1971 Precision Bass: Back from invasive surgery

[Tonegasm]

It all started with this thread:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/nbd-1971-precision-bass-790559/

I had purchased a '71 P Bass with an undisclosed stripped truss rod from a low life seller off of Craigslist. Anyway, after a lengthy discussion and many posts here on TB, I chose to send it off to Phil Jacoby (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/nbd-1971-precision-bass-790559/) for a proper repair.

The repair involved removing the first fret, cutting a section of the fingerboard out, installing a new truss rod anchor, installing a new truss rod, and putting it all back together. Easier said than done, but Phil completed the task very professionally, although it took an insanely long time (July 25-November 8!!!). With that said, Phil is very pleasant, extremely talented, and a pleasure to deal with.

Here are some photos of the repair taken by Phil as well as his comments:

"Magnet shows where anchor is. TR is removed."

"shows access to the TR anchor by removing the fingerboard section and the tools used"

"1st fret reinstalled, nut blank, shows glue lines along grain, have to look very close to find"

"in the Plek, strung up with shop 105-45, A440, on dummy body, leveling frets"

"original nut, you can see the grafted bone section and the crack, gotta replace"

"strung, done, looks good"

"last pic, close up."

 

[Tonegasm]

And here are some photos of the finished bass assembled and ready to rock:

 

[Spencerthegreat]

Wow... I bet that sounds like, magic. ... or Roger Waters. Either way. I bet it sounds gooooood.

 

[fishdreams]

That may have taken a while, but the result looks like it was worth the wait. That bass looks fantastic, and has a great vibe

 

[Jonyak]

Thats an amazing repair job!

 

[thisSNsucks]

That repair looks well worth the wait. Nicely done. Enjoy it!

 

[gttim]

Wow! Amazing work! Hope it plays like a dream!

 

[xed]

Long wait but for that quality of repair I consider it well worth it. That's just amazing work.

 

[P. Aaron]

Very cool!

 

[coronado3]

Fantastic!

 

[M.R. Ogle]

Dang...I gotta learn me howda do that someday.

 

[bassbully]

Quality work that was well worth the wait...nice!

 

[Boot Soul]

What was the total cost of this repair? I have an all maple 72 P neck with a broken rod at the neck heel at the threads (about 3/4 inch broken off). Wonder if it is worth fixing, or if I should just sell it for what I can.

 

[StevieMac]

Absolutely amazing! Nice bass too!

 

[nagarjuna]

Smart man! You did it right. Now you have a fantastic bass!

 

[MiJaKo]

Congrats! Looks good.
Just curious about the missing screws (other than for the old covers)... any reason you're leaving them be?

 

[Tonegasm]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Congrats! Looks good.
Just curious about the missing screws (other than for the old covers)... any reason you're leaving them be?

That pickguard was drilled to snot by the previous owner(s). The scews in there now are the screws that came with the bass. Adding more screws won't make me play better or it sound better, so I just leave it alone. This is a tool that's going to be used.

 

[johnk_10]

the repair looks great, as does the rest of the bass. nice job putting this one back to the way that it should be.

 

[TinIndian]

That is a fantastic repair job. Excellent work! I am curious as well, how much did that repair end up costing? To save the originality of the bass it was well worth it. Your bass is beautiful!

 

[mindwell]

That, fellow TBers, is pro lutherie. Congratulations! And kudos for going the extra mile to bring back a classic bass to be enjoyed for another 40 years.