SHOW YOUR DISTRESSED FINISHES!

[SJLee]

You asked so I went down the rabbit hole like some creepy FB stalker...here's his bass.View attachment 3553344 View attachment 3553345

The pickguard wear on that Antigua bass if crazy.

 

[God's Favorite Bass]

Grassi - wish that unattractive strap wasn't obscuring the view! Man was that thing played!

I kinda think he was trying to match the finish on the bass sorta old zombie vomit.

 

[Brocephus]

LOL ^ !!

 

[JIO]

Funny how we love basses that have been REALLY played. Mojo dirt, grunge, weird dna, finish rubbed off by chicken grease fingers, alcohol and smoke breath ...we love ‘em.

I recall guitarist wiz Tommy Emmanuel saying he did not like touching other people’s guitars that were not clean. Not us. Nope.

Well... as you know I definitely appreciate these war-horses visually and because of the stories they provoke, but when I bought my very played '66 P 5 years ago I did a once over with isopropyl alcohol to remove some 'mojo'. No magic was lost in the process!

 

[JIO]

borrowed from a concurrent thread - View attachment 3535737

 

[God's Favorite Bass]

borrowed from a concurrent thread - View attachment 3535737

Really digging in on that bridge pickup. Pretty light 'burst too. Nice.

 

[JIO]

Really digging in on that bridge pickup. Pretty light 'burst too. Nice.

I think this one is a '73 as it has the long G saddle bridge screw. ('69-'73)

I (mostly) play at the bridge pu also but have developed a 'stilt' technique using my pinky-finger. Grounds my right hand but works wherever I am playing up or down the body. Fingers look fatter than they already are. Have been referred to as 'mitts' more than once!

 

[Shawn Luckman]

Last night while going through the internet I stumbled, on the Hofner 500/1 V63 Relic at a ridiculous price for here in the UK around £2,900. And then I remembered I had my own May 24th 1964 Hofner 500/1 that I have owned for the past 31 years that, was naturally relied and only cost me £175 back on Nov 13th 1988. This is my most prized possession so here are some pictures of my 55 yr old friend "Lucky", my main bass for everything from 88-98 then I started to worry about how much these basses were going for. So now it stays in the case and is brought out and played only at home. Really love this bass.

 

[SJLee]

Last night while going through the internet I stumbled, on the Hofner 500/1 V63 Relic at a ridiculous price for here in the UK around £2,900. And then I remembered I had my own May 24th 1964 Hofner 500/1 that I have owned for the past 31 years that, was naturally relied and only cost me £175 back on Nov 13th 1988. This is my most prized possession so here are some pictures of my 55 yr old friend "Lucky", my main bass for everything from 88-98 then I started to worry about how much these basses were going for. So now it stays in the case and is brought out and played only at home. Really love this bass.
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Not quite as nice a patina as your's but she's on her way.

 

[Shawn Luckman]

Oh it will get there The strange thing though is that when I got my 500/1 it was already beat up, & I wasn't so keen on the relic look back then. But as it became my #1 bass and gigged for almost 10 years solid, it picked up many more scrapes & dents along the way. Out of my 4 basses it is the only one I would take if my house caught fire, I have to much history with this bass.

 

[JIO]

Oh it will get there The strange thing though is that when I got my 500/1 it was already beat up, & I wasn't so keen on the relic look back then. But as it became my #1 bass and gigged for almost 10 years solid, it picked up many more scrapes & dents along the way. Out of my 4 basses it is the only one I would take if my house caught fire, I have to much history with this bass.

Thanks for sharing pics and story about your lovely Hofner Shawn - I have to admit to never really playing one but appreciate much about them. I still will do the occasional show playing my longest owned (since '78) bass, a '64 T-bird II, because like your 500-1 it was my only bass for many years played in Chicago blues bars. It was a in VGC when I got it so most all the dents and dings are mine, with a story for each. I have a number of 60's basses now and like that they all came to me well played. I can pretty much guarantee that a played bass will sound good - or it would have never been played that much. For the most part, the pristine examples are for monied collectors to hang on their wall.

 

[SJLee]

Oh it will get there The strange thing though is that when I got my 500/1 it was already beat up, & I wasn't so keen on the relic look back then. But as it became my #1 bass and gigged for almost 10 years solid, it picked up many more scrapes & dents along the way. Out of my 4 basses it is the only one I would take if my house caught fire, I have to much history with this bass.

I totally understand. I used to have a 1981 G&L L-1000 Mahogany body maple neck, which had been with me since 1982. I loved that bass but unfortunately due to back and neck issues, I parted with it because it was not getting played.

 

[JIO]

I totally understand. I used to have a 1981 G&L L-1000 Mahogany body maple neck, which had been with me since 1982. I loved that bass but unfortunately due to back and neck issues, I parted with it because it was not getting played.

One of the big plus's of a Hofner -

 

[SJLee]

One of the big plus's of a Hofner -

Very true, plus the added benefit of great hollowbody tone.

 

[ICM]

Last night while going through the internet I stumbled, on the Hofner 500/1 V63 Relic at a ridiculous price for here in the UK around £2,900. And then I remembered I had my own May 24th 1964 Hofner 500/1 that I have owned for the past 31 years that, was naturally relied and only cost me £175 back on Nov 13th 1988. This is my most prized possession so here are some pictures of my 55 yr old friend "Lucky", my main bass for everything from 88-98 then I started to worry about how much these basses were going for. So now it stays in the case and is brought out and played only at home. Really love this bass.
View attachment 3555176 View attachment 3555177 View attachment 3555178 View attachment 3555181 View attachment 3555182 View attachment 3555183 View attachment 3555186 View attachment 3555187 View attachment 3555188 View attachment 3555189 View attachment 3555190 View attachment 3555192

Not quite as nice a patina as your's but she's on her way.

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Those both look great fellas. I love to hear a good story behind such cool basses. Here’s my Hofner, it’s pretty beat since I throw it around a lot. My bracelets have eaten though the finish. There’s a ton of buckle rash on the back (I don’t have a photo of that at the moment) and a lot of finish is off the back of the neck since it gets sticky a lot and I have to keep hitting it with 400 grit to make it more comfortable to play.
Just recently I patched a fair bit of the wear with brown testors paint I bought since the spruce was splintering and putting splinters in my forearm while playing. Before the brown paint, I had tried to fill it with laquer and sand it smooth a bit but just made it worse and really ugly, so this is wear it’s at now. The bass is a total mess but I love it.

I guess this is what happens when you treat a Hofner like a Fender lol. It’s kind of funny how destroyed this thing is.

 

[SJLee]

Those both look great fellas. I love to hear a good story behind such cool basses. Here’s my Hofner, it’s pretty beat since I throw it around a lot. My bracelets have eaten though the finish. There’s a ton of buckle rash on the back (I don’t have a photo of that at the moment) and a lot of finish is off the back of the neck since it gets sticky a lot and I have to keep hitting it with 400 grit to make it more comfortable to play.
Just recently I patched a fair bit of the wear with brown testors paint I bought since the spruce was splintering and putting splinters in my forearm while playing. Before the brown paint, I had tried to fill it with laquer and sand it smooth a bit but just made it worse and really ugly, so this is wear it’s at now. The bass is a total mess but I love it.
View attachment 3555394
I guess this is what happens when you treat a Hofner like a Fender lol. It’s kind of funny how destroyed this thing is.

Cool bass ICM. I love the wear on yours.

 

[Shawn Luckman]

Those both look great fellas. I love to hear a good story behind such cool basses. Here’s my Hofner, it’s pretty beat since I throw it around a lot. My bracelets have eaten though the finish. There’s a ton of buckle rash on the back (I don’t have a photo of that at the moment) and a lot of finish is off the back of the neck since it gets sticky a lot and I have to keep hitting it with 400 grit to make it more comfortable to play.
Just recently I patched a fair bit of the wear with brown testors paint I bought since the spruce was splintering and putting splinters in my forearm while playing. Before the brown paint, I had tried to fill it with laquer and sand it smooth a bit but just made it worse and really ugly, so this is wear it’s at now. The bass is a total mess but I love it.
View attachment 3555394
I guess this is what happens when you treat a Hofner like a Fender lol. It’s kind of funny how destroyed this thing is.

Thanks ICM it goes to show how much these little 4lb hollow basses can take. Though when they were released in the UK back in the early 60's, they were only a stop gap on the way to owning a Fender,Gibson or other American made bass.
It is nice to see 60's versions still working today.

 

[ICM]

Thanks ICM it goes to show how much these little 4lb hollow basses can take. Though when they were released in the UK back in the early 60's, they were only a stop gap on the way to owning a Fender,Gibson or other American made bass.
It is nice to see 60's versions still working today.

Exactly! Everyone says they’re fragile, I disagree. They’re pretty durable and can take a beating. Now granted they’re not bullet proof like a P bass, but hey.

 

[ICM]

The lighting in this room is pretty terrible, I find that to capture the true nature of a finish you have to take the photo in natural sunlight. Suffice to say, the bass has some battle scars.

 

[JIO]

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The lighting in this room is pretty terrible, I find that to capture the true nature of a finish you have to take the photo in natural sunlight. Suffice to say, the bass has some battle scars.