| Author | Message | ||
| tomhug
Advanced Member Username: tomhug Post Number: 223 Registered: 7-2008 |
https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/172163469431 Not many details. Good pics. Some wear. I have no affiliation with the seller - just happened upon the listing. | ||
| ed_zeppelin
Advanced Member Username: ed_zeppelin Post Number: 327 Registered: 2-2010 |
I hope nobody minds if I spew about that bass while I'm waiting for an appointment, because I'm going to anyway. Consider this a warning. I'd probably bail if I could, but it have to stick around to write it. I'm coming up on a half century of experience with repairing wood and wire so the owner could spank that plank and make the twine whine, so I might as well put it to use. The seller is in retail, as their history shows. That's good. Real good. They understand that there's room to move, as long as you don't insult their intelligence. So there' snow "sticker shock." Dealing with guys selling their "baby" through hardship is like stepping into a divorce. Way too intense, lots of fantasizing and heavy emotions I don't want to deal with. Besides, they come into it with a number in their head, especially if they're the ones who "drove it off the lot," so to speak, being smacked in the face for the first time with the true meaning of the word "depreciation." You married people know what I'm talking about here. And don't forget, that applies to you, too.  I submit to the board for your consideration our patient. What a sweet, well-loved, well-cared for example indeed. (Most of the time I conduct guitar repair as an inquest, just for fun) thank god the seller didn't bother to clean it up, because the owner's DNA is all over the crime scene. The part of repair I love the most is in "profiling" the owner, though not in any manner in violation of any social or legally-provable conventions. I will use the gender-specific masculine form of pronoun, because I want to. So there. He is a slapper. A damn good one, from the looks of the patient/victim. Usually you have to triage between two factors: wear and damage, in evaluating an instrument and this baby's all wear and no damage. The wear is confined to all the places it should be, too. Judging by the distance between the thumb-wear and the edge of the pickup cover, he hardly ever "parked" his thumb there. (Otherwise there's little or no thumb-wear there at all, which proves he is a slapper.) The patient displays the same overall level of wear on the wood in between the strings, without being excessive in any particular area - especially "south of G street," if y'knowm sayin' here. Some guys beat the hell out of that area. (And it's so much fun to watch them do it.) That not only proves the dude (I'm Californian, so I'm allowed to use the term) played a lot, but he is really, really good. I wish I could post pics from this damn thing, but it's bad enough that some idiot gave me one in the first place, if that isn't apparent by now. Oh yeah, I bought it for myself. Never mind. There's no "buckle rash" to speak of, which proves he didn't play in a country band (?) The neck pickup needs realigned. If you don't know how, don't buy this bass. Just because we're here (presumably), a nifty thing I never realized until relatively recently is that you can tell whether a bassist was classically-trained or not by the amount of wear on the "Palm-contact area" (for lack of a better term) of the back of the neck, in the 1st to 5th positions, just because we're taught to hold our fingertips in such a way that the little ridge at the bottom of your forefinger doesn't contact that part of the neck. Usually. I mean sometimes. Not that there's anything wrong with it. Knock yourself out, and I mean that in the most sincere way. It also proves the Foghorn is right: I do spend too much time thinking about this stuff. And now I'm wasting your time, too! Hey, don't say you weren't warned. Here's my prescription for the patient: please, please don't mess with the wear, whatever lucky bastard winds up with this beauty. That's its personality, it's history. Earned through honest work. Some Flitz (give it fifteen minutes or so to "soak" the grime) and a soft cloth or toothbrush in crevices for the brass parts. I keep a couple of Soft toothbrushes around just for spritzing with Pledge, to clean around tuning gears and Fender style bridges, followed up with a drop of sewing machine oil precisely where needed. This lubricates and keeps dust away from screw threads, but mainly protects metal from oxidation. I always use Pledge outside, because that stuff makes the Foghorn live up to her name. The worst thing about furniture polish is that the best ones are incompatible with our life forms, but dandy with wood. ("It's a floor wax! And a creamer!") Okay, gotta go see what's taking so damn long. This episode of "the Geezer rant of the day" was brought to you by "the repairman's best friend." |
