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Fender '70s Precision Bass

#121
You're Welcome.

I'll have some more pics of the updated aesthetics, soon.

It will take a few weeks, but hopefully, it will also have a new black bridge and black tuners installed; if I can find a bridge and tuners that will be easy drop-in replacements, without having to drill into the headstock and body and....will not change the fundamental tone of this bass.

Working on it.
 
#128
The bass on the right is the '70s p body with my H1 Rosewood neck. The bass in the middle is my H1 p body with the '70s p neck so it matches my 08 Geddy Lee jazz which is on the left.

The GL has Hipshot tuners and string retainer and a stellartone tonestyler and a black pg. The middle bass has a hipshot string retainer and black pg. the bass on the right now sports a tort pg and ashtrays and a will soon have chromes.

The GL was my main church bass for months, but now the middle bass is my go bass. I love it. I didn't think I'd find a neck more comfortable than my H1 p (which I loved the contour, but disliked the rosewood)- but man o man do I love this '70s p neck! It may not be for everyone, but it fits my hand like a glove. rock on!
 

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#131
TMart99 said:
What benefits does the string retainer provide?

I saw them on Hipshot's website and I was wondering about them.

Could you share your experience with your Stellartone Tonestyler? How do like it?
Click to expand...

As for the string retainer:

When I started playing my GL at church, I began occasionally having issues with the E string jumping out of the nut. The nut on my particular bass looked like it could have benefited from a tech swapping/upgrading it. I couldn't afford that at the time, but I could afford 15 bucks for that hipshot retainer. I know it's not exactly how it was intended to be used, but it has worked great for my needs. No more jumping the nut. Later when I had a few bucks to spare, I bought a couple of spares. They ended up in the basses in the pic from my earlier post. I don't know how they would necessarily help you, but I've been pleased with mine.

As for the tonestyler:

I only have it my GL jazz, but it has really improved the sound IMO. It makes the tone knob far more usable I think. With the stock tone knob, I pretty much ran it wide open all the time. With the TS, I use a range of settings, and all of them are usable. I will say that the one setting I DON'T use is wide open as it sounds a little clacky for my tastes, but I love it.

I have considered adding it to my pbasses, but have held off for 2 reasons:

1) they are about 100 bucks a piece plus the cost of having a tech put in the one in my GL (I am relatively handy and can follow directions, but the supplied directions were not clear enough for me to feel comfortable).

2) I love the sound I'm currently getting from both of my pbasses, and for me- if it ain't broke....

I'm sorry if this is a bit off topic so to make up for it:


As far as my 70s p goes now that I've had it for a few months:

It has been probably the best bass purchase I have ever made. Even though I ended up using mine to create two different basses, the original product was a great buy. The neck has become my favorite neck ever, and if I could afford it, I would buy another one just to have a spare 70s p neck. I love the headstock logo, the BB maple fretboard, the gloss finish (which to me feels slick and glassy- not sticky), the contour, and everything else you can think of.

I would hate for Fender to discontinue this bass before I could afford another one, so y'all get out there and buy 'em so Fender will keep making 'em!
 
#135
So I picked one of these up last fall. Played and sounded great, maybe a little midrangey for my taste. I have an Alembic Activator in the P-position of another bass that I love, so I finally tracked down a set for this one. It was a P-J set, so I took it to SF Guitarworks in San Francisco to be routed and get a setup. Here's the result:

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Only had it back a couple of days, hoping to try it out with a band in the next couple of weeks. It sounded great through my Cafe Walter headphone preamp though!

Oh, and mine came to 8.6 lbs.
 
#136
TMart99 said:
You're Welcome.

I'll have some more pics of the updated aesthetics, soon.

It will take a few weeks, but hopefully, it will also have a new black bridge and black tuners installed; if I can find a bridge and tuners that will be easy drop-in replacements, without having to drill into the headstock and body and....will not change the fundamental tone of this bass.

Working on it.
Click to expand...

any post change pics?
 
#140
Well, my pic was roundly ignored! So I'll throw this in the mix:

Anyone notice the unusual string spacing at the nut?

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I didn't notice it until it was pointed out to me - the strings are really far from the edges of the fretboard. It's almost like a P width nut with Jazz string spacing... :confused: I looked at other examples online (especially at Sweetwater which sometimes has pictures of the actual bass in stock), both of the MIJ Classic P as well as other P's and Jazz Basses - I didn't find any that looked like this. Are they copying the way that some basses actually were back in the day?
 

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