Let's See Your 5-Strings & 6-Strings Player's Basses With Vintage Mojo

[Jefenator]

I've always liked seeing vintage Fenders with half the edges worn bare, and modern extended-range marvels with their deluxe hardware and exotic woods.
It used to be kind of either/or, but now that ER basses have been mainstream for over a quarter century, there should be some 5-strings & 6-strings out there that have stories to tell.
Let's see that exposed figured maple, that pitted gold hardware, those shiny-edged soapbar pickup covers & hear how & where they got that way.
(No hard rules, here. Newer relic'd ER builds or any well-worn exotic bass from the 90s/00s - whatever you think might be relevant.)

 

[Jefenator]

I don't expect many 90s specimens will be as conspicuously worn as some of those pre-CBS Fenders. They have a big head start, and the gig scene has changed a lot. (Used to play out one instrument, 6 nights a week - now the reverse is more common.)

My own most-worn ER specimen is a Warwick Streamer Stage I, circa 2000. Most of it is from previous owners, so I can't relay any of the war stories.

It's not too rough-looking from a few paces back:

But when you get up close, you can definitely tell it's been around.

I'm sometimes tempted to put the original pitted tuners back on, since they still work (after I replaced some plastic washers) and they look a little bit cooler close-up. (OTOH the Hipshot Ultralites are already on there - and they probably have a lot more life left on them.)