I asked my brother if he could improve the sound of my '76 P-Bass. Then I went off to college. He eventually sent me his creation.
First, he stripped off the sunburst finish and drilled out all the screw holes, plugging them with big dowels. He gave everything several clear coats of varnish brushed on, so you could see the dots and the various planks of wood they used to make the body, and then he installed a Badass bridge and a Bartolini humbucker, wired to two volume knobs and one tone. He carved a hole for a nine-volt battery under the pickup and gave it a plastic lid, lined all the cavities with copper foil, and then made a clear Plexiglas pickguard so everyone could see his handiwork.
It had an amazing sound, a cross between a P-Bass and a Sting Ray. Kind of a rubbery-yet-grinding deep treble with a massive lower end. But everybody hated it. They thought my brother had committed a murder or something. They couldn't even bear to look at it. The repair guys in guitar stores always curled their lips at it.
I could never figure out why people got so angry at it.
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