Where to find vintage parts?

[Landonius17]

Basically what it says in the title. I've been looking around for things like bulk bass parts to have a nice base of random parts when something needs fixed, but I'm slightly hindered by the fact that I can't find reasonable prices. Where do you all go for your specific parts or to get a random assortment?

 

[ardgedee]

I can't speak to finding bass parts, but in my experience with bicycles the way to accumulate bins full of vintage bike parts is to have gotten into the habit of getting spare parts "just in case" and then not need them for a couple decades.

Alternately, pay attention to the classifieds here. Every so often there's a post from somebody decluttering their workbench and offering a variety of parts on the cheap.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I don't know of any single source that has everything, maybe it doesn't exist. Antique Electronic Supply has a pretty good assortment of odds and ends. A lot of companies have some of their stock on Amazon. StewMac, for instance, but they play games with the pricing, advertising "free shipping!", but if you campare the price they charge on their website, the Amazon price always exactly matches the Stewmac website price including their standard $11 shipping fee. They just jack the price up on Amazon by $11, so...there is no free shipping. The whole "free shipping" thing is a silly lie anyway, as if the cost of shipping isn't just factored into the price. It's not as if all those people in the supply chain work for free. From what I have seen, nearly all suppliers heavily price-pad the "shipping and handling", so you are better off buying in bulk, or all from one or two suppliers, or the postage alone will eat you alive. Allparts also has a pretty good selection, but their prices have gone way up... and stayed way up, since Covid. I think there was a sticky thread on Luthier's Corner listing a number of companies for Luthier's supplies, including parts. Sorry I don't have a link. Curious to hear others suggestions, I'm always looking for a way to make this additictive hobby more affordable.

 

[Beej]

For vintage replacement stuff, I look at Allparts, Guitar Parts Factory, WD Music and eBay. Nothing is really cheap anymore though. Specialty parts like for musical instruments and things like bicycle parts from overseas sellers like AliExpress are even more than double what they were selling at three years ago.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Here's the sticky thread link to various suppliers, maybe be a few nuggets in there:
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/luthiers-resource-oems-suppliers.1610237/

 

[Landonius17]

Thanks everybody! My current basses are all ones that I've fixed up in some way or another, so I have a small parts log starting, but having more is always better, right?

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Just do like i do, buy the WRONG parts, or buy them twice accidentally, and they will gradually accumulate.

 

[Beej]

Honestly, I also tell everyone I know that I 'collect' guitars and guitar related things, plus 'old wood' and 'old tools'. And boy do people unload their old stuff on me for free. Happens at least once every couple of months.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Always worth checking yard sales and similar.

 

[Landonius17]

Always worth checking yard sales and similar.

I wish I could, but living in the middle of nowhere means that the only musical things for miles are those target cat pianos and the occasional really nice guitar multieffects that I pick up.