It's the Finally-got-off-my-a**-and-fixed-my-Fender-Jazz new bass day!
Just before Christmas a friend gave me his 1996 Fender MIM Jazz bass plus a small Crate practice amp. The bass has been in pieces since then, until this week.
He had been promising it for a few years, and finally got it it out of storage. He bought it in 1996 intending to learn, but I guess it went into storage where it sat for for some years in a thin gig bag.
Unfortunately the electronics in both the amp and the bass were shot, and the pickups corroded and noisy.
The bass is one of the ones from that era that has a one piece pick guard with white Strat knobs, and both pickups are the same size (neck pickup size). The pick guard was yellowed in a not so nice way.
The body and neck were in pretty good condition though, just a little dirty with a couple of minor abrasions on the body. After a good cleaning it looked pretty good.
i replaced the pick guard with a two piece, dropped in an Emerson prewired Jazz preamp, Babicz bridge (which I like very much), and a couple of Lace Alumitone neck pickups.
After doing a truss rod adjustment and intonating it, it plays surprisingly well. The neck was in better condition than I expected considering it was stored for years in an apartment building storage unit area. It also kinda matched my father in law's 57 Bel Air.
I'm not going to keep it, but I really considered it. However it'll be going to my brother as I prefer the ergonomics of my Warwick basses. Will do some recording with it before that happens though!
Just before Christmas a friend gave me his 1996 Fender MIM Jazz bass plus a small Crate practice amp. The bass has been in pieces since then, until this week.
He had been promising it for a few years, and finally got it it out of storage. He bought it in 1996 intending to learn, but I guess it went into storage where it sat for for some years in a thin gig bag.
Unfortunately the electronics in both the amp and the bass were shot, and the pickups corroded and noisy.
The bass is one of the ones from that era that has a one piece pick guard with white Strat knobs, and both pickups are the same size (neck pickup size). The pick guard was yellowed in a not so nice way.
The body and neck were in pretty good condition though, just a little dirty with a couple of minor abrasions on the body. After a good cleaning it looked pretty good.
i replaced the pick guard with a two piece, dropped in an Emerson prewired Jazz preamp, Babicz bridge (which I like very much), and a couple of Lace Alumitone neck pickups.
After doing a truss rod adjustment and intonating it, it plays surprisingly well. The neck was in better condition than I expected considering it was stored for years in an apartment building storage unit area. It also kinda matched my father in law's 57 Bel Air.
I'm not going to keep it, but I really considered it. However it'll be going to my brother as I prefer the ergonomics of my Warwick basses. Will do some recording with it before that happens though!
