Reviving a 1952 Fender Precision Bass

[Aidenn7]

No - when I got it the previous owner had ditched the humbucker, put in a generic single coil and covered it up with the weird pickguard.

Missed that part.. Cool refurb

 

[TK1820]

That is awesome and congratulations on bringing a relic back to life!

 

[Durham52]

Nice work on the 1952 bass. Uh, you don't you could do a revival on this 1952 bassist??

Seriously, I really enjoy the craftsmanship of you guys on this website Totally mind blowing.

Another 1952 bassist here. Your lovely bass is about as close as I'll ever get to a birth year bass. Enjoy playing it and great approach to it's restoration by the way.

 

[TyBo]

Bakelite saddles!

 

[Smooth_bass88]

That's great. I did the same sort of hing to my 1962 Jazz Bass- it was missing many original parts so I did kind of a 'restoration' on it.

How does it play and sound? You gonna use it on any upcoming gigs? I use my '62 quite often. Although I don't take it on the road with me. Only local gigs!

 

[2saddleslab]

As one who has also brought one of these original slabs back to life, you've done an amazing job with this classic bass. Well done!! Great too see these early specimens being saved if just for the history alone.

Many thanks to @Bflat for us with these rare early slabs.

 

[Jxff]

Jenson Interceptor

Great bass resto! Cool background on the Canadian band, the "Jensen" Interceptor is one of my favorite cars of the 70's.

 

[bassliner50]

Pup cover and ashtray look so cool.

 

[groooooove]

i freakin love this bass.

honoring its authentic original state is especially cool when it's been through some workbenches.

we all love one that was never screwed with. but this is so much more charming - particularly after a thoughtful restoration. it's a true 1/1 now.

I also am a sucker for knowing some of the basses history, but not all. you know enough for it to be interesting but not all so you can still ponder about the missing parts of it's timeline/life.

i could drool at this one all day, but it's time to go to work.

enjoy it!!

 

[COYS]

That looks incredible! You've brought it back from the dead!

 

[BassIsBoss]

Very cool and worth every second of time and elbow grease put into it. @Bflat is the best and went beyond the call of duty to help me with mine. And what was it with humbuckers in the early 70's.

 

[Boddah]

A few months ago I found a '52ish P bass and I was lucky enough to get some help from the general TB community when considering the guitar and then privately got a ton of help from the user "bflat" who lent his considerable expertise in investigating and authenticating the guitar.

Anyways, clearly this bass had quite a life. You can tell just looking at the fretboard, it's seen a lot of stages. On top of that, it's been refinished seemingly twice in its life, during one of which the sharp edges were lost one the body and contoured a bit in places. At some point in the '70s the original pick up was thrown out, some heavy handed routing was done and a humbucker was tossed in.

Somewhere further down the line, the owner I bought the guitar from tried to bring it back to original with a repop pickup, and a pickguard that covered the routing. That's how I received it. As a little aside, the guy I bought the bass from had bought it from a friend who had bought it from another one of their friends years earlier. Interestingly though, the first of those friends was a bassist named Albert Blaine who played in a band called Jenson Interceptor that had a couple Canadian hits in the late '70s and early '80s. Unfortunately he's passed away now, so I can't reach out to find out more of this instrument's story and if it was used on any of those songs, etc.. But it's still pretty nice to know some of the history as it is.

Probably worth talking dating for a minute too, because it's not absolutely clear on this bass. The neck is signed TG 9-52. Any markings on the body are lost to time, but there were a few tell tale signs that support its date and authenticity. First, it had the original one hole for the tugbar. The jackcup is the slightly later style that corresponds to late '52. The ferrules on the back are the large kind that were only around for the early 50s basses. The decal is the early style. Interstingly, one of the pots was dated '56 - likely an early repair - and the other was from the '70s, likely when all the modifications were done.

Fast forward to today: I finally got the bass back from my luthier. I spent a couple months sourcing parts. Unfortunately they're all reproductions - I think the hunt for originals will likely be a lifelong pursuit. Fender refused to sell me any of the parts they use on their Custom Shop '51, which was incredibly annoying. Instead I amassed a hodgepodge from people and companies around the world: a relic'd one-screw tugbar and ashtrays from Holland, a repop pickguard modelled after a '52 from the US, Bakelite (!!) saddles from a dude who makes them by hand, and an Antquity 1 from Seymour Duncan.

From there, my luthier started bringing the bass back to its former glory. We filled the routing around the pickup with a piece of wood with almost perfectly matching grain. That was the big task. From there we could easily add all the original-spec parts, including replacement pots and new cloth wiring (kept the ones that came with it, of course), a new bone nut (the original nut and frets had been replaced ages ago). He then set it up - and it plays better than I could've ever expected. I had been worried about that ancient trussrod and neck, but it really came out great.

And that's it! Just wanted to take a moment and share the story and an update for anyone that may have read that original threat.

Now for the pics:

Spoiler alert: this is the final result of my honest "revival" of the bass:

View attachment 4732135

How I found it:
View attachment 4732150

The sins of the '70s:
View attachment 4732144

Tadeo! Also, the bridge and neck pocket:
View attachment 4732139

View attachment 4732136

View attachment 4732142

Filling the route (maybe one day I'll refinish it and match the patch, but for now I'm happy for this bass to wear its history honestly):
View attachment 4732143

View attachment 4732140

Bakelite saddles:
View attachment 4732137

New bone nut and GHS Precision Flats:
View attachment 4732154

Cheers!

Beautiful work restoring the old girl.
" go get yourself some cheap sunglasses"
Peace.

 

[BassIsBoss]

What impressed me most of all about this era, was the quality of all the metal parts. Even though everything was absolutely filthy, with time and cleaner, everything came back to life.

 

[Stefan4001]

That's great. I did the same sort of hing to my 1962 Jazz Bass- it was missing many original parts so I did kind of a 'restoration' on it.

How does it play and sound? You gonna use it on any upcoming gigs? I use my '62 quite often. Although I don't take it on the road with me. Only local gigs!

I'm hoping so! I use a Rickenbacker 4001 with rounds in my current band - so switching to this will definitely be a bit of a dramatic tonal change. We'll see how it sounds!

But I do think that the nature of this bass makes it much more likely that I'll be comfortable bringing it to local gigs and all that. Which is awesome.

 

[Koog]

Very nice job....as it should be done!

Koog

 

[Jjacks651]

Love it! Play it! Repeat!

 

[Five String]

Really really cool! I'm envious. What did you end up doing with the finish on the neck? Leave it as is?

 

[Stefan4001]

Really really cool! I'm envious. What did you end up doing with the finish on the neck? Leave it as is?

Yep. Left the neck as is. It feels amazing.

 

[Stefan4001]

Really really cool! I'm envious. What did you end up doing with the finish on the neck? Leave it as is?

The back, especially, feels great.

 

[tim gueguen]

Does anyone else suspect this bass had stickers on it at one point? The wear above the control panel looks like a pair of fingers in a "V for victory" shape, or a couple of rabbit ears.