Best body for J-MM bass?

[hyakis]

Hey guys. I'm considering building my first bass this year, and I want to make something with a J neck pickup and a MM bridge pickup. I've been looking at body shape options (J-bass was my first choice) but the control hole options seem limited and wouldn't support the active EQ knobs that MM basses usually have. Does Warmoth have any bodies that are compatible with this sort of build, regarding the control options? What kind of body would you guys recommend for a J-MM bass?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Sovereign_13]

If you wanted the 4-knob layout on a Jazz bass, I'd do a J-bass with your pickup routes and then add a 7/8" hole for the side jack (I think that's a free option).  By moving the output jack to the side of the bass, you'll free up the usual spot for the output jack, giving you a total of 4 pots.

Make sense? 

 

[hyakis]

It does make sense, yeah. That's a good option. Do you know if WM does any bass bodies that support 5 knobs?

 

[Sovereign_13]

I don't believe so - at least not a standard-scale.  I did a cursory glance through their options and, while a few could support 4-knob layouts, only the Mooncaster short-scale has 5 holes.  One of them is labeled for the pickup selector toggle, but the holes are all the same size.  It is a short-scale semi-hollow bass, though, and not really comparable to a standard J-bass.

Is there a particular set of controls you're chasing?  We might have more helpful suggestions if we knew what your desired outcome was.

 

[hyakis]

I was hoping to have a volume knob, a pickup blend, and then some kinda EQ control for the active electronics. Your suggestion for the 4-knob setup might work fine though, as I've just found out about Seymour-Duncan's 3-band 3-knob setup they have for their MM pickups.

 

[Fat Pete]

If you go for a rear-routed body, they have a large control cavity and you can drill your own holes.

 

[Sovereign_13]

What Fat Pete said.

Or if that's too daunting, you could also stack the volume/pickup blender controls onto a concentric pot.  I suppose you could stack any controls you wanted, but that one makes the most sense to me since those controls are separate from the 3-band EQ.

 

[ghotiphry]

I'm going to not add to what they said, but advocate a different direction.  I started out building my basses with... controls.  Lots of controls.  Like this.  That's an active Audere system, with vol/bal, t/b, high mid/low mid, passive tone, for a total of 7 controls.

And this is my most recent (well, except for a mooncaster  :tard.  Totally passive.  Volume and tone.  This is the one I pick up every day, and it sounds better than the active.

 

[bagman67]

That white bass still knocks me out. 

 

[hyakis]

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I'll give it some thought.