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Basses kept in smoky rooms
- Thread starter commonplayer
- Start date
I've played many smokey bars back in the day .... I hung out in smokey bars back in the day.
Hated smoke back then ..... still do.
Not that much of a problem here in Calif. anymore.
I can't say I'd buy a smokey bass or not ...... depends on how bad it stunk I guess.
Wish I would have known that. Took about two years to get the smoke smell out of my Ric.
HAHA you read my mind man. I was hanging out at my friends house and he had a bass that he never told me about. I asked him if I could borrow it and he pretty much gave it to me. The thing just smelled super weird and I had no clue what it was. I took it apart and the whole underneath of the pickgaurd was yellow/orange stain. The pickups cavities all had a yellow gel coating them. Pretty much everything that was mounted on the body was covering in a cat piss coat. Man...the thing reeeked!!!! I asked my friend if he knew what the odor was and immediately he knew it was cat piss (I would've never known because I've never owned cats nor have I have been around them to know what their piss smells like). Between him and his mom they have 15+ cats living in and out of their hoarder house. Till this day the bass smells like piss despite having numerous deep cleanings. Don't worry...it was a ****** bass to start off with. 
And for the smokey smelling bass...suck it up.
And for the smokey smelling bass...suck it up.
I bought a MIA Fender Deluxe P from a guy a few years back and it still has an anti-freeze type smell every now and then. I think I've traced the source back to somewhere around where the strap locks were installed but I have no idea what the deal is. Oh well...I only notice it when I first open the case so I can deal.
Beware new Fender bass cases. They have a terrible chemical smell that oddly enough, earwigs seem to like. That is, there wouldn't be any earwigs in the house anywhere and I open up the case after it stayed in the basement for a few weeks and out comes and army of earwigs. Ewwwwww!
An Ionic breeze (or other ozone generator) will fix any smoke smell. I have a thread on it somewhere...
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=265154&highlight=smoky
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=265154&highlight=smoky
okcrum
in your chest
Smoke, Febreeze and many other scented cover-ups make an instrument valueless to me. I am too severely allergic to those things to have any of it around. I used to buy all my instruments used but I may not be able to do that any more.
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Hey, when I got my used GL Jazz it came with aa SKB case that had a weird chemical smell. It's not overpowering, and not particularly unpleasant, either. Just odd. I don't know how old the case is, though the bass was made in 2002. But I haven't seen earwigs dashing toward it.
that smell is formaldehyde (or something similar to it) gassing out of the injection molded foam they use in the case..
Ibanez guitar cases are by far the worse.. much worse than SKB, or Fender-SKB cases.. the "Freedom" cases from SKB also have the smell, but it's not nearly as strong..
airing out in direct sunlight helps.. or, again.. an ozone treatment..
you can also use activated charcoal in a permeable bag, to pull some of the stink out of the case.. but it will continue to gas out.. once it's done gassing out, the case loses it's stink pretty quickly..
it's like that really smelly off-gasses of those cheap plastic beach balls..
Have you been called names like the OP? (Some have been removed by the mods.) If so, perhaps your bid for martyrdom has a slight bit of merit.Yeah, I can smell the love in this thread.
The way to get the smoke smell out of case innards is to buy three or four boxes of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda and sprinkle very liberally on the inside. Close the case for a day or two or a week even, then vacuum out.
It may take several tries but the smell will come out. I have done this on a smokey hard case and a musty moldy smelling case that I guess must have got wet and left closed. That's worse than cigarette smoke.
Worked like a champ on both cases.
And its cheap.
It may take several tries but the smell will come out. I have done this on a smokey hard case and a musty moldy smelling case that I guess must have got wet and left closed. That's worse than cigarette smoke.
Worked like a champ on both cases.
And its cheap.
Don`t know if this is the one you`re looking at, or if this one was referenced earlier in this post, but this HAS to be the smokiest bass ever ! http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=644365&highlight=
Yeah, I can see that. Ozone unlinks the bonds in organic chemicals. It deteriorates rubber by unlinking the polymers. It's how tires "age". So basically the Ozone unlinks the tar and other gooey smoke crap and it evaporates away. I'll have to try that on my smoke-soaked guitar case. Since the Ozone is a gas it will permeate the fur of the case and not make a mess like trying to wash it would.
That would be FAR better than the Febreze the previous owner sprayed it with. Cripes! Febreze + smoke = sickening stink you can hardly stand! Even though I don't smoke anymore, I'd have preferred just the smoke!
Man, any topic that contains the word smoking is gonna be a tripwire, given that smokers are the only group other than oil companies it's politically correct to hate these days.
Naa, I'm just not a big fan of stupidity. Especially the kind I can sense hours after I've removed myself from it.
Poor, poor smokers...
It'd be different if your habit didn't affect everyone else around you.
As far as the OP's post; I'd try my best to find something comparable that didn't have the stench, while also researching ways to remove it. Some people here say it can be done, others....not so easily. Even being a lefty, where my selection is far less than the right handed player, this would probably be a deal breaker for me.
Prior to 1998, unless you played in a church, most music - jazz, blues, rock, country - was performed in smoke filled bars. I don't recall people complaining about smelling smoke on their instruments then. This widespread hyper-sensitivity to tobacco is a recent (and in my estimation a cultivated) complaint.
Smokers, on stage and in the audience, are the ones who kept live music going. And they still do. That's the reason people find the need to pass smoking bans. Because if there were no ban, the vast majority of the bars would allow smoking. And those that wouldn't would go out of business.
So if you have an aversion to smoke, know that when you see a 60's Jazz bass up for sale, that thing has been around tobacco smoke for most of its existence. Perhaps if smoke-haters would stand tall not buy these instruments, vintage gear would be more affordable.
Smokers, on stage and in the audience, are the ones who kept live music going. And they still do. That's the reason people find the need to pass smoking bans. Because if there were no ban, the vast majority of the bars would allow smoking. And those that wouldn't would go out of business.
So if you have an aversion to smoke, know that when you see a 60's Jazz bass up for sale, that thing has been around tobacco smoke for most of its existence. Perhaps if smoke-haters would stand tall not buy these instruments, vintage gear would be more affordable.
