NBD - 1978 Carl Thompson

[Charles Farley]

Purchased this bass used. One of its previous owners decided to route an extra pickup hole using his/her teeth and to apply a gloss finish using a crayon. Fixed up by Carl and his crew. 34" scale, original neck, body, bridge, tuning machines, Schaller pickups. Here was the bulk of the work done: a new nameplate, replaced the fingerboard and nut, made some wooden pickup rings, filled the middle pickup hole, new control cavity cover, stripped old finish and refinished, updated electronics. Looks and feels great. They did their best to preserve what they could of the original bass, and I think they did a great job. Man, these pickups are hot!

Before

After

 

[Baird6869]

Looks great!

Did the purchase still make sense after all of the work at CT? I bet that was a crazy amount of hours and parts to bring the bass to that condition.

Enjoy!

 

[SirMjac28]

Nice rescue congrats.

 

[thisSNsucks]

that is killer, I love it. Congrats!

 

[two fingers]

Not only is that great for you, but I bet they really enjoyed getting their hands on this old girl. Wins all around!

 

[carlitoswhey]

Wow! Great job by Carl and crew on fixing that one up. I bet she sounds awesome!!

One of its previous owners decided to route an extra pickup hole using his/her teeth and to apply a gloss finish using a crayon.

Is pete still in brooklyn with carl or has he moved to Cali already?

 

[Munjibunga]

Fantastic.

 

[Charles Farley]

Not sure if Pete is still in Carl's shop.

No regrets sending Carl this bass vs having repairs done locally. The downside is it takes a long time for him to find the time to work on it.

 

[david muntner]

I saw that beauty at the shop during the transformation. What a great job by Carl and the crew!

 

[f64]

Nice, really nice. Enjoy it!

 

[UpperBout]

This is excellent. So glad you took the extra effort to have it restored. A thing of beauty! Congrats

 

[Arizona Jones]

Sweet, good job on all fronts.

 

[Zentner]

I get to play this exact same game next week.

My broken CT is expected to arrive today or tomorrow.... Carl was telling me about your bass on the phone- the results are stunning!

 

[millsbass5]

Are those the original pups?

 

[TRichardsbass]

Beautiful. Carl and his help are amazing!

 

[thisSNsucks]

I get to play this exact same game next week.

My broken CT is expected to arrive today or tomorrow.... Carl was telling me about your bass on the phone- the results are stunning!

Did you get the one with the broken headstock on ebay?

I was very close to pulling the trigger, but did not want to have to explain that to my fiance lol.

 

[Roy Vogt]

Great restoration! Congratulations on a beautiful bass and a piece of bass history!

 

[Zentner]

Did you get the one with the broken headstock on ebay?

I was very close to pulling the trigger, but did not want to have to explain that to my fiance lol.

I most certainly did.

 

[bkbirge]

I think I like the character of the before pic better, lol. But fantastic job of restoring someone's screwups. Beautiful looking, let's hear some clips!

 

[phishaholik]

Wow, so much has happened in my life since I sold you that bass. Let's see, my girlfriend and I broke up for two years, got back together, got married and we now have a two year old.


That was one of the best playing basses I've ever played. The balance and angling of the neck are nothing short of genius. However, there is no way on earth I would have waited so long for it to be restored. I'm glad I sold it to someone that cares and put the time and money into it. That's one bass that I've always missed. Kudos to you sir!


Edited to say: Carl did an absolutely beautiful job with it. I'm really happy for you!


Michael