Went to an auction tonight and came home with a made in Mexico Fender P bass. My high bid was $45.00. It needs a lot of love and care. Looks like it fell out of a moving vehicle and hit the road hard. Both volume and tone knobs are completely sheered off. One tuning peg is missing it's bushing. Paint and body is dinged up. Kinda real road worn. : ) Going to replace everything. Priced all real Fender parts. For less than $400. I'll end up with something that will sound and play like a $1700 American Standard.
Learn me some walking bass. I'll be able to add some bottom end to our monthly blues club jams!
There was an old Ampeg amp and two two-way angled monitor speakers up for bid. Dinged up and a lot of damage. Amp was missing knobs. Turned the amp around. The heat sink and transformer were covered with rust. The speakers in the amp and monitors have a good chance of being dry rotted. They all sold for a total of $15. A good price for the monitor cabs. Someone could replace everything and add new grill cloths. Really think the Ampeg was a total loss.
Still don't have a camera. This is the auction site picture of the bass. If you look hard you can see both knobs are missing.
Right on the money on the string hight Scott. It's the same with a guitar. Most of my electric guitars low E ( 42 ) is about (-) 1/2 mm above the first fret. Just a hair over 1 mm at the body side. Again about twice the hight. Being a guitar player I'm used to the hight difference. On the bass it's almost twice the difference in hight at the body than what I'm used to. It's that billionth of a second difference from when I feel the string to when I feel it make contact with the fret. If I played the bass all the time I'd be just as used to the hight difference as I am wile playing the guitar. The way the G&L was set it has an even feel all the way up. I think in order to do that the nut and bridge hight would have to be exactly the same. Then the fretboard would have to be dead flat. No relief like you have on a guitar. Honestly anyone could do this modification to their bass. You'd probably go thew a few nuts before getting it right.
I have about a 64th of an inch relief from the first fret to the 20th on the Fender. If I go flatter I get fret buzz.
An update on the bass I fixed. OK still don't have the knobs drilled out. Who needs knobs to play. : ) When to a music store Sat to pick up a few things. Played on a $1700 G&L bass. It was nice. My $45 auction special plays better! I can not be happier. The big difference between the two setups was the hight of the nut cuts on the G&L. The strings were higher off the neck at the first fret. Giving a flat neck to string parallel all the way to the body. Where my Fender is slightly higher at the body. The E string hight on my Fender sits a tad over 1 mm at the fist fret. Just a hair over 2 mm at the 20th fret. Even at that small of a difference it's easy to feel when you play up the neck. Technically we're talking twice the string hight at the body of the Fender. I guess I'll live with that. : ) We're only talking a possible difference of a half a mm between the two basses. I'm happy that the Fender is 1/2 mm lower where the strings are at their highest tension.
Very cool, and you saved $1600+ doing it your way with a fantastic auction find...cheers to that. As for the string height/action of the G&L compared to yours, it's my understanding that yours...with the increasing height as you go down the neck...is how it should be. Not sure why the G&L would have strings parallel to the neck all the way down. May be that it comes from factory that way, with the expectation that the new owner will have it set up to his/her specs. Each player will have their own likes when it comes to action. This is especially true with basses, since the strings are thicker and the vibrating waves of the strings are more pronounced. With a poor set up, those fat bass strings would be sure to buzz on the frets...EEEEEK!
Well got my new replacement knobs to replace the new knobs that didn't fit. These don't fit either...: ) However these are solid so I'll drill em out to fit.
Did another adjustment to the truss rod yesterday. Finally went a tad to far! I'll give it a turn to the loosen side. Really happy with the way this bass is playing. For the amount of work done this would have cost a small fortune to have a pro do it.
Still tinkering with the neck. Do some adjusting on the truss rod and let it rest. Do a little more and let it rest. Then lower the bridge hight. Then back to the truss rod. Using a straight edge I still have about 1/32 of a bow. It was closer to 1/4 of an inch bowed when I started. The difference in playability is night and day right now. There's a real sense of accomplishment. Taking something unplayable and turning it back into a musical instrument.
Slowpaw, ya, this bass would have definitely sounded better on that Christmas song than using a POG2. A lot crisper, punchier and not as hard on my single 12 Marshall.
Diglydog, went ahead and got me a pair of em off of Ebay. The post here is a bit cheaper. $2.95 Brings the total cost of this bass to $254.63.
Diglydog > Cause the Blue ratDecember 29, 2014 at 11:51am
That's a result. You have a decent bass as a foundation, with a lot of upgrades and plenty of your own design input for ~£250. Nice work !
Great find mr Blue rat - time and money well spent! I have a McCartney violin style left handed bass and Ampeg bass amp I use on recordings with a great tone, will be using it a lot over the next few weeks! :-)
That's a pity, but looking forward to the pics whenever you can publish them.
I agree that the bass is fun. I built the 3-string Digly Bass and have a Modern Player Jaguar Bass. I'm now looking to build a 4-string using a factory neck.
Can you carefully drill out the knobs with a 1/4" drill of similar. You're only looking to take out 0.3mm so it shouldn't take too much force.
Alternatively, you should be able to get a couple of chrome knobs for less than $10 on eBay:
Good luck ! ETA - I'm assuming that I'm seeing $14.95 postage because I'm in the UK - it may be one of those places with cheap items and expensive shipping :-\
Sorry Diglydog, my mac doesn't haver a card reader. Go for the build when you can. Playing bass is a lot of fun. Well, as long as your not planning on playing old country and western stuff. ; )
Well I'm almost finished... The pots I have are 1/4 inch solid shafts. The knobs I have are for 6mm solid shafts. I'll search thew ebay and a few electrical sites for chrome dome knobs for this thing. I could go with different knobs. But then it wouldn't look like a Fender. If I can't find anything cheap enough I may go this rout. Drill a shaft into a dowel rod the right size. Use a wood screw whit it's end clipped off as a set screw. Paint the thing silver and nutmeg to look like rust.
Replies
Right on the money on the string hight Scott. It's the same with a guitar. Most of my electric guitars low E ( 42 ) is about (-) 1/2 mm above the first fret. Just a hair over 1 mm at the body side. Again about twice the hight. Being a guitar player I'm used to the hight difference. On the bass it's almost twice the difference in hight at the body than what I'm used to. It's that billionth of a second difference from when I feel the string to when I feel it make contact with the fret. If I played the bass all the time I'd be just as used to the hight difference as I am wile playing the guitar. The way the G&L was set it has an even feel all the way up. I think in order to do that the nut and bridge hight would have to be exactly the same. Then the fretboard would have to be dead flat. No relief like you have on a guitar. Honestly anyone could do this modification to their bass. You'd probably go thew a few nuts before getting it right.
I have about a 64th of an inch relief from the first fret to the 20th on the Fender. If I go flatter I get fret buzz.
An update on the bass I fixed. OK still don't have the knobs drilled out. Who needs knobs to play. : ) When to a music store Sat to pick up a few things. Played on a $1700 G&L bass. It was nice. My $45 auction special plays better! I can not be happier.
The big difference between the two setups was the hight of the nut cuts on the G&L. The strings were higher off the neck at the first fret. Giving a flat neck to string parallel all the way to the body. Where my Fender is slightly higher at the body. The E string hight on my Fender sits a tad over 1 mm at the fist fret. Just a hair over 2 mm at the 20th fret. Even at that small of a difference it's easy to feel when you play up the neck. Technically we're talking twice the string hight at the body of the Fender. I guess I'll live with that. : ) We're only talking a possible difference of a half a mm between the two basses. I'm happy that the Fender is 1/2 mm lower where the strings are at their highest tension.
Very cool, and you saved $1600+ doing it your way with a fantastic auction find...cheers to that. As for the string height/action of the G&L compared to yours, it's my understanding that yours...with the increasing height as you go down the neck...is how it should be. Not sure why the G&L would have strings parallel to the neck all the way down. May be that it comes from factory that way, with the expectation that the new owner will have it set up to his/her specs. Each player will have their own likes when it comes to action. This is especially true with basses, since the strings are thicker and the vibrating waves of the strings are more pronounced. With a poor set up, those fat bass strings would be sure to buzz on the frets...EEEEEK!
Anyways, happy you scored a great deal on a bass.
Well got my new replacement knobs to replace the new knobs that didn't fit. These don't fit either...: ) However these are solid so I'll drill em out to fit.
Did another adjustment to the truss rod yesterday. Finally went a tad to far! I'll give it a turn to the loosen side. Really happy with the way this bass is playing. For the amount of work done this would have cost a small fortune to have a pro do it.
Still tinkering with the neck. Do some adjusting on the truss rod and let it rest. Do a little more and let it rest. Then lower the bridge hight. Then back to the truss rod. Using a straight edge I still have about 1/32 of a bow. It was closer to 1/4 of an inch bowed when I started. The difference in playability is night and day right now. There's a real sense of accomplishment. Taking something unplayable and turning it back into a musical instrument.
Slowpaw, ya, this bass would have definitely sounded better on that Christmas song than using a POG2. A lot crisper, punchier and not as hard on my single 12 Marshall.
Diglydog, went ahead and got me a pair of em off of Ebay. The post here is a bit cheaper. $2.95 Brings the total cost of this bass to $254.63.
That's a result. You have a decent bass as a foundation, with a lot of upgrades and plenty of your own design input for ~£250. Nice work !
Great find mr Blue rat - time and money well spent! I have a McCartney violin style left handed bass and Ampeg bass amp I use on recordings with a great tone, will be using it a lot over the next few weeks! :-)
That's a pity, but looking forward to the pics whenever you can publish them.
I agree that the bass is fun. I built the 3-string Digly Bass and have a Modern Player Jaguar Bass. I'm now looking to build a 4-string using a factory neck.
Can you carefully drill out the knobs with a 1/4" drill of similar. You're only looking to take out 0.3mm so it shouldn't take too much force.
Alternatively, you should be able to get a couple of chrome knobs for less than $10 on eBay:
e.g. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-HIGH-QUALITY-1-4-CHROME-BRASS-GUITAR-OR-B...
Good luck ! ETA - I'm assuming that I'm seeing $14.95 postage because I'm in the UK - it may be one of those places with cheap items and expensive shipping :-\
Sorry Diglydog, my mac doesn't haver a card reader. Go for the build when you can. Playing bass is a lot of fun. Well, as long as your not planning on playing old country and western stuff. ; )
Well I'm almost finished... The pots I have are 1/4 inch solid shafts. The knobs I have are for 6mm solid shafts. I'll search thew ebay and a few electrical sites for chrome dome knobs for this thing. I could go with different knobs. But then it wouldn't look like a Fender. If I can't find anything cheap enough I may go this rout. Drill a shaft into a dowel rod the right size. Use a wood screw whit it's end clipped off as a set screw. Paint the thing silver and nutmeg to look like rust.
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