spacecowboy

Good eye! we have bloody loads of them, we went a little crazy at one point! Think there's 8 prints in our house!

That's a beauty mate! Out of interest did they plug you in to that little Orange combo on the floor too?

Yeah I asked about that cause I checked the stock before I went in and noticed that they didn't have everything out, the guy told me that during the pandemic they got a load of stock in and turned the downstairs of the shop in to a new stock room, so even though he seemed a little put out he did go and get more basses out of the stock room for me, including, ironically, the one I ended up buying, but they must have had 6 models in the store that weren't out on display and TBH really should have been!

So while I have a couple of days off work, I really wanted to take a couple of hours to scratch a P Bass itch I have, I don't know where it came from as I have NEVER liked the look or the thought of a P Bass, but I've been bitten recently and the itch is too much, so got to scratch it. I popped into Guitar Guitar in Newcastle and asked them to unfurl their in stock P Basses, line them up and let me try them all in a shootout fashion to see if any of them were a suitable ointment. With that said I was presented with lots of basses highlighting Fenders highly confusing catalogue of models, with a £5000 50's custom shop propping one end and a Squier Classic Vibe at the other, sandwiched in the middle were American Pro's, Vintera's, and Players series'. What a bloody hit and miss selection of basses they are, some were good, some were awful, combinations of good / bad strings, setups and neck feel, the £800 Vintera having a much better setup than the twice the price American Pro for instance... I can quickly talk about that £5k P bass here, and this is for people who have played it... that neck... WTF... it's a tree, U profile? sheesh!... ...So for an hour I went back and forward between 5 or 6 basses until I was playing just one and didn't want to put it down... that bass was... drum roll please... a... Squier FSR (Factory / Fender Special Run?) Late 50's Custom Vibe P Bass (awful mouthful) in a two tone sunburst (never liked this colour) with a anodised gold (never ever would have wanted this) pickguard... so it's a P Bass in a colour combination that I would never have looked twice at, it's got a maple fingerboard which I have forever told myself I don't like, and it's a squier... so why did I buy it? well put simply it's one of the best basses I have ever played, ever, I couldn't put it down, I went back to it after playing US Pros and Mex Vinteras and Players Series' and for me it was just better, the neck was better, the frets were better, the feel was better, it was just better so I left with it and then played it for 2.5 hours straight when I got it home, it's tremendous. £400, was the American Pro 4 times the bass? not a bloody chance. As for P Basses I thought they could only produce a stuffy wooly thumpy jumper sound, but it knocks most basses out the park for bark and bite, volume up, tone down and it just nails everything I want to play. I'm converted! It's a wonderful instrument, and I'm definitely coming round to the two tone sunburst and gold pickguard, it's classy in a "late 50's" kind of way 🤔.

That is excellent!!

Tan line! She's flashing her white bits!

Decided against a refin build diary, a good diary stripping lacquer does not make, so here's a couple of photos from the basses first reveal coat of oil, this is applied with sandpaper and should reveal any lumps and bumps I've missed, after 4 hours or so I can lightly sand it again and then start getting the oil on it properly, feels so much better than the heavy lacquer before it. Can't whack stroking a good bit of wood! The neck woods are also a lot clearer now, definitely Walnut sides, wenge stringers, but, the jury is still out on the center wood though... could be an Ash or Oak... the neck and body look alot more balanced tonally, should be a stunning looking bass when done.

Thank you Al, It'll certainly be getting some love and care, I have one of those electro cleaner things at work so I can chuck all the metal in that and it should come out all sparkly... hopefully, the wood just needs a lovely feed of oil and then a wax sealer, the poor timber has been well preserved in a sea of lacquer! good news there is that hopefully alot of these scratches are just lacquer deep and I don't need to sand too much.

I'm sorry mate! I had a feeling there would be a few people from here looking at it, If things don't work out with it I'll be happy to give you first refusal!

Yes, interestingly I was wondering if the body wood was Afzelia as it is incredibly similar to an old Streamer Stage 2 of mine, same figuring and density, the only difference is this looks slightly more dark red and my Stage 2 was for want of a better word Orange!

So... this was a bass I was watching with a very keen eye on eBay last week. It's a ZAK bass, which, from some of Mayones history information, seems to be an export brand name used by Mayones in the mid nineties... check out this old catalog page for instance... vintage! The ZAK branding appearing in the upper right of the page. And here's Mayones founder at a trade expo showcasing the basses in the early nineties... So for the moderately small sum of £215 I got; The Zak BeJJ BO4 bass £? A new Warwick Rockbag worth £70 A brand new unused 5 Pot pre wired Bartolini preamp HR5.2AP/918 worth £145 Ernie Ball replacement knobs worth £13 So already a bit of a good deal all things considered...BUT... this just isn't a cheap bass... it can't be, the quality for a start is superb, for a bass that must be 25 - 28 years old it's oozing quality parts and timbers. The body wood is Etimoe, which is highly curved and shaped, very much like the early Warwick Basses, note the matching control cavity cover and look at this cuuuurve! The timber also has lovely figuring and good matching, and is solid, very solid. Speaking of Warwick Basses... I was pleasantly surprised to see this... I thought, a ha! a fake Warwick Bridge... but no, a Schaller Bridge manufactured to Warwicks Design! Again really solid, nice and heavy, very classy. The neck is a 5 piece, if it's maple it's very dark, possibly cherry / mahogany but I can't see it being much else, stringers are either Wenge or Ebony, but again under the lacquer they're very dark, stamped number 54. Japanese Gotoh tuners. Matching headstock veener cap and truss rod cover. Plastic nut, Wenge fingerboard and mother of pearl inlays. I'm currently stripping the lacquer off the bass as it's very very thick and glossy which I can't stand and I'll be giving this a brief sand before oiling and waxing the finish, but from the parts shown above the bass has the following hardware; Japanese Gotoh Tuners Schaller / Warwick Bridge & Tailpiece MEC active 2 band EQ MEC active jazz pickups it's a super looking and feeling bass, with a little TLC i'll get it looking a little fresher and hopefully for £215 have myself a bloody bargain at long last! I'll be doing a refin build diary over in the build diaries forum for anyone who wants to track that. Cheers!