1972 jazz bass question

[bass_man86]

Let me state right off the bat that I do not unload my basses, and that I do not let my basses sit in closet. I play them. That being said, I own a '73 Jazz. I bought for $300 back 1990. The pick ups were shot, and it had been refinished by an idiot. I took it to a luthier, had it turned into a fretless, replaced the stock bridge with a Badass, and slapped a set of Barts in it. It has tone from hell, although it's a bit bit rough to play. My point; hold on to it, and set it up the way you want, just keep the stock parts. Enjoy!

 

[lonote]

There's another avenue you may want to consider. Solder joints notwithstanding, Lindy Fralin (and other makers) can rewind your pickups. I have never dealt with him personally, but my guitar player has and he says Lindy is a great guy to deal with. Maybe you might consider giving him a call and talking about your situation, he may be able to solve your problem.

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

Let me state right off the bat that I do not unload my basses, and that I do not let my basses sit in closet. I play them. That being said, I own a '73 Jazz. I bought for $300 back 1990. The pick ups were shot, and it had been refinished by an idiot. I took it to a luthier, had it turned into a fretless, replaced the stock bridge with a Badass, and slapped a set of Barts in it. It has tone from hell, although it's a bit bit rough to play. My point; hold on to it, and set it up the way you want, just keep the stock parts. Enjoy!

+1. Very similar to my early 70's Jazz. In the late 80's my friend found it in a pawn shop. The previous owner had lost all the hardware, pickups, stripped the finish off and filed the frets down to the fingerboard! My friend gave it to me in a box for a birthday gift. At that time the 70's-era Jazz basses were'nt considered collectables, most of us older guys remember when they were considered being a little better than junk, especially this one! I did the usual mods: Badass, Schaller tuning gears, EMG's, bought a Warmoth neck and stashed the original.-(Read "Player's Bass" ) It became my main stage bass for about 8 years. It plays and sounds great. It's been a closet-dweller lately, but I'm going to put in a new set of passive pickups, probably Duncan Antiquities. I'd like to get more of a vintage type tone out of it.

Once again, I marvel at the prices I see the 70's era Jazz, and to some extent Precision, basses going for on the vintage market. If it were mine I'd be worried that it could get damaged as a stage bass and lose it's collector's value, but I'm paranoid that way . If you really love how it plays, I'm with everyone else, put direct replacement pickups in it, but stash the originals.

 

[elgranluis]

There's another avenue you may want to consider. Solder joints notwithstanding, Lindy Fralin (and other makers) can rewind your pickups. I have never dealt with him personally, but my guitar player has and he says Lindy is a great guy to deal with. Maybe you might consider giving him a call and talking about your situation, he may be able to solve your problem.

actually that was one of my very first thoughts. Then i thought that if i wanted to keep the originality, and i was going to disturb the solder joints, then why disturb the winding too? If i{m going to unsolder the pickups, then i'll just probably put in a set of custom shop, dimarzio, barts or duncans.