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Fender Frankensteins

#62
I have modded and frankensteined many jazz basses in my day.... I'm left with one now, but it's the one worth keeping. ImageUploadedByTalkBass1397537300.720431.jpg

It's a 98 replacement fender neck, 83 refinished body with this gorgeous hand inlayed wood on the back, Ovation style gotoh tuners, original badass bridge that had been counter sunk, and original 1972 fender jazz pickups.

I hate production fenders..... Leave it at that.
 
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#65
'65 Jazz that was Jaco-ized by the same guy that did Jaco's bass, years before I acquired it around 1994. It was a CAR fretted bass that became epoxy fretless, with stripped/oversprayed body and neck, EMG pickups, BaddAss bridge and Gotoh non-reverse machine heads, in gold. You can see that the only place the original paint wasn't stripped was under the pickguard (.... such a shame, but I didn't do it!). I still have the original pickups and wiring harness, but I saw no need to put them back in, if I wasn't going to restore the bass completely. The original machine heads went on a '66 P neck I have on a '73 body - another Frankenstein (don't have pics of that one).

This is fun to play. It even smells good. It is like Frank's monster - Fugly and magnificent at the same time.

CIMG0318.jpg
CIMG0377.jpg
 
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#66
OK - I'm back. Some great stuff. I love how some did P bodies and J necks and some the other way around.
Yeah - something on it has to be from a Fender to qualify.

New numbers:
12 thunderbird66
13 DigthemLows
14 bass_case
15 narud
16 Mojo8ass
17 danomite64
18 Jackson171
19 Malak the Mad
20 Puma
21 Drew617
22 TDR1138
23 cuttermkr
24 lax4bags
25 M0ses
26 MIMJAZZ
27 Boot Soul

Crusher47 - need to get your photo in to get that number you want.
 
#67
my_bass_family-reduced.jpg

Well, I'm not sure if these qualify. The Jazz on the left is a straight Highway One, with pickguard and pickup change. The others are pure parts basses, although almost completely Fender parts.

The White Blond is a 2012 AVRI body, with a 2012 Road Worn neck, eBay Road Worn tuning machines and pickups, pickguard is RW from a TBer, other hardware reliced by Madison's Music; CTS and Switchcraft. Spent about 4 months finding parts.

The 3TSB Precision is a 2007 Highway One body, 2009 Road Worn neck (came loaded), 62 RI pickup and 62 RI pickguard (w/shield), eBay Road Worn bridge, Hipshot Black Brass Thumbrest ($10, eBay! I'm like, why not?)(oops, not in this pic), CTS and Switchcraft. About 3 months on parts.

The Jazz V is 100% a parts bass, built completely from 2012 American Standard parts (except Fralin P/Us). Fender doesn't make an AmStd Jazz V 3TSB/Maple, so I did! I stretched the expense of parts out over about a year. I originally had an Audere Pre in it, but went back to CTS and Switchcraft passive. I just love the passive sound of those Fralins!
 
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#68
2cooltoolz said:
my_bass_family-reduced.jpg

Well, I'm not sure if these qualify. The Jazz on the left is a straight Highway One, with pickguard and pickup change. The others are pure parts basses, although almost completely Fender parts.

The White Blond is a 2012 AVRI body, with a 2012 Road Worn neck, eBay Road Worn tuning machines and pickups, pickguard is RW from a TBer, other hardware reliced by Madison's Music; CTS and Switchcraft. Spent about 4 months finding parts.

The 3TSB Precision is a 2007 Highway One body, 2009 Road Worn neck (came loaded), 62 RI pickup and 62 RI pickguard (w/shield), eBay Road Worn bridge, Hipshot Black Brass Thumbrest ($10, eBay! I'm like, why not?)(oops, not in this pic), CTS and Switchcraft. About 3 months on parts.

The Jazz V is 100% a parts bass, built completely from 2012 American Standard parts (except Fralin P/Us). Fender doesn't make an AmStd Jazz V 3TSB/Maple, so I did! I stretched the expense of parts out over about a year. I originally had an Audere Pre in it, but went back to CTS and Switchcraft passive. I just love the passive sound of those Fralins!
Click to expand...
That white P with the roadworn guard & classic neck is GORGEOUS!!!!!
 
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#71
DigthemLows said:
well since the thread is named: Fender Frankensteins I figured the OP should clarify......no offense, it wasn't directed at you....
Click to expand...
None taken good sir! The OP gave me a number so I guess that settles it. It may not be True Fender but it's as Frankenstein as they come.

Here's the original headstock: as you can see, Fender is written quite a bit larger than Squier, for some lame marketing reason.
99156302caa14c300f902db7b56e7f09.png

P.S. sorry I take horribly blurry pictures.
 
#74
I like the color, I am not keen on the painting on the back-the bass was supposedly painted by Patrick something the guy who did Duran Durans Album covers, but its the back so I ignore it and I guess if I got it authenticated it maybe worth a nice sum to someone just to display it as art.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
#79
A-Step-Towards said:
I like the color, I am not keen on the painting on the back-the bass was supposedly painted by Patrick something the guy who did Duran Durans Album covers, but its the back so I ignore it and I guess if I got it authenticated it maybe worth a nice sum to someone just to display it as art.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Click to expand...

That would be "Patrick Nagel", one of the bastions of late-'70s/early-'80s minimalist art. He also did a lot of illustrations for Playboy Magazine. As far as Duran Duran goes, I believe Nagel only did one album cover for them, "Rio".

So let me get this straight, you're saying Nagel, THE Patrick Nagel, painted that bass? Can you verify that at all? If so, that'd be fairly big, especially since he died about thirty years ago.
 

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