
 

edwin

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Swapping out pickups and removing preamps is very easy. Being an obsessive tinkerer, I do this all the time (do not trust me with vintage instruments you want to keep stock!). One question I have is what pickups are in the bass? If they are EMGs, as some Pilots had, then you would want to remove those as well, but if not, it might be just a question of bypassing the preamp.

You definitely want to keep the preamp and its pots all together and remove them as a unit. No sense in trying to repurpose pots from an active preamp to a passive setup. They are usually the wrong value and it just makes for more work.

Any pics?
 
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Thanks for the opinions yall.
Yes its the EMG's. Im having the jazz pup replaced...just went bad. Other than that its all original. I asked the guy working on it if I could just bypass the preamp. He didnt seem too excited by the idea. Id like a nice passive P with a jazz neck, and I think this would be the most cost effective way to do it.
Thought I had a pic of the preamp, but apparently I dont. Ill post one when I get the bass back. I appreciate the help.
 

edwin

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I guess I should have been more specific. Is it the model with the active EMG pickups or the HZ pickups?
 
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That's a great question. ..I had assumedtheywere active because there a battery, and I thought all EMG's were active. Ill have to look when I get it back. It should designate that in the bottom right?
 
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I would think with the wide assortment of used P-Bass like stuff out there - you should be able to find another bass for a decent price and be able to keep the Pilot stock. Just my 2 cents.
 

krysh

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hi bpoole 23,

if you want a p-sound from a pilot pro4 you'll have to remove the emg-pickus and the electronics and replace with new pots and pickups.
since these are p/j basses and the p is reversed, you will only get very close becase of the p-pickup position. in addition a passive p/j set with matched pickup outputs is not so easy to find and more costly. If I was you and I'd love the neck and the bass (as I do on my pilots), and the bass if played dry has a good sound potential with good bass and harmonics, then I would go further and do something irreversible (these basses are not too expensive anyway and won't gain worth on the vintage market). I swapped the emgs in my 2 pilots for a nordstrand p and a big-split on the bridge (which needed some woodwork) and left it passive. I love the P-sound on my '84 and my '89 fretless, but it is only very, very close to the original. and remember the p-sound also comes from a thicker neck.

anyway you could probably find a good squier p-bass for the price of the mod...
 

mellowgerman

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Go for it! If you love the feel of the bass I say put in a nice set of vintage voiced p/j pickups and some nice CTS pots. Why not? It's not a pristine 1968 SFB-II with crazy collector value. Make it your own and play the heck out of it. My #1 criteria for a bass is that it feels right. Almost all of my basses were modified at one point or another to suit my taste
 
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