The Official Telecaster Bass Club

[shadven]

Here is a pic of my 1971 Tele Bass. I bought it somewhat butchered. Someone had removed the frets to make it a fretless, and removed finish down to bare wood. I have carefully restored to its present beautiful shape. It sounds great and looks perfect. Club number please!

[shadven]

Originally Posted by Superreverb

My 1970 Tele bass. I just need a body.....

Shouldn't that have a 3 hole neck?

[JYBass]

Originally Posted by naetog

Here's my fretless (soon to be fretted with a new neck) Tele parts bass....

Number for me??!

Wow. Now that is a ssswwweeeeeettt bass.

Jeremy

[shadven]

Originally Posted by Shadi

It's been a while since anyone's posted anything here so I wanted to bump the page and say happy belated new year to all my Tele bass friends! Of course, I'm gonna shamelessly show off my March '68 Telecaster (again)....


Alright I showed you mine, SHOW ME YOURS!!!!!!!!!!

Shameless!

[shadven]

I must reluctantly admit I am a snob. If it's not a real telecaster bass, or if the P-bass wasn't made in the USA....an Epiphone Thunderbird is not a real T-bird. A Squier... good god "No", Peavey no-way, I have trouble with 6 string basses. But, I am changing my churlish ways. I am not made of money, but I was of mind that I'd would rather have one "real" bass than 10 fakes.
This website and this thread in particular has made made me reconsider what I think is cool, good and desirable. I'm loving the tele-franken basses, the dreams being made a reality, taking the MIM and MIJ basses and customizing them so cool.
Thanks

[rust_preacher]

Sorry for the delays in numbers. I was going to do this but then got down with influenza. Slowy catching up. Thanks for posting your beauties!

There is a "purist" Fender Telecaster Bass club also. This club has a wider berth.

I have built a few Franken-Jazz basses last year, and although they undoubtedly look mongrels to connoisseurs, I have what I wanted on them - great G&L and ESP necks on budget bodies that sound phenomenal. The same should apply to a Franken-Tele. It is very common to have a chiseled rout for a Jazz bridge pickup, it was clearly seen as a tonal necessity back in the day. Also many people like the looks of a Tele bass but are averse to the chunky neck. I see no problem in fitting a Jazz-width neck on a Tele if you like it better that way. The possibilities are endless!

[gurensan]

Originally Posted by shadven

Shouldn't that have a 3 hole neck?

Not 'til '72.

[mtonbass]

This was Tele inspired. And obviously P inspired as well.
Designed by me, brought to life by Andrew Drake. He named it Vera; I call it my Tele-P.

http://www.drakecustombass.com/vera-040112

[gurensan]

Originally Posted by shadven

I must reluctantly admit I am a snob. If it's not a real telecaster bass, or if the P-bass wasn't made in the USA....an Epiphone Thunderbird is not a real T-bird. A Squier... good god "No",...

You've been missing out, big time!

I had a real one.

But I'm that way with beer, except that I'm kind of a slut for microbrews.

[shadven]

Originally Posted by gurensan

Not 'til '72.

Hmm... mine must be a '72 or later then. I looked up the serial number a couple years and determined it was a 1971, but perhaps I was wrong. On the 3 hole plate is the s/n 353058.

Looking up now...

[shadven]

Yup, it's a '72.

[KISSbestfan]

Mine has nothing with Fender, but at least the shape is similiar, so I think I can put it up here ... If not sorry guys.



Sorry also for a low quality photo, but its the only one I have. Ill include more, as soon as I'll make some works with it.

The body was custom made, probably in the 80's. For 99% the idea was a Precision (due to a popularity here, that I wrote about it in my other thread), but the result is more like Tele Bass. The neck comes from Defil Lotos, so the scale and headstock is different (2+2). Got also some small hardware - very good machine heads (but I had to turn them 180 degrees, because they got off the head ...), big solid bridge seen on photo (I think I'm gonna use it in Rick, cause the standart Rick bridge will be too expensive for me), and two pickups from '61 Lotos (one of them uncoiled, but I hope his life hasnt ended). Their construction is like the Rickenbacker single coils, but the size is like Fender Tele Coil. I think Ill put the pickups together, and make a metal cover, to make it look better, and have the stacked humbucker construction - in the place I got space for it. Ill also scratch the paint from the neck, because I prefer natural necks. The biggest problem is, that it doesnt have frets, and I dont know if I can make it, and I dont want the fretless bass. But I have time, I think I'll start to work, during summer.

Of course I can make another bass from it, but I think that Tele Bass is the best design for it. I also didnt included the price I paid - it cost 120 PLN that is about 40$.

[gurensan]

Originally Posted by shadven

Yup, it's a '72.

There was some serial number overlap. My '74 had a number in the 400,000s, most '73s have 300,000s, and '72s I think had 300,000s as well. But in '72 when they made the design change, there were a ton of "transitional" basses. Just like in '68 you could get a Tele with all '64-'67 parts like pots, etc., and I've even heard of some '68 teles with re-badged '51-'56 necks! If your '72 had a '71 or even a '70 neck it wouldn't surprise me, even though '72 and up were supposed to all have bullets. Early '72 I'm sure had some occasional parts re-use.

[moonshinegtrs]

Originally Posted by naetog

Here's my fretless (soon to be fretted with a new neck) Tele parts bass....

Number for me??!

Cool bass.

I realize that this pic is a couple of years old, but (if you're still around) where did you get the body?

It's really nice.

Moonshine

[BillyB_from_LZ]

Originally Posted by moonshinegtrs

..
I realize that this pic is a couple of years old, but (if you're still around) ...

If you go to a member's public profile (by clicking on their user name and choose View Public Profile), look at the right side, near the top to see when their last activity was. For naetog, it was yesterday.

[Red Planet]

I finally broke down and added a pickguard to my Sting Bass after having it solid red for some time after refinishing. I have been toying with the idea of refinishing it again in solid black or somethig else.

[gurensan]

I like that. My first bass was the same shade and my wife has a bronco that matches it perfectly!

[gurensan]

I had a chance to do an A/B between a '74 tele and my Squier TB today. Rumbl gave a talk at the Minneapolis GTG today and we both happened to bring our basses; he the '74 Real Thing and me the cheapie. I had him play them both so I could listen.

The 74 pickup was noticeably mellower. The Squier's output was even higher than the original humbucker. The Squier is quite a bit louder, the '74 smoother.

I have the series/parallel mod done to my Squier but we tested it on the original series setting.

In all, the Squier could be used as a stand-in, but it's not a drop-in replacement. It'll probably work just fine live for people who don't want to drag their original out, but they'd probably prefer the original when recording. I wonder if the Squier pickup could be rewound to sound more "relaxed?"

[PDGood]

I'm no expert on this, but I've heard that pickups change with time. Wood definitely does - if you are among those that believe the body/neck/fretboard play a role in the tone of an electric instrument. (I'm not touching that debate).

[jbd5015]

How about a lawsuit telebass? 71 ibanez I just had spruced up. New frets, pickguard, and ash tray.








Cheers,

-Jeff