Modding a vintage P Bass ?

[Dingus]

[quote name='kingofthestuntmen' timestamp='1360060314' post='1964069']
As the owner of a modded '72 P, I'll be watching this thread with interest...



This is a bass I will never sell as I inherited it. The original owners intentions were to add a J bridge & (possibly) a neck pup of some kind, a Badass and brass nut; he was a big Sheehan fan.

I had a Badass sourced and fitted, but never quite got round to adding the extra pickups. It may still happen, but it's more likely I'll replace the tuners first as the originals are a lil' cranky.

I'll bear in mind the advice re the best J to fit in case I ever get the urge...
[/quote]

That's beautiful just as it is ! Don't start hacking it up ! The Badass is a good addition , and fits into the existing drilled holes for the BBOT bridge , I seem to remember . If you change the tuners get direct retrofit ones and keep the existing ones safe . That is a cracking looking bass and you could easily bring it up to a better level - new P pickup would be a possibility , if you thought it neccesary - without doing anything irreperable . I am not surprised you will be holding on to this one , it looks like a lovely old Fender bass . I would love to play it .

[topo morto]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1360068859' post='1964249']
I would hazard a guess that the "stuff" in your folk museum is both pretty common and had a couple of centuries of development and refinement to arrive at the items that are on display. By comparison the bass guitar has only been around for just over 60 years and despite what some people might say, it still has plenty of room for improvement. Musicians are still experimenting with works best for them and the music that they play, and if that means making modifications to instruments that they own and otherwise feel comfortable with, then so be it.
[/quote]

But progress doesn't necessitate tampering with the artifacts of the past - in fact it's probably easier done by starting afresh.
Here's one of the items in the museum...

[url="http://www.folkmuseum.org.uk/page.php?id=189"]http://www.folkmuseu...page.php?id=189[/url]


It would be possible to stick a motor in there and get the thing performing better by some measure. But most would consider that you have diminished the original item, and still have something that doesn't work as well as a dyson.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1360068859' post='1964249']
Popular music is currently going through a phase where it's spending far too much time looking backwards and trying to preserve the past when the music and musicians from those eras were doing everything they could to throw out traditional notions of what music was and the instruments used to play it.
[/quote]

I don't see what this has to do with the case in point. If you wanted to make a novel stringed bass instrument I doubt you'd start with a P bass as your foundation, and if you did, putting a bridge J pickup is hardly breaking new ground either. Again, I'm not having a go at the OP here as I daresay these are not his motivations!

[discreet]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1360064147' post='1964145']
If you really believe all that nonsense about late 70s Fenders being of historical importance, then surely they should all be tucked away safely in museums and other collections...
[/quote]

I do believe it, and they are. My local museum's music gallery features 1600 instruments drawing a timeline from early medieval wind instruments to a Stratocaster, a P-Bass, Moog synths, a DX7 and contemporary computer-based programming gear.

[Zenitram]

The Horniman's collection is great, and very nicely curated.

[Rumple]

And just down the road

[discreet]

And they've got cake.

[Zenitram]

And the blobby walrus!

[Cat Burrito]

I stripped the paint off my 79 P-bass. Totally devalued it but it looks cool as fish now. My view is that people who worry about resale value probably aren't looking to keep the instrument long term. The hours I put in stripping my bass really helped me to bond with it. I feel I now know every contour of that instrument and interesting that in the "great instrument cull" of 2010-11" this was one of two that I just couldn't bring myself to part with.

[discreet]

[quote name='Zenitram' timestamp='1360073459' post='1964361']
And the blobby walrus!
[/quote]

It is a [i]very [/i]blobby walrus. They've got some nice marine aquaria, too.
Right that's it, I'm off to the Horniman for some recreation. And cake.

[discreet]

Look at that, two simultaneous posts with a random piscine reference.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1360072382' post='1964331']
I do believe it, and they are. My local museum's music gallery features 1600 instruments drawing a timeline from early medieval wind instruments to a Stratocaster, a P-Bass, Moog synths, a DX7 and contemporary computer-based programming gear.


[/quote]

There we go. There's one already preserved then. Other P-bass owners can mod theirs (or not) to their heart's content.

[topo morto]

The fact there's one in a museum, while evidence for the fact that the thing is historically valuable, doesn't help somone who would like one of their own and would like to appreciate it by playing it.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='topo morto' timestamp='1360071513' post='1964315']
I don't see what this has to do with the case in point. If you wanted to make a novel stringed bass instrument I doubt you'd start with a P bass as your foundation, and if you did, putting a bridge J pickup is hardly breaking new ground either. Again, I'm not having a go at the OP here as I daresay these are not his motivations!
[/quote]

It's got to do with attempts to over-preserve the past when that past itself was all about doing away with what came before and creating something brand new.

By all means save a couple of original examples of the P-Bass - maybe one for each time Fender made a major modification to the model, but lets not get over-sentimental about a mass-produced factory instrument from a time when it is universally acknowledged that standard were on the low side. (No offence intended to the OP)

[peteb]

I think that the heritage arguement is nonsense for a 77 P bass, but I have to say that when I modded a similar 77 precision that I probably lost about £500 plus when I did eventually moved it on....

[topo morto]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1360075918' post='1964418']
By all means save a couple of original examples of the P-Bass - maybe one for each time Fender made a major modification to the model, but lets not get over-sentimental about a mass-produced factory instrument from a time when it is universally acknowledged that standard were on the low side. (No offence intended to the OP)
[/quote]

As above - the fewer there are, the fewer people can have the fun of experiencing them.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1360075918' post='1964418']
It's got to do with attempts to over-preserve the past when that past itself was all about doing away with what came before and creating something brand new.
[/quote]

To me, the value of the an item that is in similar condition to how it was in the 1970s has no obvious connection to the value of, say, the 1950s to people living in the 1970s.

[topo morto]

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1360077603' post='1964456']
I think that the heritage arguement is nonsense for a 77 P bass, but I have to say that when I modded a similar 77 precision that I probably lost about £500 plus when I did eventually moved it on....
[/quote]

I think you are right, 'heritage' is perhaps the wrong word... that can be dealt with by having a couple in a museum.

Assuming you bought the P for a fair price, that £500 is a measure of [i]something [/i]though...

[iiipopes]

[quote name='Stealth' timestamp='1360061586' post='1964098']I have a mojo vintage pup i was gonna use.[/quote]
If it is a single coil, it may or may not work well with a P pickup, because even if it has great mojo on its own, it may not work with a humcancelling pickup, and may induce noise or imbalance into the circuit. That's why I recommend a Fralin. You order one, you tell him the application, and it will come and exactly match what you're wanting to do. It's worth it.

[discreet]

[quote name='kingofthestuntmen' timestamp='1360060314' post='1964069']

[size=4][/quote][/size]
[size=4]That's a lovely Bravewood! John certainly knows how to relic a bass... [/size]

Edited February 5, 2013 by discreet

[Marvin]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1360068859' post='1964249']

Popular music is currently going through a phase where it's spending far too much time looking backwards and trying to preserve the past when the music and musicians from those eras were doing everything they could to throw out traditional notions of what music was and the instruments used to play it.


[/quote]

I find this an odd, potentially contradictory, statement as much of the your Territones material I've listened to sounds very similar to bands like The Cramps and King Kurt, whom I was listening to 30 years ago.

[Geek99]

[quote name='kingofthestuntmen' timestamp='1360060314' post='1964069']
As the owner of a modded '72 P, I'll be watching this thread with interest...

[IMG]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/kingofthestuntmen/P-Bass/DSCF1701.jpg[/IMG]

[/quote]

That's very nice indeed and I'm not a relic fan

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1360079231' post='1964492']
I find this an odd, potentially contradictory, statement as much of the your Territones material I've listened to sounds very similar to bands like The Cramps and King Kurt, whom I was listening to 30 years ago.
[/quote]

I'd like to think that while the Terrortones have listened to music from the past we're not slavishly tied to any of it. For me, it's not a recreation but a development which also takes into account lots the other music we like, that has happened both before and since the early 80s. We do tend to stick to our genre(s), but that's because it's fun to play and it helps our audience to identify with what we do more easily, but nothing is so sacred that it can't be improved upon or replaced.

Besides I also make music like [url=https://soundcloud.com/bigredx/bigredx-september]this[/url] as well as lots of other different things.

[topo morto]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1360080233' post='1964515']
Besides I also make music like [url="https://soundcloud.com/bigredx/bigredx-september"]this[/url] as well as lots of other different things.
[/quote]

That's rather nice. Any other months in the works?

[BigRedX]

[quote name='topo morto' timestamp='1360095443' post='1964829']
That's rather nice. Any other months in the works?
[/quote]

Thanks!

It was done for the September Basschat Composition Competition. I'm currently working on an idea for [url=http://basschat.co.uk/topic/198597-february-composition-competition/]this month's[/url] competition which will be more electronica, but probably not quite so glitchy.

[kingofthestuntmen]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1360079132' post='1964488']
[/size]
[size=4]That's a lovely Bravewood! John certainly knows how to relic a bass... [/size]
[/quote]

Hmmm... I understand that the Bravewoods are well thought of, but the wear on this one is all original; my brother bought it looking like this in late '89/early '90 which, if memory serves, was before the whole 'Relicing' concept really kicked in.

I've often wondered who the previous owner was, and what kind of action it saw - More pics...
[IMG]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/kingofthestuntmen/P-Bass/DSCF1705.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/kingofthestuntmen/P-Bass/DSCF1706.jpg[/IMG]

[discreet]

[quote name='kingofthestuntmen' timestamp='1360096646' post='1964859']
Hmmm... I understand that the Bravewoods are well thought of, but the wear on this one is all original...[/quote]

I know, I know, I'm sorry to say you have been subject to my questionable sense of humour. Apologies.
It's a beautiful bass indeed, thanks for the extra pics...
I regret letting my 76 go: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/116578-precisions/page__view__findpost__p__1226142"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/116578-precisions/page__view__findpost__p__1226142[/url]