Monday, November 13, 2006
The First One
You first bass, like a lot of the other "firsts", is many times the most important or the most memorable or maybe the most forgetable. Some guys marry their first girl-friend. A lot of bassists still have their first bass. This is mine.
It's a 1971 Fender Precision, originally with a sunburst finish and a tortoise-shell pickguard. I bought it (along with a hard-shell case) in 1972 for about $330 (CDN) The only things left that are original are the neck and tuners, and the body itself. (I've seen all-original good-condition ones like it go for 10 times that on eBay.) It was my one and only bass for about 10 years while playing in various bands in Northern and Southern Ontario, with the odd tours to the east and west of Canada. For the most part, I played through an early '80s Ampeg SVT with two 8x10" cabinets. That's it in my profile picture.
The neck has a rosewood fretboard and is all original except for a little bit of overspraying. The rest is another matter. It's been a while, so I'd have a little difficulty coming up with exactly what was done when, but let's just say that the body's alder wood (or most of it) is original. The pickups were replaced in the early 70s with a set of cream-coloured DiMarzio's which are still installed. The bridge was replaced in the late 70s with a Leo Quan BadAss II bridge around that same time. Both original parts are long gone.
More major surgery was performed: I routed the body for another 'P' pickup near the bridge, and replaced the input jack with another volume control. I then drilled a hole in the side to accomodate an XLR-type of jack (I guess 'cause I thought that was cool). The original pots and capacitor are also long gone. Finally, I scraped off the original finish and redid it in clear, and chopped down the pick-guard (more cool?) . Someone gave me a re-issue Fender tweed case as a present, so I sold the black tolex one.
Around the middle of 1983, I got out of music and into the parenting business. I'd take the bass out for about 5 minutes a month, noodle around, and put it back. I was being a father, going back to school and then working in the real world. I performed with a house band for several months in 1986, but ended up moving for work reasons and had to leave that. However I did keep up with the 5-minutes-a-month routine.
Around 2000, I decided to look around with the intent of getting back to playing. The kids were at the point where they were pretty self-sufficient (well, as long as their clothes were clean and the fridge contained food). I started with a band that played every couple of months, but that was OK since I didn't need to make a living at it, and I was enjoying working with good players playing cool music. I saved the little bit of money I made and put that towards my second bass (ah, the long slippery slope).
With that full-time replacement bass (to be profiled later), I could spend time redoing my '71 'P'. I took it apart, and brought the body to a fellow bassist who owns a wood-working business and had him remove the clear (re) finish. He also squared off the extra route and filled it with a block of wood. I filled the extra jack hole with a piece of dowelling and some wood filler. I did a final sand, shot 4 coats of primer, sanding between each, then about a dozen coats of white that I hope would yellow slightly over time, just like the vintage ones. Finally, I shot several coats of clear to protect the colour layer. The final clear-coats ended up pretty smooth, so I didn't bother sanding and polishing them.
Re-assembly followed once I was sure that the paint was cured and hard. I got rid of the BadAss bridge and replaced it with a period-correct bridge from eBay. I started with a mother-of-pearl pickguard that dressed it up nicely and (I thought) went well with the white finish, but I now have an even nicer-looking tortoise-shell one. I keep the MOP one in the case, just for that occasion where I might want to switch over. Lastly, I found and bought a really beat-up hard-shell case that I think may be period-correct, and worked on restoring that while waiting for the coats of paint to dry. (That's the only one of those I will ever do. I really should have documented that too-involved process!)
It was great to finally take it out and play it again. The neck is almost an 'A' width (1.5"), and the action is one of the lowest of the bunch. One more thing: the 'G' string side of the nut broke off, and I had a local luthier make and install a new one. Since then, I've done all the tweaking and re-stringing on it (and all my other basses). I mean, can you imagine what it would cost if I had to take all these basses to someone twice a year to adjust when the weather changes????
It's a 1971 Fender Precision, originally with a sunburst finish and a tortoise-shell pickguard. I bought it (along with a hard-shell case) in 1972 for about $330 (CDN) The only things left that are original are the neck and tuners, and the body itself. (I've seen all-original good-condition ones like it go for 10 times that on eBay.) It was my one and only bass for about 10 years while playing in various bands in Northern and Southern Ontario, with the odd tours to the east and west of Canada. For the most part, I played through an early '80s Ampeg SVT with two 8x10" cabinets. That's it in my profile picture.
The neck has a rosewood fretboard and is all original except for a little bit of overspraying. The rest is another matter. It's been a while, so I'd have a little difficulty coming up with exactly what was done when, but let's just say that the body's alder wood (or most of it) is original. The pickups were replaced in the early 70s with a set of cream-coloured DiMarzio's which are still installed. The bridge was replaced in the late 70s with a Leo Quan BadAss II bridge around that same time. Both original parts are long gone.
More major surgery was performed: I routed the body for another 'P' pickup near the bridge, and replaced the input jack with another volume control. I then drilled a hole in the side to accomodate an XLR-type of jack (I guess 'cause I thought that was cool). The original pots and capacitor are also long gone. Finally, I scraped off the original finish and redid it in clear, and chopped down the pick-guard (more cool?) . Someone gave me a re-issue Fender tweed case as a present, so I sold the black tolex one.
Around the middle of 1983, I got out of music and into the parenting business. I'd take the bass out for about 5 minutes a month, noodle around, and put it back. I was being a father, going back to school and then working in the real world. I performed with a house band for several months in 1986, but ended up moving for work reasons and had to leave that. However I did keep up with the 5-minutes-a-month routine.
Around 2000, I decided to look around with the intent of getting back to playing. The kids were at the point where they were pretty self-sufficient (well, as long as their clothes were clean and the fridge contained food). I started with a band that played every couple of months, but that was OK since I didn't need to make a living at it, and I was enjoying working with good players playing cool music. I saved the little bit of money I made and put that towards my second bass (ah, the long slippery slope).
With that full-time replacement bass (to be profiled later), I could spend time redoing my '71 'P'. I took it apart, and brought the body to a fellow bassist who owns a wood-working business and had him remove the clear (re) finish. He also squared off the extra route and filled it with a block of wood. I filled the extra jack hole with a piece of dowelling and some wood filler. I did a final sand, shot 4 coats of primer, sanding between each, then about a dozen coats of white that I hope would yellow slightly over time, just like the vintage ones. Finally, I shot several coats of clear to protect the colour layer. The final clear-coats ended up pretty smooth, so I didn't bother sanding and polishing them.
Re-assembly followed once I was sure that the paint was cured and hard. I got rid of the BadAss bridge and replaced it with a period-correct bridge from eBay. I started with a mother-of-pearl pickguard that dressed it up nicely and (I thought) went well with the white finish, but I now have an even nicer-looking tortoise-shell one. I keep the MOP one in the case, just for that occasion where I might want to switch over. Lastly, I found and bought a really beat-up hard-shell case that I think may be period-correct, and worked on restoring that while waiting for the coats of paint to dry. (That's the only one of those I will ever do. I really should have documented that too-involved process!)
It was great to finally take it out and play it again. The neck is almost an 'A' width (1.5"), and the action is one of the lowest of the bunch. One more thing: the 'G' string side of the nut broke off, and I had a local luthier make and install a new one. Since then, I've done all the tweaking and re-stringing on it (and all my other basses). I mean, can you imagine what it would cost if I had to take all these basses to someone twice a year to adjust when the weather changes????
