Felix Pappalardi anyone?

[johnk_10]

i've owned this bass since 1986 and when i got it as a partial payment for recording a band in my studio, although it had a poorly, home-job refinish, it did have 90% of it's original parts on it (missing it's original volume pot and telescoping heel strap button). i took it apart in 1987 intending to reshoot it with a proper nitro finish but never got around to it until a couple of weeks ago that i finally gave it a proper nitro finish and reassembled it yesterday. (it only took me 33 years to get around to it!). it plays and sounds really good (like a vintage EBO) and i'm just glad that i finally stopped neglecting it. anyway, here's a couple of pics of it as she is now.

 

[billiam5billion]

Looks beautiful! Did you strip the bad home finish and if so, how?

 

[GretschWretch]

Banjo tuners! Banjo tuners!

 

[Rezdog]

Greetings from the North,

I can still clearly hear and feel Never In My Life, Dreams of Milk & Honey etc. That Bass looks almost brand new right out of the case! Kudos on the outstanding work. I was a huge Mountain fan back then.

Rezdog

 

[seedokebass]

I bet it looks better than it did new, it's so clean and good looking!

 

[JRA]

yeah, that looks great! neat ax! nice job!

 

[johnk_10]

Banjo tuners! Banjo tuners!

on the 1968-73 versions, like this one is, they used gibson branded schallers. the banjo keys were on the early 50's EB1's. the early ones also had a brown ceramic mudbucker, just like the early EBO's and EB3's.

 

[johnk_10]

Looks beautiful! Did you strip the bad home finish and if so, how?

yeah, i just carefully used acetone and then lightly sanded the entire bass since the original home brew matte refin was also poory sanded under their re-finish.

 

[Shawn Luckman]

Beautiful looking bass .

 

[Passinwind]

Cool. I saw a few great Mountain shows back in the early 70s. Not a tone or bass I would really want to use these days, but one never knows what twists and turns things might eventually take. And I always enjoy seeing your projects John.

 

[johnk_10]

Cool. I saw a few great Mountain shows back in the early 70s. Not a tone or bass I would really want to use these days, but one never knows what twists and turns things might eventually take. And I always enjoy seeing your projects John. View attachment 3806037

i saw them at the hollywood Palladium in the early 70's. here's a pic from that era:

 

[ajkula66]

That's beautiful. Congrats on bringing it back to its full glory.

I had one of those back in the '80s with a Bada$$ that someone shoved in......loved the sound but not the ergonomics.

Play it in good health and enjoy!

 

[Dave Hill]

I’ll take it!
Love me some Pappalardi!!

 

[SturmUndDrang]

Nice work. A full restoration would have included a painted on f hole and purfling but those are superfluous cosmetics. I hope you get to crank it loud through a tube amp.

 

[johnk_10]

Nice work. A full restoration would have included a painted on f hole and purfling but those are superfluous cosmetics. I hope you get to crank it loud through a tube amp.

the 69/70's ones didn't have a painted on f-hole, but did have a thin black pin strip around the front and back edges.

 

[Killing Floor]

Super cool, looks amazing. Nice work on the metal too.

 

[johnk_10]

i also noticed that the early ones didn't have a dotted i on the gibson headstock logo and the later ones did, so mine might be a '69 even though they were supposedly reissued starting in 1970. i always thought that mine was a '69 though since some say that they were reissued from 1968-1973.

 

[hennessybass]

looks great. Very cool bass!

 

[SturmUndDrang]

Wow, you’re totally right about these not having the f hole. You’d think I’d remember that especially considering I just played mine this morning.
FYI, I can confirm my bass has the dot over the i on the logo. My serial# is 543151 which the guitar dater claims makes it a 69’.
I think the story goes the reissue occurred at the behest of Felix after not being able to find a replacement for his stolen EB. He still had his original EB at Woodstock so I guess it’s possible production on the reissue started in late 69’ but who knows for sure after so many years?

 

[nilorius]

Happy You!!!