A couple weeks ago I scored an amazing deal for this P-bass. Initially I was just looking for a MIM P-bass that I could throw a Fralin in and call it a day. I got very lucky and scored this bass and a Crate amp for $250, and I sold the Crate for $60. In all honesty I really know nothing about old Fender basses (I'm a guitar and banjo player), and am a Telecaster guy, and had no clue what year this bass was, or even where it was made. It was pretty grimy and smelled like cigars and came with an 80's Fender American Standard hardshell case, had a Badass II bridge on it and an old Dimarzio model P pickup.
I took her home, checked the SN#, date codes on the pots and it all came back to late '75, early '76. The green ink stamp on the neck was unreadable, but looked identical to all the other 70's P neck stamps I had seen when researching. I almost sold her (and actually put her up for same here on TB) but quickly came to my senses and decided instead to keep her and return her to her former glory.
I found some covers on Ebay off of a 1975, and scored an original 1970's case off of Craigslist from a super nice guy who is also a fellow TB'er, and then bought a new thumb rest and bridge from an online vendor that sold genuine new Fender parts. Yes, I know the thumb rest is not an original thumb rest, but I could care less about a piece of plastic. Also, the bridge is the same one that's used on the '62 AVRI. I decided that it was not worth it to buy an actual original bridge because they are way too expensive, and that's if you can find one that's not all corroded, and I prefer the design of the 60's bridges better because the threads allow for better string alignment, plus it would be covered by the bridge cover anyway!
I toyed with buying an original pickup, but really again could not justify it at the moment, so I ordered a Fender 62 'Original' that should be here any day.
People warned me about getting rid of the Badass II bridge and thought I was nuts for putting that 'cheap, bent metal bridge' back on there, and that I was making a big mistake just for aesthetics. Well, let me tell you, that could not have been further from the truth! I admit I was a bit leery, but holy $hit, does the Fender bridge sound SOOOO much better. The BA II had more sustain, but seemed to lack personality and made the bass sound generic, and I was starting to think that this bass was why people hated 70's Fenders. But with the Fender bridge the bass came alive. It's now more defined, more round and punchy, has more clarity and personality, and immediately had a more classic, old school sound, even with the Dimarzio Model P that's still in there. Seriously an amazing night and day difference. It's also given me a renounced faith in my PF500 because I was starting to think everything sounded just 'meh', but really, it's a whole new instrument now. I actually feel like I can get a much wider range of tones now, where the BAII just seemed to sound the same regardless of what I did.
Here are a few teaser pics, and I will do her justice with some high quality pics once I install the new pickup. You can also see in the pics that a lot of the pickguard screws are missing. I have them, and they are the original ones, but I'm in the middle of setting her up and will put them all back in once the new pup is installed.
Before:
After:
I took her home, checked the SN#, date codes on the pots and it all came back to late '75, early '76. The green ink stamp on the neck was unreadable, but looked identical to all the other 70's P neck stamps I had seen when researching. I almost sold her (and actually put her up for same here on TB) but quickly came to my senses and decided instead to keep her and return her to her former glory.
I found some covers on Ebay off of a 1975, and scored an original 1970's case off of Craigslist from a super nice guy who is also a fellow TB'er, and then bought a new thumb rest and bridge from an online vendor that sold genuine new Fender parts. Yes, I know the thumb rest is not an original thumb rest, but I could care less about a piece of plastic. Also, the bridge is the same one that's used on the '62 AVRI. I decided that it was not worth it to buy an actual original bridge because they are way too expensive, and that's if you can find one that's not all corroded, and I prefer the design of the 60's bridges better because the threads allow for better string alignment, plus it would be covered by the bridge cover anyway!
I toyed with buying an original pickup, but really again could not justify it at the moment, so I ordered a Fender 62 'Original' that should be here any day.
People warned me about getting rid of the Badass II bridge and thought I was nuts for putting that 'cheap, bent metal bridge' back on there, and that I was making a big mistake just for aesthetics. Well, let me tell you, that could not have been further from the truth! I admit I was a bit leery, but holy $hit, does the Fender bridge sound SOOOO much better. The BA II had more sustain, but seemed to lack personality and made the bass sound generic, and I was starting to think that this bass was why people hated 70's Fenders. But with the Fender bridge the bass came alive. It's now more defined, more round and punchy, has more clarity and personality, and immediately had a more classic, old school sound, even with the Dimarzio Model P that's still in there. Seriously an amazing night and day difference. It's also given me a renounced faith in my PF500 because I was starting to think everything sounded just 'meh', but really, it's a whole new instrument now. I actually feel like I can get a much wider range of tones now, where the BAII just seemed to sound the same regardless of what I did.
Here are a few teaser pics, and I will do her justice with some high quality pics once I install the new pickup. You can also see in the pics that a lot of the pickguard screws are missing. I have them, and they are the original ones, but I'm in the middle of setting her up and will put them all back in once the new pup is installed.
Before:
After:
