- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,636
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
i just finished restoring a vintage p bass for a TB member and i thought that i'd post some pics of what it needed to be put back to stock.
the bass was sent to me from its owner thinking it was a '62 p bass for the 30+ years that he's owned it. at one point in its life, someone decided to convert it to a PJ (with new fralin p and J pickups), add a side mounted jack, strip it's original 3TS finish and shoot it with a thick fiesta red poly finish. it also had a schaller bridge added to it instead of the original ribbed saddle type. they actually did a nice looking refin, but it was really thick and IMO, just should have never been done in the first place (a big 'NO,NO in my book). the lucky thing was, he also sent me bass's original P pickup with it's brass shield plate. the thing is, the owner wanted it put back to a 3T sunburst, so i knew that i'd have to inlay a piece of matching alder to cover the route completely. fortunately, the original tort pickguard wasn't drilled for an extra hole (pot) with the side mounted jack, and it was in great shape.
here's a few pics of the body once a diassembled it to get it ready to strip. (i wish i would've taken the complete 'before' pic of the entire bass).
whatever type of paint it had, even my strongest strippers couldn't even leave a mark or slightly soften it, so i used a heat gun to carefully soften it and scrape it off. here's a few pics of it after i lightly sanded it with 220 grit. BTW, the body was noticeably lighter without the red paint, now weighing in at at 4lbs 3 oz.
i was pleasantly surprised to see the original date marking in the pickup cavity, making this bass's date 12/59.
unfortunately, i didn't take pics of the alder block that i made to fill in the jazz bass pickup route, but it was a simple straight forward process. i made an alder block the same size and shape as a jazz bass pickup and glued it in. i then made a template of all of the original bridge mounting and pickguard screw holes so i'd be able to redill them later.
i then routed a 3 3/4" wide, 1/4" deep channel on the face of the bass from the pickup cavity to the butt end of the body and inlaid a piece of alder matching the color and grain as best i could, block sanded it flush with the body and redrilled the bridge and pickguard holes that were covered up by the new alder inlay. i got lucky and also got the bridge's ground wire hole to line up perfectly with the original one.
then i took another piece of alder and lined it up with the body to determine the way that the grain would align with the body's grain and made a dowel for the side jack hole. this way it will expand and contract in unison with the body over the coming years.
the bass was sent to me from its owner thinking it was a '62 p bass for the 30+ years that he's owned it. at one point in its life, someone decided to convert it to a PJ (with new fralin p and J pickups), add a side mounted jack, strip it's original 3TS finish and shoot it with a thick fiesta red poly finish. it also had a schaller bridge added to it instead of the original ribbed saddle type. they actually did a nice looking refin, but it was really thick and IMO, just should have never been done in the first place (a big 'NO,NO in my book). the lucky thing was, he also sent me bass's original P pickup with it's brass shield plate. the thing is, the owner wanted it put back to a 3T sunburst, so i knew that i'd have to inlay a piece of matching alder to cover the route completely. fortunately, the original tort pickguard wasn't drilled for an extra hole (pot) with the side mounted jack, and it was in great shape.
here's a few pics of the body once a diassembled it to get it ready to strip. (i wish i would've taken the complete 'before' pic of the entire bass).
whatever type of paint it had, even my strongest strippers couldn't even leave a mark or slightly soften it, so i used a heat gun to carefully soften it and scrape it off. here's a few pics of it after i lightly sanded it with 220 grit. BTW, the body was noticeably lighter without the red paint, now weighing in at at 4lbs 3 oz.
i was pleasantly surprised to see the original date marking in the pickup cavity, making this bass's date 12/59.
unfortunately, i didn't take pics of the alder block that i made to fill in the jazz bass pickup route, but it was a simple straight forward process. i made an alder block the same size and shape as a jazz bass pickup and glued it in. i then made a template of all of the original bridge mounting and pickguard screw holes so i'd be able to redill them later.
i then routed a 3 3/4" wide, 1/4" deep channel on the face of the bass from the pickup cavity to the butt end of the body and inlaid a piece of alder matching the color and grain as best i could, block sanded it flush with the body and redrilled the bridge and pickguard holes that were covered up by the new alder inlay. i got lucky and also got the bridge's ground wire hole to line up perfectly with the original one.
then i took another piece of alder and lined it up with the body to determine the way that the grain would align with the body's grain and made a dowel for the side jack hole. this way it will expand and contract in unison with the body over the coming years.
It's should have been illegal! But, when they did that kind of things, a 60's fender Jazz or P-bass where just 20 year old boring stock basses... (of course they aren't) Everyone with an old Fender that have been abused by the 80's should send it over to you! JohnK
