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Disaster with my 2008 American Standard Precision

Dave Campbell

Dave Campbell

Jul 13, 2006
630
408
#1
This happened several weeks ago but was too embarrassed to write about it till now, so here goes.

Like many of you here I have a few too many basses, but couldn't pass up the opportunity last summer on a SMOKING deal on an '08 Blizzard Pearl AS Precision, from this forum. Everything people said about these instruments is absolutely true... the sound, the feel, the weight, fit and finish, etc... all outstanding. Just didn't play it much though.

I usually bring my FrankenJazz or my old Stingray out to rehearsal but for whatever reason this night in particular I decided to bring the Precision, since it hadn't been getting much love.
At the end of the night it was time to pack up, and I brought out the bass which was packed in a gig bag and my suitcase of cords, etc... leaned the gig bag up against the side of my pickup truck canopy, and went back in to get my amp. Drove home as I always did, and when I arrived and began unpacking I immediately noticed... no bass. I instantly realized what happened, and hurriedly drove back to my friend's place to find the gig bag lying in the driveway.

When I got it home I noticed the tire tread running down the full length of the bag - not a good sign. The only real signs of physical damage were a single stress crack in the finish (hopefully just on the finish) on either side of the body at the neck joint, and a small indentation on the back of the body. Of course the tuning was way out of whack so I tuned it up and it actually stayed in tune. The next day I noticed the action was way high, so over the next couple of days proceeded to tighten the truss rod. I've got the action to where I want it, but the truss rod is maxxed out.

Now the part that amazes me is - the fact that it's still functional at all! Is it true that the newer AS series have graphite bars in the neck? If so this is what may have saved the day.
In fact I can't help but ponder that had I brought either of my other two main players it could have been a different story.

A moment of inattention - man, I figured I was the LAST person something like that could happen to!
 
#3
Sorry to hear of this Dave. Things like this can happen sometimes.
At least it remained in one piece. Keep an eye on the neck bow. If you're already maxed out on the adjustment, you may have a problem. Did you remove the neck to examine the cracks at the joint? Hopefully they were just superfical as you said.
Again, sorry about the accident.
 
#4
I'm playing it more and more now!

No, I didn't bother to remove the neck. That whole incident was over a month ago and it still seems pretty stable. Once again, can't say enough how impressed I am with that series.
 
#5
That's not the first story like this I've heard! How wild is that?

I've never left anything at a gig but an old guitarist (and a real a-hole that karma dealt right) forgot a $200 Line 6 pedal board and his special paid too much for it cable too. Someone left with it that night after he didn't. Hah!
 
#6
Hey don't feel bad. It happened to me too.

Sundays I play a church gig and my family also goes with me to the service. After the gig we were leaving and as always with three kids under the age four, things get hairy and stressful.

I was busy wrestling kids into car seats and forgot the gig bag propped up against the back of my suburban.

I felt it though when I backed over it.

The bass (an SX! Thank God I left my Ken Smith at home that day!) was for the most part fine. Most of the damage came from my bass cable that was in the pocket actually being pressed into the wood in some places on the front of the bass. My Korg tuner also survived somehow, but is now a trapezoid instead of a rectangle.

My dad told me once he ran over his bass (1960 Precision) with his 1960 Chevy Bel Air. The hard case was destroyed, but the bass was fine. And still is to this day.
 
#7
This is why i cringe when i see people asking "whats a good gig bag?" IMO there isnt one. For example Carl Thompson basses (about 5k and up) only come with a soft bag. Crazy...lol I would be so worried not having it in a real protective case.

Not that your bass wouldnt have gotten damaged if you had a molded plastic oem case, but you never know.
 
#8
Well that's a good point, I thought I would have felt it too, but it might actually have been another band member who backed over it with his mini van, not realizing what was happening. I know myself well enough that I'd have put two and two together, but who knows?

And yeah the other strange thing that night was that I actually used a gig-bag... I almost always transport my basses in their hard case.

Strange.
 
#13
Toolmybass said:
This is why i cringe when i see people asking "whats a good gig bag?" IMO there isnt one. For example Carl Thompson basses (about 5k and up) only come with a soft bag. Crazy...lol I would be so worried not having it in a real protective case.

Not that your bass wouldnt have gotten damaged if you had a molded plastic oem case, but you never know.
Click to expand...

I have a different take on gig bags. I use one with the backpack straps and keep it on my back whenever I'm not playing. Greatly reduces the chance of theft, which IMO, is a bigger risk. I think it's too easy to set a hard case down and walk away to do something and when you return....no bass!

My bass is on my back when I go to the bathroom, sit at the bar, loading in, etc. During transport, it's strapped into the passenger seat of the car.
 
#14
Actually, I think the amount of pressure or force applied by a single tire isn't as much as we think?

I had my foot run over in High School by a large passenger car. It didn't do any damage or hurt at all.
I was mostly alarmed that the majority of my foot was being run over, and I was watching it happen.
 
#16
We were on the way to a wedding gig and had our gear in the back of the pickup with a cap. We were coming off the ramp of a major highway and when we accelerated from the off ramp heard the glass door slam open and heard a thump with a loud scraping noise.

My jazz bass fell out of the back of the truck.

It was a plastic hard case with the plastic feet on the bottom and because it landed flat and just kept spinning and didn't flip over the only damage was the plastic feet looked like someone took 60 grit sandpaper and sanded them almost off.

Used that bass that night, still use it. No issues.
 
#17
NWB said:
I think it's too easy to set a hard case down and walk away to do something and when you return....no bass!
Click to expand...

i think if someone is that trusting and would just set down an instrument and "walk away" it wouldnt matter if it was in a hard case/soft case or no case

And if you watch your gear like a hawk anyways i wouldnt think there is more of a chance of theft whatever it was stored in!
 
#19
About 15 years ago, I left my '83 Precision (in it's case) in my apartment's parking lot and didn't realize I left it until I got to practice. I loaded the amp, my wife came out and kissed me goodbye, and it was dusk, so it just blended in with the asphalt. I called her and it was still there, totally unhurt, but it does prove how forgettable a P-bass can be. :D
 
#20
One of my bands played a private party last year, that was in a huge outdoor tent - during the evening, it got so windy that a side of the tent flapped up, and knocked over a stand that one of my guitarists and I share - two Les Pauls ended up with broken headstocks, but my Spector got a couple of dings and a Fender P Bass Special had on bent tuning key... All 5 instruments crashed on the same hard staging, but the basses came out of it just fine...

People can say what they want, but Fenders are tough...


- georgestrings
 

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