Mistreated Squier P-Bass, Under New Management!

This is my first post but I've been recently reading through a lot of threads on this forum because I'm trying to figure out my next move with this bass guitar I got. (see pics)

Please let me know if this should be posted to a separate/more specific forum.

First things first:

- I did not pay for this bass, nor would I likely pay for a bass in its condition.
- The previous owner abandoned it in someone's studio and then after many years of it sitting dusty and alone, it was given to me to see if I could make it work.
- It actually plays nicely, holds decent tune, the pickups have a nice tone (against all odds.)
-From what I know it's a MIJ Squier P-Bass, and it's been beat up. Likely has the same strings on it that it came from Japan with.

Things to notice (I tried my best to make the pictures show these issues off):
- The duct-tape and stickers turned out to be band-aids. Lots of cracks/near breaks throughout the body where it's been taped over, painted, but surprisingly never glued.
- The nut is busted at the g-string (but surprisingly the crack is AFTER the slot the string sits in, and therefor the G can be restrung, tuned, and play.
- There's a crack on the back of the neck right near the nut, and it looks like it goes up through almost half of the headstock.
- There are some smaller, matching cracks on the top of the headstock.
- The electronics work, still and after tightening the input jack a bit, I'm getting uninterrupted clean signal.
- Likely this guitar was dropped or thrown a lot as some sort of stage business...

The surprising thing to me is, as-is, it still functions, feels nice, and sounds nice.

I would like to clean it up, and take this as an opportunity to learn some skills around fixing/restoring/rejuvenating instruments that "need a bit of love."

I've already kind of gone shop-to-shop in my city asking guitar techs what they would do. Ideas ranged from:
"Don't take the strings off, the string tension is probably the only thing keeping it from crumbling to dust"
to near-tears with "I wouldn't want to see anyone put time or money into this instrument" to "Awesome! It's a warrior. Put some epoxy in it, clamp the hell out of it and treat it like an experiment!"

So that's why I've turned to this forum! I've done some research and pricing on new parts for it, but honestly I don't want to buy parts for this bass, as I've even having a hard time identifying the model and I don't want to get stuck with misfit parts...

But I don't mind putting time and effort in!

What would you do with this Squier P-Bass?? I want my first priority to be fixing the cracks in the neck/headstock but I also don't want to risk taking the strings off, in case that guitar tech was right that it would come apart without string tension.

PICTURES:



Thanks for reading!

-B

 

I'm just concerned that once the strings are off, the cracks might get worse. Can you think of anything I can do to treat the cracks (even just a minor thing) before I put the new nut and strings on?

Is it a bad idea to glue/epoxy it while the current strings are still on? Just to use the string tension as a bit of a clamp (along with actual horizontal clamps)?

 

Well, I know it's been about 10 months, but I ended up doing some work on it. Since it was pretty much relic-by-default, I kind of embraced that aesthetic but did some work to clean it up/be intentional about the scary parts of it.

I carefully sanded off most of the writing on the fretboard, I CA-glued and clamped the headstock and epoxied and clamped the neck. Scraped and sanded off the duct tape, stickers and grime. It turns out the duct was actually acting as a bracing system, and most of the body had a break almost all the way through it. I epoxied the crack that runs through the body.

I also replaced the nut (even though that black one with a broken G slot still miraculously worked).

The pickups are covered in rust and spraypaint but still work. I can't tell if there's a faulty connection/component somewhere but I also haven't spent much time with the thing plugged in.

Will post some before/after/progress pictures if anyone is interested (have to get them onto the computer first.)

 

Update with pictures! Learned a bunch while doing this. Before pics at bottom for reference.

Thanks for checking it out. Last stop is deciding if I want to ditch the pickguard and just have a smokey sanded black finish. Might also want to replace the pickups, pots and input jack.

 

A lot of people did like the look of it as-was, but a lot of it was really gross and risky. The duct-tape was peeling and sticky so you would end up with old tape glue on your shirt, the rounded headstock edge actually did crack off when I took the tuner out... I think it was only a matter of time before more pieces fully snapped off. As badass as it looked, it was totally unsustainable in its shape.

Not saying it *looks* cooler now than it did, but I know for sure it's a bit more trustworthy!

 

I've already done a few de-fretting projects (posts to come, including an acoustic guitar-neck turned mini upright bass with a briefcase body) and a mini strat I converted to a de-fretted 26ish" scale microbass...) so I'd likely want to practice fretwork more...

And I don't think I'll be messing with the headstock at all. A piece did come clean apart when I took the tuner off (wish I grabbed a pic, but you can see the glue joint where the rounded part begins). I'd say I'm probably beyond making any major cuts or shape changes and the work ahead of me is making it "pretty."

 

And i should also add, this bass plays amazingly. Super light to hold, great action, really good tone. So that would be another reason I wouldn't risk any major mods at this point.