Meet “Pearl”..

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Meet Pearl.
Pearl came to me as a standard “J” style bass.

Before, during, and after.
My own personal Fender Squier Affinity 5 string bass. After having a chat with it, we agreed that a pickup upgrade to EMG’s were in order, along with a custom pickguard thanks to Tony Dudzik at www.pickguardIan.com. The control plate and pickguard as separate pieces from the stock arrangement have been combined to make one solid, beautiful pickguard in white pearl. The control arrangement from the standard J bass arrangement of VVT has been replace with a simple master volume and a blend pot. The only real reason I even added the blend pot is to make the control extension not appear empty, but it also adds the ability to reduce or increase how much of each pickup you would like dialed in. This there also as a courtesy in case I loan the bass out to anyone else. I don’t use a tone control on any of my instruments because I make any necessary adjustments on the amp end. I would otherwise be totally satisfied to have any of my basses wire with both pickups to the master volume, straight to the output jack

 

[Crungy]

Hell yeah! I love one piece pickguards on jazz basses! Did you send them your pickguard and jack plate to ensure everything would line up?

I didn't see your sketch, good call to get it all to line up.

Which EMG's did you go with?

 

[bostjan]

Looks so sharp!

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

EMG’s are the standard 5 string “J” set.
The inspiration for the onsie guard came from the Schecter J5.

 

[CanserDYI]

Looks fantastic man.

 

[Shawn]

Classy.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

The stock nut width is 1 7/8". I installed a Tusq XL nut in 1 3/4" and shaved down the sides of the neck, then re-dressed/crowned/polished the fretwork for a much more comfortable playing neck.

 

[Concerto412]

Damn, one-piece guards on Js look classy!
I shy away from plastic pearloid myself, but that looks 🔥

 

[Emperoff]

This is all kinds of right.

Reminds me to this one:

 

[Wiltonauer]

EMG’s are the standard 5 string “J” set.
The inspiration for the onsie guard came from the Schecter J5.

Oh, that looks great! Are those the ivory caps?

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

One is Pearl white, I forget the other, couldn’t find a matching set on Reverb at the time, but I’ll get another Pearl match soon.

 

[Wiltonauer]

Wait, are you talking about the control knobs?

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Yes

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

The EMG’s are their stock cream ones.

 

[JimF]

That looks amazing!

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

The strings ar DR Black Beauties, BKB5-40. I decided to try them after seeing a Geezer Butler video of him talking about how they wick the sweat away from your fingers and keep blisters from developing, and they’ve been the best change that I’ve made when it comes to playing bass. Especially as guitar is my first instrument, and bass comes after.