W1_Pro

Gotta Gettaway by SLF. Got me into wanting to play bass, all those years ago. Still a great, catchy bassline.

Outstanding. GLWTS.

At the risk of asking a silly question. Is this US or Mexican?

It's lovely either way.

Best

Stuart

Just musing on the weight difference between it and my other (early) Original (4.8 kilos), I also have a later (flat top) Original with a single KA pickup. This one comes in at 4.1 kilos. The one above that is for sale weighs in at a feather light 3.1 kilos.  I have checked the control cavities in the heavy ones for bricks, there are none. So this leads me to wonder if the lighter Original is actually Mahogany. It looks like mahogany.  Could it be chambered? Anyhow. If you've got a bad back and always wanted an Overwater Original....well, have I got a deal for you....;0)

However, having just strung it up I notice that the 12th and 13th frets have lifted a little bit on the G side of the neck.  There are a couple of little buzzes around the 12th because of this. Back to The Gallery it goes for a fret dress.....

....and here are a few more pics, with knobs back on etc etc. Note the 'Made in West Germany' Schallers. They were the days....

So, as you will have noted from the above, I finally got around to retrieving this from The Gallery. Martin has done a lovely job of lining the cavity with copper foil and  rewiring it, albeit with one random Gibson volume pot.  Still, it sounds great. The Bill Lawrence pickups really are something else. Please see pics below and I've taken more/better pics of the bass. I've tried to highlight the actual large scratches. There are additionally bits of bucklerash etc that are not easy to photograph, but not that visible either.

On 21/01/2021 at 17:19, itu said:

Although I am broke, and this is a 4-string:

- scale length

- string spacing

- weight

please.

Having finally got the bass back from The Gallery (blame me and lockdown, not them), here are the answers:

34inch scale

41mm at the nut with 14mm spacing

Weighs in at a relatively featherweight 3.1kilos. As opposed to my other Original which comes in at 4.8 kilos.

18 hours ago, BassTool said:

 Now that.

 

Is surely saying something 😯

Thats kind of what I thought....  High praise indeed!

27 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said:

The next step maybe to swap out the DiMarzio Pups for the Split P DiMarzio Pups. I have enjoyed some very satisfying success with the Split P Pups. They are effectively 2 Humbucking pickups and are more powerful and have a huge range of tones on offer.

Food for thought maybe?

Thats a great idea. They are the 'rail' pickups that Dimarzio build I think? I have a couple of those on the BC Rich NJ Mockingbird that @Andyjr1515 sorted out for me. An awesome device indeed.

Just now, JohnDaBass said:

Great job, looks absolutely handsome. 

Well done giving a well loved bass a fresh, new lease of life.

Are Pups DiMarzio? 

Thanks John. I think it is a Dimarzio, iirc reading somewhere that Washburns of this era had them fitted as standard, but  ultimately for the definitive ruling we'll need someone who's a bit more knowledgable than me.  Maybe @Bassassin?  It does look nice, eh? The mahogany is just lovely. A really nice piece of wood.

ATB

Stuart

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Looks great, @W1_Pro !  Always had a soft spot for Washburns.  And yes - this fits nicely in this section

Hope all well with you and yours

All good here Andy, if a little quiet!  I've been following your work on here avidly.  Your great strength (also, you might argue your biggest weakness😂) is that you take on jobs most 'normal' luthiers would run a mile from, and then pull them off with great aplomb. I'm thinking of that Vox neck you sorted out, unbelievable job.  As to the Washburn, I'm really pleased with it. I was playing it this morning thinking "this cost £110...WHAT a result". They are such underrated instuments. Nicely understated but beautifully made.  ATB old chap. 

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this thread. Maybe it should be in 'repairs and technical' so mods, if it needs to be moved, please feel free.

Righty ho. Thats the housekeeping out of the way.  A few years ago, on a whim, I bought a 1979 Washburn Scavenger. I believe these were the entry level tier of the Washburn  bass range at that time, with the more esoteric versions being the Vulture, and the Eagle. Both wonderful machines, but it must be said, very rarely seen in this country.  The  impetus to buy the bass came from an old mate of mine, who had an Eagle guitar. Quite frankly an unbelievablely good instrument, so I'd sort of had this in the back of my mind for years. Then this came up- on ebay iirc- and the die was cast.

Here is a picture taken the day after I bought it.   I thought that the zebra stripe pattern might be a nicely ironic post modern comment on contemporary musical mores, but it just made me look like an over the hill refugee from a Poison tribute band.  However, it played nicely and sounded absolutely great. I think the pickup is a dimarzio, but if it isn't, it sounds just as good as one.

It languished in a case for a couple of years then I developed a need for a bass I can leave in my office, and not worry too much who messes about with it, and I thought: "Aha, the Washburn".  So I retrieved it from it's case and decided that it would definitely benefit from a new look. I thought I might strip it and do a rattlecan nitro spray job in black. So far so good. The stripping went well, even though there was about half an inch of paint on it. Once it was down to the wood I was quite amazed at what I found. A lovely mahogany body with an ash (I think) top. 

So I modified plan A, bought a bottle of tru oil and got to work. Using the slurry and buff method I went through many grades of wet & dry,  ending up on 000  wire wool and the end result you see below. A lovely looking bass with top notch hardware- albeit unbranded - which plays and sounds great. It is as heavy as a small star though, which is the only drawback I can find...

Oh yes, one really nice touch...The original hair metal paint job was slightly iffy in a couple of spots, just bleed through I think, given the complex pattern, but as such the neckplate is stamped 'reject'. If this is a Washburn reject, I'll take the lot.

El bump.

This is an awful lot of bass for someones money. I'm quite tempted myself. GLWTS.

Here's  my list. The ones with an asterisk are the ones I manged to part with. I think this is most of them....😬

Basses.pdf

On 21/01/2021 at 17:19, itu said:

Although I am broke, and this is a 4-string:

- scale length

- string spacing

- weight

please.

Just a bit of an update on these questions and my lack of answers. I've still not managed to get the bass back from The Gallery, I may attempt to pop down in the next week or so. I understand that Martin has been isolating and I've just been a bit hopeless.   Once I've retrieved it I'll post some updated pics and answer the questions above. Apologies for the delay. If anyone has any other questions, please feel free to ask....

You can see the angle a bit better on these two pics. I've inserted a datum line in both.  Again the original is the one at the bottom.

Then I tried my Artisan in the same case. I have to say, it fits like a glove. So thats a good thing. I also took this picture of the headstocks on the Artisan and the original side by side. As you can see, the headstock angle on the Original seems  markedly more acute (obtuse? Sorry, crap at geometry) than that of the  Artisan. The Original is the one on the right.

On 21/01/2021 at 18:41, Geddys nose said:

https://www.hiscoxcases.com/collections/bass/products/large-peardrop-bass-hard-case
 

I had mine in this case, Lovely bass they are built very well.

As I mentioned above, I have a couple of these Hiscox cases, and very good they are too. If the OW would fit in one, that could be a good solution.

So I retrieved one from storage. . It's the same dims as the Hiscox 'large peardrop' hard case.

I tried to get one of my other Originals in it. Not a great result. I had to pretty much force the bass in and it is wedged. Whilst lack of movement in a case is a good thing of course, this feels to tight to me... The greater issue to my mind would be that once again, due to the swerve of the headstock, the neck sits at least an inch proud of the neck rest. I wouldn't like to try and get those clips done up....

Up!

Happy to consider other trades apart from Jazz basses.

Hit me up. You never can tell when a deal could be made....

Up!

49 minutes ago, silverfoxnik said:

I played a s/h green one of these at the Bass Centre in Wapping one day back in the early 90s and it was absolutely brilliant. 👍

I nearly bought it that day but eventually walked out with a BC Rich Eagle custom instead which was more suited to me ergonomically and musically.. 

But it was quite a close call. 

Has to be said..BC Rich Eagle..not to be sniffed at....

1 hour ago, Geddys nose said:

https://www.hiscoxcases.com/collections/bass/products/large-peardrop-bass-hard-case
 

I had mine in this case, Lovely bass they are built very well.

I've got a couple of those cases. Could have sworn I tried it, possibly not. Many thanks for the suggestion!

26 minutes ago, silverfoxnik said:

Absolutely fabulous! 👍

GLWTS 😊

Thanks Nik!