hankhill

Thanks to all who answered. I’ve filled the splits with Superglue, drying as I write. But now, you’ve got me thinking... I was going to sand, fill, and spray the body with a rattle can, I fancied dark gray and I have some black carbon fibre effect vinyl that I could put on the scratch plate. Now, I’m thinking of leaving the body as it is, as suggested. Decisions...

Polling for opinions here, and I hope I’m in the correct section. I bought an ash telecaster bass body on FleaBay which was sold as road worn. It’s not a genuine Fender body and was never described as such. I decided it would make a nice lockdown project as I have several Precisions but no Telecaster bass, and whilst I don’t personally like the “fake-relic’d” look I quite fancied a “genuine roadworn” style. I already have a Genuine Fender 90’s Precision pickup going spare, and this body is routed for that, which is one reason I bought it. Anyhow, when it arrived it was pretty crap, it looked like it had been painted with Dulux so I decided to strip it to respray. Once I’d done that I could see a couple of gaps where the three district sections are glued together, see photos. The gaps don’t seem to move when I push on the body, although I haven’t pushed too heavily of course. So, my basic question is, am I flogging a dead horse with this body? I have already bought all the other parts; I lucked into an absolutely gorgeous unused Telecaster bass neck, its again non Fender but looks really nice quality. I bought the other bits from Northwest Guitars. So, I’m quite committed but I don’t want to spend a ton of time and money if this body is not worth it. Would dripping some lightly diluted PVA glue into the cracks be a decent fix? Or do I just fill, spray, and pray?

They look great. Did he wrap on top of the scratch plate on the strat, or did he use two copies of the same image and line them up? Also I’d love to know a technique for wrapping all round a curved body.

The actual wrap only took 20 minutes, but stripping, filling chips, and rebuilding took maybe 4-5 hours spread out over 2 weekends. Drip fills need to dry before sanding so its the waiting that takes most time. I only finished it today as I had to order a new jack socket. Its not perfect, the back is still fairly scratched, couldnt be bothered to try and polish it all out.

Yes, I used a heat gun, and watched plenty of YouTube vids. I think one mistake I made was not having enough overhang on one side to pull and stretch, which led to some of the creasing. I did have enough vinyl to pull it all off and start again but decided to leave it for now.

So after playing Fender basses for 40-odd years I decided to give my back a rest and look for something lighter. After months of waiting, a Yamaha RBX-A2 came up on eBay which I bought and loved, then a second really tatty one came up which I got for £135. I don't have much guitar tweaking experience beyond the odd pickup swap, but on the basis that I had little to lose I decided to have a tinker. This poor bass was quite badly abused although the neck only had 2 dents which I drop filled with Superglue. I filled a much bigger ding on the body edge with epoxy putty. Then I decided to try vinyl wrapping it with a carbon fibre look. I’d never done that before and I’m pleased how it came out, although how long it will last is anyone’s guess. Has anyone else vinyl wrapped a bass? The Yamaha is flat topped which makes it easier, I can’t imagine how you’d wrap a curvy Fender. I couldn’t avoid the odd tiny crease at the edges around the horns, so I covered the edges with car pinstriping tape, which seems to work well and should help to stop the edges lifting. Photos attached. For a £135 bass I don’t think it looks bad, and it plays and sounds great. If anyone’s interested I’ll report back in a few weeks, after a few pub gigs, as to how its bearing up.

I play bass in a 5 piece rock covers band (2 guitars, bass, drums, vocals), but sometimes we have to gig as a 4 piece as our rhythm guitarist can’t make it. Our other guitarist fills in well, but when he’s playing a lead break the overall sound thins out. In rehearsals yesterday I used an Ashdown amp that had a button that added a harmonic note, and that thickened out my bass sound a bit. Is there a simple pedal that could add maybe a higher octave note, maybe with some distortion, to my bass, to thicken our overall sound for when the lone guitar is soloing? I borrowed a Zoom B2 but after playing with it for 2 hours and staring at the manual, I still have no idea how to use it and would be too scared to use something that complex in a gig. Does a simple pedal exist? I’ve looked at octave pedals but they all seem to add a lower octave, not a higher one.

I have two MIJ Fender Precision 50th Anniversary 1996 P-basses, one (Blue Bass) has a V+6 digit serial, and the other has a U+6 digit (Red Bass). I've had them for around 15 years, and recently I removed the necks to take a peek. Photos are attached. I now know the blue bass is a 62 reissue and the red bass is a 57. But - the original pickups that these basses came with are different, one has a magnet fixed to the bottom which seems to be unusual. I’m wondering if one pup is Japanese and one American? If so, which is which? I even found a 1996 Fender Japan brochure here - Fender Japan Electric Guitars Catalog 1996 but it hasn’t helped. I'm pretty sure both bodies are Basswood so I was expecting both pickups to be Japanese but as they’re not identical I’m not so sure now. If anyone can shed some light I’d be grateful.