Mystery Tele Bass

[WayneDupuis]

Beginning to clean up the hardware.
Rosewood fretboard is quite nice after a clean with fretboard oil, and the truss rod works and is right and right.

 

[Alexis Duntov]

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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What’s remarkable to me is how much that thing appears to have been played! It must have delivered the goods for someone. Lots of fretboard wear, especially up by the 12th fret. That’s cool.

 

[WayneDupuis]

Yes there's a lot of wear along the edge and back of the neck as well, mostly from being played.
Once I get to the action, I'll determine if I'm going to level, replace or leave it as is. There was no buzzing or other issues when played before disassembly however the action was at the top end of not low enough.

 

[JIO]

Beginning to clean up the hardware.
Rosewood fretboard is quite nice after a clean with fretboard oil, and the truss rod works and is right and right.
View attachment 4918677

Something I do to restore these vintage necks is to use a snap-blade to skim off the top layer of gunk that cleaning won't remove. I can see some in your pic hugging the frets. It also nicely levels the surface. I do it on new fb's as well to remove the milling machine 'chatter' marks. Then level, crown and polish the frets and once that's all done, oiling it will keep the wood from drying out and potentially warping over time.

 

[Engle]

I'll remember this thank you.

No worries. Just message me.
Also if you are looking at replacing the tuners, these are good and reasonably priced:
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[Lo-E]

I plan on cutting my own pickguard, covering the pickup and will put a 51 P bass pickup in the hole.

There’s a pretty good chance that the original pickup was nothing more than a neck pickup from a Telecaster (guitar) knock-off. There’s also a pretty good chance that your plan to use a ‘51 P p’up will sound a whole lot better!

 

[BlueRock]

Because of the hollow construction a set of Neptone lipsticks would sound awesome too if you wanted to got the Danelectro direction.

 

[WayneDupuis]

Because of the hollow construction a set of Neptone lipsticks would sound awesome too if you wanted to got the Danelectro direction.

51P knockoff ordered. There's only one pickup cavity. I've a friend with a Paisley with single 51 in it and it sounds thumpy clean.
I've cleaned and soldered/rewired the original pots and waiting on a sheet of eldiablo pickguard material from Pickguard Planet.
Will finish this when both items arrive.
I've reinstalled the hardware and intonated with Short Scale Chrome's.