Tribute SB-2 decision making process

g'day all,

I'm currently hocking a bunch of unused fx pedals to fund a P-bass (of some variety). My intention was to drop a SD Quarter Pounder in it & slap on a Gotoh 201 bridge, when I remembered something:

I've seen a sunburst SB-2 with maple fretboard at a local pawnbroker, and I happen to know it's ex-shop liquidation. There's a big chunk out of the finish near the input jack where one of the original staff dropped it. I'd actually played it at the old shop, but it was poorly set up and they gave me a krummy Kustom amp to use. IIRC it listed new around AUS $1200, it currently has $599 on it. I'm pretty certain I can talk them down heaps if I pay cash.

Now, everything I've read in the last hour here and elsewhere suggests the stock SB-2 would be superior to the modded P I'd end up with. I tend to favour aggressive tone, and there's always the tone mod if I feel I need it.

I need somebody to play devil's advocate here

cheers,

Chris

I went and checked it over today, plugged it into an amp to try it out. Here are the issues:

1) The damage to the finish is worse than I remembered. It's not just chipped, the section where it landed has been totally compressed. The wood may be cracked - hard to tell without stripping it. The dent is in a great spot for a new input jack however, something to keep in mind if I were to do a tone mod.

2) I don't like the sunburst finish (especially with the tort pg). I'd consider an oil refinishing job (something I can easily achieve as I've done lots of furniture), but the body wood is not well matched and has very little grain. Okay, so maybe keep the tort pg and do a Black Japan stain before oiling, that could be quite a look. I can't afford a respray, and current circumstances don't allow me to setup a spray booth and do it myself. Even if I did, the first job would never be on one of my players

3) The electronics are NOT stock. Best guess is that somebody has changed the P pickup volume to a tone control, making it impossible to turn the bass down at all. The J seems to be normal as I understand it. This isn't much of an issue; I'm handy with a soldering iron these days, and I'd be doing a full shielding job anyway.

4) The strings don't line up with the P pickup. This is the big one - it looks like the neck is out of alignment, as the position markers are nowhere near the middle of the strings. The nut hasn't moved, and the strings line up reasonably well over the J pickup. Now, while it looks pretty snug in that neck pocket, I've read that you can do enough of an adjustment by loosening the neck screws and applying pressure to correct.

The good news is that it was still in tune, well intonated and had perfect action. And yes, it sounded pretty good, even with rotten strings. I could sense it's potential. Despite that, I'm afraid I won't be able to join your gang... I mean, club. There's just too many things to fix - refinishing is the biggest pain in the ask, and to my mind there's no way I could avoid that with this bass.

*glum*

Maybe if it's still there in 12 months I can offer them AUS $200 for it...

I'm still considering getting this and fixing it up while my wife's overseas for a month. That way she doesn't need to see the sunburst and tort pg, she'll only see the finished result

Given that it has a maple fretboard it's obviously not the new Indonesian Tribute. It has the large Tribute logo with the small G&L - how old would that make it?

cheers,

Chris

So you'd pay 1/3 of the price. As my OP says, retail for Tribbys here is around $1200 with no gig bag. Not to mention I haven't even seen an SB-2 anywhere.

Let's put this in perspective: I'd pay AUS $650 - $750 for a used MIM P-bass, then throw $200 worth of pickguard, bridge, & pickup into it. As an alternative, I could drop $300 on an SX P/J, then spend around $300 - $400 upgrading that.

I think everybody here knows that neither of those two would sound like the SB-2! If I grab this Tribby I've got my eye on and spend $100 worth of stripping and finishing supplies & some (okay, lots of!) quality time on it, I'll end up with an über P-bass in the colour I want.

I personally feel the investment in time would be worth it - and there's got to be some good karma for rescuing this bass

Generally, yes. This one's got the maple fretboard though, which is part of what makes it attractive to me I'm checking it out again tomorrow, I'll most likely make an offer unless I chicken out!

Sadly, they insisted the price was as low as it could go and kept claiming a retail price of AUS $1700. I said no worries and walked out - it's not worth it for the price they wanted (AUS $600).

Hopefully their pricing will keep it out of the realms of the unobservant and inexperienced.