AndyTravis

Ebony can be quite streaky. There’s an interesting yet tragic video interview with Bob Taylor explaining that people only want “black” ebony, so the lumberjacks would chop down 10,000s of trees and use only a third of the actual wood. He states towards the end of the video that people are just going to have to accept that it will take years of regrowth and sustainable management to see a regular return of all black ebony. He bought the mill and area of Forrest in Cameroon to start this process. One of the first jobs was retrieving the felled logs which were left when deemed to be not black enough, 1000’s of full trees. There are also 1000’s of 1m/2m stumps just left in the ground, he was also setting about digging those out. I know Breedlove used to list “Brazilian Rosewood - Stumpwood” from rainforests where they chopped trees at 6ft, meaning thousands of tonnes of lumber was just sat unused and the ground space left unusable for new growth as the old roots prevented the new trees from spreading and growing. Bloody humans.

I do try. now. find a 2nd gen highway 1 pbass. Sand it down, shell pickguard and a reissue bridge...sod it, limelight will be cheaper

And the 70’s reissue bridge would do it

It was the 68, big tv logo

You’re looking at minutiae... if it’s a Fender logo in the centre of the headstock and the precision bass is small and underneath, it’s the 65 and will have spiral/threaded saddles and you’d want the 62/63 American vintage bridge. if it’s the big “tv” logo where the Fender is under the e&a and the precision bass logo is big and goes across the remainder of the headstock, that’s the 68 and will have pre grooved saddles (I think) you’d get away with the Mexican standard bridge or 75 American vintage reissue bridge. i will have a look and report back.

John was, for most of his professional career, a Fender Precision bassist. He was given a 1965 sunburst model by the record company in 1972, and by late 1974 he had another one, which was made in 1968. The two basses are almost identical and they sound 99.99% alike. The only slight difference is on their logos: the 1965 model has a grey logo, the 1968 model has a black logo. John used both of them interchangeably for most of the 1970s, and then mostly the 1968 model from then on. Those basses underwent several changes on their finish: in summer 1975, John stripped off his 1965 model and left it natural, one year later he did the same with the 1968 model, and by the time the Magic tour began in June 1986 he had his 1968 bass refurbished and painted black.

Now... I’m no expert but my brain recalls. It started as a 1962/63 Sunburst was stripped to natural was refinished to black, had gold hardware fitted and a black pickguard thats how it finished its life I think there might have been 2 Sunburst ones and the one he preferred was the one which went through changes

It’s been cleaned a bit. And it sounds like you’d expect, old, junky, very cool. the knobs won’t come off for replacement, they just crumble... needs some light tension flats (short scale thomastiks would be ace but I’m not buying £60 strings) - ace for that 60’s soundtrack lofi thing (Bullitt springs to mind) I won’t use it to be honest...not sure if I can sell it though...

Yamaha don’t even know how their own serial numbers work 😂

I’m thinking I’ve got some short scale strings somewhere... will report back. its missing 2 tuner ferrules and there’s a chip Missing off the pickguard. Weighs nothing. Needs a bit of TLC but might be useable for the 9 year old daughter who wants to mess about with bass. says MIK so I’m not sure what the story is. branded “magenta” - the same body shape with 2pu was branded zenta.

Was it not the body width?

Schecter release the Michael Anthony BB...🤨

I’ve re read and actually understand the joke now 😉 I’m several fins to the wind, and still in shock at this thing being on the drive at 9.30 tonight

60’s/70’s thing...via a mate How it was delivered. Suspect it’s been in a cupboard for years. And I think there are d&g strings on it 🤮

Er. One more than ten minutes ago...the total opposite of everything I like and want in a bass 👌🏻

Hmm. “Added value” 🤣

My last ‘audition’ went like this... “Phil says you’re the best bass player he knows? Are you?” ’yeah, but Phil only knows 3 people in total...’ the guy laughed, and we did about 5 years together. Phil lasted 3 gigs - still friends with both. Everything else I’ve done has been stuff I’ve started.

I love my 414, split equally with my 1024, it’s a bit nastier...🤦🏻‍♂️😂

Makes all the difference, we all know MHS basses sound 10% cooler.