I bought this mystery tele base that is missing a pickguard and the pickup itself and I'm looking for that pick up and cover if this is what I suspect and that's a chambered Ibanez from about the early '70s I believe??
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Mystery Tele Bass
- Thread starter WayneDupuis
- Start date
no idea, but this has to make the short list for "best bass for punk".
It's a "rat" for sure. Those little flat pickups actually work. I need a pickguard and original lipstick pickup and pickup cover to make this work before I frankenfender it
No she deserves saving. Plays well and sounds ok.
Never said she didn't. But her origin story won't do much to help her resurrection. Good luck, looking forward to the results.
It has a cool look to it for sure. Good luck on your project, definitely a fun looking bass. When I got my '78 Musicmaster it looked about in that condition but all the parts were there and the paint was worse.
Did you get any of the story's on it's history, who originally owned it, was it a gig bass, went straight to a closet to be ignored? Anything like that? Just interesting to know those things, to me anyway.
Did you get any of the story's on it's history, who originally owned it, was it a gig bass, went straight to a closet to be ignored? Anything like that? Just interesting to know those things, to me anyway.
No, sadly I did not get a history but it's definitely one of the lower end models from Ibanez back in the day and it's worth lies in it's age and the availability of parts; what I can do to make this finished.
EdwardofHuncote
I Still Dream of Jeannie
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Definitely late '60s-early '70s MIJ and it's similar, but not the same - possibly a one pu version but the necks are very different (yours has 21 frets - the other has 20 frets) including how deep they go into the body. It's pretty rad as-is, I'd be wanting to leave it alone and just play it.
Yes I'm going to buy a sheet of pic guard material and cut my own pickguard and have it come back over top of those holes in the center and drop a 51 P bass pickup in there and leave everything else as is. It's got a great neck and it sounds really good. Should be playable when I'm done.
Cool bass. In good condition I’ve seen people on reverb asking $600ish for them. If any sell at the price, idk. I hope not.
The way those picks aren’t level with each other is killing me though. Who was so lazy (and bad at eyeballing) that they didn’t level them before screwing them down?!
Looking forward to the post restoration pics!
The way those picks aren’t level with each other is killing me though. Who was so lazy (and bad at eyeballing) that they didn’t level them before screwing them down?!
Looking forward to the post restoration pics!
That's good stuff! I'd put the electronics / covers, guards, back to "original" and leave the finish alone. Then, play the snot out of it. But, that's just me.
