Would have you modded your old fender if

[Willie5String]

You had known you were lowering the value when you modded it back in the day.

My 73 P has a replacement pick guard, gold Schaller tuners, a brass bridge and I replaced the pickup with a DiMarzio pickup back in the 80’s, think maybe I still have the tuners, the pickup is sitting in a landfill somewhere with the bridge, and the pick guard.

Wish I had at least saved all the old parts.

 

[bassclef112]

Guitars were like comics or baseball cards. You did whatever you wanted/needed to do to get what you wanted. Plus, some individuality.

There was no lowering value. I bought a brand new, right out of the box Tele bass in 1970. Within a year I hand sanded off the finish...I always wanted natural finish and didn't know you could get it that way...It took some years to finally wear out the body with pickup experiments (all accomplished with a hammer and chisel).

If I kept it pristine it'd around $3K. But then I'd never have become me using it and every hole, gouge, staining, sanding(s), gutting, regutting that made it mine made it priceless.

I leave collecting to the collectors. I admit I miss those days of rampant experimentation. The mantra was "But what if you do this?"

It was a different time.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

You replaced the parts to your specs which is a good thing. Plus, a '73 P bass does not cost too much money even if it's all original so IMHO you well.

 

[Ricky Rioli]

Dave Murray bought a 1959 Strat in the mid-70s, and replaced two of the pickups with humbuckers. Do we think either he or the world would have been better off with him having not done that? Do instruments exist for players and listeners, or for wealthy collectors?

 

[satjhmo]

Dave Murray bought a 1959 Strat in the mid-70s, and replaced two of the pickups with humbuckers. Do we think either he or the world would have been better off with him having not done that? Do instruments exist for players and listeners, or for wealthy collectors?

Sometimes I get the impression that old guitars are for rich, tone-deaf investors who get their investment advice from the internet, don't have a single opinion of their own, wouldn't know one end of a guitar from the other, and are only trading because they've found an opportunity to make a margin. But only sometimes.

 

[chris_b]

I put my 68 Precision bass through 2 phases of modding. I installed a Bartolini replacement pickup for the first project. That improved the tone 1000% and was reversible.

I was so impressed with my new tone monster, and with my obviously excellent decision making abilities, that I took the next fateful step and had the bass drilled out for a Jazz pickup, pre amp and battery compartment. The improvement in tone for that expensive work was about 5%! IME it was a complete waste of time and in the process I destroyed 80% of the value of a vintage bass.

That's why, these days, my advice is always, buy the bass that does what you want right out of the box.

 

[JRA]

i play 'em, so: yes!

modding for 'looks' is fun, but it's kid stuff. making the ax a better player is serious business. mythology is cool, but playing the best fitting/sounding ax is cooler.

 

[buldog5151bass]

After reading some of the threads here (lots by inexperienced people asked what mods they should make to instruments they haven't even played yet), I think the majority of mods are at best, unnecessary.

Back in the 1970s there was a lot of modding of Fender Precision basses. Back in the 70s, if you wanted a bass, a Fender was the only option for most people. With a little looking, today it's pretty easy to find an off the shelf bass with almost any option.

 

[bassdude51]

Yeah, I adulterated a 1969 Jazz Bass back in the early 70s. That's when the natural finish bass craze was going on. I removed the 3 tone sun burst and went natural.

How was I to know that Fender used 4 pieces of crap alder for the body and the natural wood finish was anything but pretty.

But, back in those days (1972), I bought that '69 J Bass used for $125. That's the way it was back then.

I sold that thing a few years after I ruined it.

I wish I had it back the way it was when I found it on The Tradin' Times weekly sales paper. Pre-dates today's CraigsList.

How was I to know that bass could be worth around $6 K today?

 

[bolophonic]

All of my basses are built from random parts sourced from random parted-out basses, so I am grateful for all the mods going on out there. Collector grade instruments are of zero interest to me.

 

[mongo2]

I have a "collection" of three Silvertone Model 1444 basses by Danelectro. One is mint-ish in its case another is "player" grade in its case and I picked up the third at a yard sale as parts in a box.

The "player grade" has some chips, is missing the logo and somebody gouged the area around the jack for a reason yet to be determined. I installed a wider washer under the jack to prevent further damage and more recently replaced the OEM bridge with an RI stick bridge. This was the one I've played frequently for decades.

I brought out the mint-ish one several times over the years for some special art museum shows but it's mostly been resting in its case. The manager of the art museum asked if he could use it as part of an locally made instruments exhibit but it never happened.

The "parts in a box bass" had been defretted before I got it and the neck was narrowed to a 1.5" nut but the nut wasn't modded. The whole thing was pretty much a mess but it was only $25, IIRC. After decades of it sitting the box under my workbench I finally decided to resurrect it and had it refretted. I made a new nut from aluminum bar stock I bought at Home Depot, replaced the horrible "skate key" tuners with Kluson copies and installed a recent Danelectro Pro bridge with adjustable saddles.

None of them are worth all that much but my favorite player is the modded "parts in a box" resurrection edition.

BTW, For a long time I've had a 3-inline neck screw 1444 body with the original pickup, bridge screws and replaced controls, jack and strap buttons but no bridge or control cover. Maybe someday I'll come across a neck for it and get that playing again. Weird thing is I have no memory of how I got it.

 

[Ricky Rioli]

I've written this daydream before here, but still, here it comes again:

if I had money coming out of my ears, I would (a) visit achingly cool vintage guitar shops, and buy up too-expensive-for-musicians all-original not-really-playable vintage Fenders (b) have them refretted, resoldered and refinished (c) sell them at a vast loss to the kinds of dealers that actual players shop at. Money *so* well spent.

 

[oldfretless]

76 P bought new for $300. Hated the tone, so Dad routed the body ( I was 19) , made it stereo, so I could switch back and forth with a stereo Ric. Still have it, no regrets. Except being older I like the stock pup tone much better now.

 

[msb]

Somehow my old 72 Pbass remained intact , but at the time everybody was telling me to get a brass nut , Badass bridge and DiMarzios ...

 

[micguy]

If I'd owned a 70's Fender back in the day, I'd have certain modded it if it made it better for my use - 70's Fenders were the ones nobody wanted back then - everyone wanted the pre-CBS ones in the 70's (they were made better). The only thing that's really chaged since then is the newer Fenders are now the better made ones (the 70's were the low water mark for Fender).

The inflation calculator I just pulled up online says from 1975 to today inflation is about 5 to 1. So, if you bought a P bass in 1975 for $400 (I seem to remember used ones for sale in the $375 range in that time frame), today (adjusted for inflation) that's $2K. 70's Fenders, in the long run, are not really a stellar investment - I've done much better on many investments than just keeping up with inflation.

Back to the original question - in the 70's, in my case, I owned a Rick 4001. Not too much you could mod back then on that, so it stayed original.

 

[bradd]

Dave Murray bought a 1959 Strat in the mid-70s, and replaced two of the pickups with humbuckers. Do we think either he or the world would have been better off with him having not done that? Do instruments exist for players and listeners, or for wealthy collectors?

It was a 57 Strat, and was previously owned by Paul Kossoff!

 

[Smith357]

Leo did not design guitars and basses for the collectors, he made them for players. Many highly respected players have modified their stock instruments to meet their specific needs. Some of my stuff needs modification, some is fine factory stock, I don't collect basses for investment, I collect tones.

 

[Ricky Rioli]

It was a 57 Strat, and was previously owned by Paul Kossoff!

Ah, you've successfully goaded me into digging up the interview again

“There’s a little bit of history behind the guitar,“ says veteran Iron Maiden guitarist Dave Murray of the 1957 Strat he used to produce the wailing sounds heard on each of Iron Maiden’s first eight albums. “It used to belong to Paul Kossoff of Free. I bought it in 1976, a year after he died. I saw it advertised in an English magazine called Melody Maker, and I went down and checked it out. I got the serial numbers to make sure that it was his guitar!

“He used that guitar on a lot of Free. I actually saw him many years ago using it during a Free performance of ‘My Brother Jake’ on an English television show called Top of the Pops. They were one of my favorite bands, and I had to have that guitar because it belonged to Kossoff.

“I paid about $1,400 for it, which in 1976 was quite a bit of money. But I didn’t care. I just sold everything I had so I could get it. And I used it from then on. It just felt like I was holding a piece of magic, because he used this guitar”

Aside from replacing the original Fender pickups with DiMarzio humbuckers (“to fatten up the sound a bit”), Murray did nothing to alter the maple-neck, black-and-white guitar. “I used it on tour,” he continues. “It was my main guitar, and I played everything with it: lead and rhythm, clean stuff, heavy stuff. It was real versatile.”

Nevertheless, Murray gave his trusty Stratocaster an honorable discharge from active duty several years ago. “I used to guard it with my life,” he says. “But it did start to get a little knocks in it just from general wear and tear. So I decided to retire it. It’s sitting in my mother’s house now, though I do pick it up now and again.”

 

[TheReceder]

I've got a 74(?) Jazz. It was pretty noisy, changed pups to Seymour duncan quarter pounders. Added a BADASS II bridge. Stripped it, and refinished it. Got rid of the tort pickgaurd and went to black. Bought a brass control plate, then swapped the 1/4 pounds with a seymour duncan actives with the rocker switches. All before 1985.

Since I never plan to sell it, I've no problem with modding it. But I am glad that I kept all the old parts. Ashtrays included.

 

[filmtex]

I supported our family for 20 years with the ‘59 I bought In 1978. Probably made me over ten times what it cost me. And yes, I made a few mods but I don’t regret any of them. Still have it. Still play it.