Early 90's started playing my bestfriend's sunburst Lyon P(OS). Made on a Friday afternoon when there must have been a shortage of wire, solder and flux in the factory. Learned how to solder since literally every time I played it I had to pop the hood and fix something.
Was using my dad's ginormous pistol grip soldering iron with a chisel tip almost as wide as the dime sized pots. Don't know the wattage but the lights dimmed when it was plugged in. The solder was thick rosin core plumbing solder.
I eventually needed to splice in some wire, and used some Romex leftover from when we partially finished the basement (brown paneling vinyl adhesive "tiles" drop ceiling and fluorescent lights). Turned out that Romex was too thick as the resistance cut the output to a whisper. Took my slices out (except the ground, ground is ground) and used some lighter gauge phone type wire from when they replaced the phones and computer network at my dad's office.
After a while I must have overheated a volume pot as there was NO OUTPUT. And the screws going in and out of that basswood body needed toothpicks and glue in each of them. We took that bass back to where he'd bought it a couple months before, each of use carrying parts of it.
Guy traded it on a black Yamaha Motion B. Much better bass! Never had to open that up at all. And the short scale was easier for my short sausage fingers to play.
Chrome HW, 2+2 headstock, ebony fretboard, EMG HB's, and no cheesy 80's YAMAHA MOTION B graphic on the front.
Been looking for that exact bass since then, and have found 1 that was lavender. Which would totally clash with my magenta keytar.
Bestfriend gave me the option of matching what a store was going to give him on trade for another bass, but I couldn't come up with the money- was only a couple hundred, but I was delivering auto parts for minimum wage, taking home $141 every week.
Next bass I played was an Epiphone Rivoli (EA 260 really). Ended up buying that one from him for $90 since the neck block needed repair. I was living in Athens, Ohio and Dan Erlewine had worked on a Stratocaster I owned. He said he'd take a look, said "It looked like someone had gouged out the neck block with a steak knife. Used the same steak knife, duller now, to hack out what looked like oak, then used a ton of white glue to stabilize it." Said he was surprised it had held together as long as it had.
He steamed the glue out, squared up the cut on the block then cut another block of pine and used Titebond to glue it back in. Neck needed a shim (bolt on) but it plays better than when it was new. He also used doule sided carpet tape to stick the floating bridge down so I didn't have to reintonate every time I changed the strings. Currently wearing La Bella tapewound strings.
At the same time I'd moved into a house in Athens, Ohio that had the family's abandoned stuff in the basement. All tube Marantz receiver, some Golden Harvest glassware and dishes, a fridge with the coils on the top (square, round would have been valuable) and an old washtub.
I was playing some bluegrass with some townies and part time OU students, and one of them had a washtub bass. I mentioned I had an old washtub, he looked at it and tried to buy it from me.
I wouldn't sell it, and he said I needed an eye bolt, nut and washer, hickory pickaxe handle, door hinge with bolts and wingnuts so it could be broken down for transport and woven cotton clothesline. I gathered that stuff up and put it together, and its more of a percussive instrument than a bass. Gotta stand on the tub and lean against the hickory handle to tension the clothesline, but its pretty cool.
Several years ago I built a partsbass. GFS royal pawlonia red burst body, Mighty Mite bass neck, WBW Fender MIA PG, Fender and misc. HW, 18 V Bartolini pups, concentric knobs so I could get 4 pots without needing to figure out how and where to mount them.
Had a luthier cut a battery access in the back, and he used a thin slice of the wood he removed atop the plastic panel. Grain matched so tightly that you really have to be looking to see where it is. If you don't know its there you probably won't find it.
And the next bass I acquired was a Baltic Blue Affinity precision. RW fretboard, replaced the single ply white PG with a red tortoise MIA unit, Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound pup, full sized CTS pots and a Switchcraft jack. Also strung that with La Bella tapewounds.
3 real basses 1 probably as old as I am. Still playing through my first bass amp, Peavey TKO 150. Bought that from same bestfriend and needed to replace 2 trim pots (bass and treble boost, which broke off when we loaded it into the back of his pickup truck. Left it sitting upright at the tailgate facing forward. I said he should put it on its back in front of the axel preferably hard against the front of the cargo box. He said "It'll be fine." Started driving leaving the town we lived in, 35 MPH zone where everyone's accelerating to 55 when this rusted out hooptie pulled out in front of us. He slammed on the brakes and the amp cartwheeled end over end into the front of the cargo box. Dented it in pretty good and broke the glass in the rear window), straighten some of the EQ sliders, the high input jack and repair the torn speaker cone (3M marine sealant, cellophane tape and a couple stitches with needle and thread).
I'd gigged with that amp for a couple years, and mounted casters and PA speaker handles on it so it was easier to move around.
