Kingston Bass

[erikobass222]

Hey everyone,

My friend recently showed me this really old Kingston bass guitar his step dad had owned. This thing is really beat up bad, it's covered in rust, dust, all sorts of gunk. I just wanna know if anyone knows what year it may be, or let me know about this kind of bass. It would be really cool if I could do a repair project on it and make it play again, but I'm no pro tech. Just an idea that came to my mind after looking at this oldie. I'd love to hear feedback if that would be a good idea.

(also, if anyone has any tip to remove rust let me know)

Thanks!

 

[RSBBass]

I am pretty sure most Kingston Basses were made by Tiesco. They were around from the mid 60's to at least the mid 70's. Your bridge has the plastic saddles which can be hard to find. Have fun but don't spend to much.

 

[Pilgrim]

Whatever you can achieve by cleaning it up would be (IMO) worthwhile and could result in a pretty fun bass that you won't see anywhere else. The bass has little commercial value, so I'd try to hold my expenses down to a new set of strings. If the pickup works and the neck is OK, then you should be able to get it working with minimal expense The pots may be bad, but they're cheap.

 

[TomB]

It might be a fun project but don't set your sights too high. These were not easy playing basses even back in their day, at least not the one I owned in '65. As mentioned, value was not high then, nor now. Enjoy!

 

[Hahaha]

That looks identical to the first bass I owned. I bought mine new in 1966 for $69.00. I ordered it out of a catalogue for radio gear. It was a cheap starter bass. As I recall the pickup was just screwed onto the pick guard and not mounted in the body. As others have said, it wouldn't be worthwhile to put any money into it. You could clean it up and see if you can get it into working order, but it's not worth upgrading in my opinion.