Thinking of refin. my '73 Jazz

[Bassliner]

Hey, sweet axe. That's not a stock bridge is it?

Its been replaced with a 60s bridge. But the bridge i got with it it only had 2 original saddles.
Our Dutch specialist at Pauls Bassmatters still kept my old parts (not sure for how long; I reallly should go and pcik them up) but its an amazing bass. The pups have been replaced, the rotten electronics have been replaced. But I can honestly tell you, this basss with its Aguilar pups and resoldered part are amazing. Its a player, and thats what I intend to do with it. Play, music.

 

[Spleenface92]

Smoking does look cool, doesn't it?
Honestly I love the way it looks now...but if *I* was gonna re-fin it, I'd re-fin to this color sunburst:

But definitely re-finish it to it's original color.

 

[johnk_10]

if it's refinned properly, it will sound as good as it does now. and better with the routing under the pickguard.

BTW, the sunburst ones are not supposed to have much visible grain so it doesn't interfere with the burst pattern.

here's a thread on the process of restoring a TB member's 1959 p bass that was sent to me to be put back to stock (sunburst) and having all of it's extra routing filled.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/im-fixing-hole-827332/

 

[Flaked Beans]

You can't go wrong with sunburst! That alder is just fine and I'm pretty sure it was sunburst when it left the fender factory.
Look at my '72 fender jazz bass:

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(no killer grain on the alder body ^).

 

[johnk_10]

+1.
my 100% original '72 has almost no grain on it either:

 

[johnk_10]

BTW, you can tell pretty easily if your tort guard is an original vintage one. the originals had a very thin black ply lamination, whereas the reissues had a much thicker one (see pic below):

.....and the tort's color and swirl pattern was also a bit different than what was later reissued. in the 70's the tort was a red-ish burgundy whereas the RI's are more brown.

 

[stanknuckle]

MJT guitar finishes.

 

[john_martin_sai]

 

[Bassliner]

Thanks for all the info guys. And loved that P-Bass restoration topic JohnK! Beautiful!

All of it is pointing towards a sunburst refinish then. Now I just need to find a way to finance it I'll try to update you all when it happens.

 

[foderaman]

Id go with the 3TB or Black with the Tort guard and make it Nitro.

 

[capnjim]

This is what it will look like after 30 yrs of drunken gigs and using it as a hockey stick in the parking lot with a beer can as a puck at 3am.
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By jimmypantz at 2011-10-28
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By jimmypantz at 2011-10-28

 

[lowphatbass]

I think that bass at least deserves some knobs(even some J knobs or something!) and a 19th fret....think of all it's done for you?

 

[msb]

Like any old hockey player , looks like it might be missing a tooth ...

 

[f64]

^^^Does it drip oil in the driveway?