vinorange

They're only very subtly different obviously. Apart from one rosewood board and one maple.......

PMT have now listed that bass pictured as a Roger Waters sig P. Kudos to Ash Oddly the original ad is still there with the same pics.

And back up again.

And it’s gone.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275982134209?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=BB7G2mDXRVS&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=VukzHPmnRRC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY Very reasonably price given Mex P's fetch this these days (or are prices dropping suddenly?)

Sold 2nd time around for £1500. Very barganacious.

Very under rated basses and as per the ad the early necks for these were made by modulus. Odd configuration with a rosewood board on a graphite neck though....

No they didn't. I t didn't sell. I'm considering a trip to Woking from the sunny wirral but it's a long long way....pity as I've always fancied an Alembic.

Bought a lovely USA P bass from Dave. Easy transaction. I paid some money, we met up and I received a beautiful bass which was perfectly as described. What more could you ask for? Thanks Dave.

Yep it's a beauty although has fallen down the pecking order a little behind my USA Geddy Lee jazz and my Shuker jazz but still it's a keeper!

Now I said I'd add some pics in the sun and ironically it isn't sunny but I got the bass out today, had play and remembered to take some pics.

The bass will be for sale from one seller but multiple agencies offer it for sale. The advantage for you is that one of them will do a better deal, write the value down to save on customs fees and save you a packet of cash. I’ve imported a few from Japan including 2 Rickenbackers but the deal that stuck out was a USA deluxe FMT jazz which was for sale with 5 or 6 agencies at varying prices between £800 and £1500. Obviously I struck a deal at £800 and they wrote the value down to save import duty and were willing to help save money on shipping fees by shopping around. You’ll also probably find that the bass is in better condition than described as they tend to very (overly) genuine with their condition description.

When I read the ad I thought it said Useless fretless three string bass for sale. That's subliminal connection for you.

Meguiar's G17216EU Ultimate Compound Colour & Clarity Restorer 450ml for hand or machine polisher application https://amzn.eu/d/68tRxOS

It's actually called meguires ultimate compound. Used to be cut and polish. My apologies. It is a cut and polish in one and, as meguires say, it obsoletes normal cutting compound. Highly recommended.....

It is but there that's £15 for one sheet....... I got mine from here; https://www.carcolourservices.co.uk/product/kovax-tolecut-pink-sheet-70x114mm-p1500/ They come in a box of 70 sheets. Each sheet has 8 squares that tear off & fit on the little Kovax rubber sanding block. Handy to get one of those too but don't pay £15 per sheet! Oh yeah and the little squares adhere nicely to your finger tip for flatting around the contours.

I didn't do a progressive wet sand. I went on a bass maintenance course with Jon Shuker and he recommended using Kovax Tolecut 1500 paper - it's what he uses so good enough for me. It's about £45 for a packet of it but that will last a long time - probably 5 bass bodies. It leaves a very flat scratch free finish that is ready for cut and polish. Again Jon recommended Meguires cut and polish and I find the combination is brilliant. I used to do a lot of car body work and tolecut is a revelation compared to wet sanding. Give it a go on an area to be hidden or trial it on something else. It's transformational!

I did know that but being a bit of a perfectionist, I couldn't stand seeing the decal edges. It looks awful but doesn't now! It's a keeper anyway so is for my own satisfaction.

Oh yeah, all the rusty screws were replaced with Fender replacements, the earthing strip and all hardware was polished with Autoglym metal polish, the scratch plate polished and it had a fret level, crown and polish too...... The stack pot knobs do need a clean but that's for another day........

So 2 weeks later, remove the wood hanger, place on a towel and start using the Kovax Tolecut 1500 pink pads to gently flat the finish. Use a sanding block for the flat parts and be very careful with body contours and edges. Sand paper will cut though to the wood in no time and then it's back a step or two. The whole body needs to be flatted in the same way as the headstock using natural sunlight to check for low spots (shiny pin prick spots) or UV light. Even kitchen spotlights will show up any low spots. Eventually, after many hours of gently flatting of the finish, there will be no lo spots left and no shiny pin prick spots glaring back and taunting you and your aching elbow. Once 100% happy with the flatting then it's on to Meguires cut and polish again. Same process. Takes ages to get the scratch free flatting to a shine...... Then it's on to re-assembly. The most satisfying stage. I'll add some better pics outside when the sun shines again (could be a while) but you catch the drift. It now looks mint and I took the liberty of treating it to some genuine Fender ashtray covers. I think it looks lovely and it plays and sounds great too. What's not to like (hopefully nothing..........)

In the meantime the body had been painted using 3 cans of nitrocellulose olympic white from Northwest guitars. Amazing paint. The body had a lovely 3 x 2 bit of wood for hanging and to make sure the neck recess markings were preserved. The process is paint the edges and contours first and then paint the front and back in overlapping paint passes. Paint overlaps by around 1" per pass and magically being nitro, melts into the other pass. Don't worry about orange peel, Kovax is your friend (or enemy) later. The 3 cans gave me around 10 coats of nitro which is probably more than original finishes. Each coat needs around 15 mins to tack dry but all 10 coats have to be applied consecutively over around 3 hours. It is then left to dry for around 2 weeks somewhere warm and dry (make sure nobody is going to use your shower if you use your designer shower enclosure....,,...

Once satisfied it's time to go for it and lacquer the headstock face. Now it's time to remove the masking tape from the headstock edges. Check for any spill of white into the edges and remove with a sharp scalpel delicately scraped along the whole of the headstock edge. This removes any slight paint spill - which I did have - and also removes the inevitable slightly sharp edges. The decal application is tricky. I should have said that you need to carefully follow the instructions. Immerse in water for 30 seconds, apply and then work out any bubbles gently with a cloth. Do not move on to lacquering before 100% happy....Anyway, I was happy so applied a dust coat of lacquer to make sure the decal didn't melt. Then gently built up around 6 - 8 coats of lacquer. Again it was nitrocellulose clear gloss lacquer to be vintage correct (although I'm not sure the original had been flatted as the decal edges were visible). Applied with face flat (the guitar's not mine). Left to dry for 24 hours, then flatting time with Kovax Tolecut 1500. The flatting is done with bright light so that firstly the orange peel effect starts to disappear and so that the decal edges start to disappear. Eventually the edges do blend in. You may see tiny shiny reflections of light and this is any remaining low spots in the finish. That means you need to carry on gently flatting the finish. If feeling unconfident at this point, apply more lacquer but if sure that you have enough, just keep on going until the last pin prick light reflections have gone. Then polish with Meguiars cut and polish. One application cloth, one polishing cloth, one buffing cloth. Any intentional overspray on the edges can be flatted back using Tolecut again and the sides can now be polished too. Final pic is during re-assembly some days later but worth showing the final stage. If anything looks a bit too shiny at this point the gloss can be knocked back a little with the tolecut paper..