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'57 Custom Precision build - better photos


FEND3R
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I know there is not much of the building process shown, but apologize in advance.

To start with – I have always loved precisions and have owned quite a few, but have never been entirely satisfied with them due to some little details. Finally decided that visually the 1957 is my favorite, but I have always liked alder body and other personal touches to it. So my luthier began a quest for the perfect materials and he came up with a brilliant piece of maple – no blemishes, straight lines, medium heavy and sturdy, and an old alder plank – light and resonant. After that the neck was shaped as fat as a baseball bat but with 42.8mm width at nut, 7.25 radius, steel truss rod, vintage frets, rolled fretboard edges. The body: a period correct outline - just a little bit slimmer than present precisions, two piece, 42mm thick. After that they were sprayed in thin-thin-thin nitro. I wanted a vintage tint on the neck, but not very heavily tinted, and two tone sunburst but with pale yellow (not the Fender RI reddish/orange one):





The hardware includes Gotoh Ultra light vintage tuners, Fender vintage style bridge, Fender anodized guard (spayed over with lacquer because I don’t like the feel of it when natural), bone nut, vintage Fender barrel knobs, Fender thumbrest, etc. The pickup is my favorite Seymour Duncan SPB-1, vintage wiring with paper-in-oil capacitators. Strung with Fender light flatwounds. I have added the correct decal, because it just looks right this way. And this is how it looks finished:
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It came out amazing – relatively light (8.75 lbs), resonant, great thumpy tone but with just enough mids, with the tightest possible neck pocket. It sounds amazing now, I can not wait to see what it will sound like in a couple of years, but only time will show and a pitty no one can speed the process. Primarily I was thinking of relicing it - just some light touches, not heavy relic, but now I am in a bit of doubt- it just looks beautiful the way it is. I guess that now my G.A.S. (this is like my 55[sup]th[/sup] bass and probably 20[sup]th[/sup] precision) is cured for a long long time. Cheers

P.S. Now with better pics that are finally doing the bass justice.

Edited by FEND3R
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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks, fellows. After playing it for a month it has started to get some minor blemishes and the glossy nitro is already starting to get buffed at certain places, so I think that I will pass on the relic job - pretty sure that next year it will be a natural closet classic and in a couple of years probably a natural light relic!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

[quote name='sblueplanet' timestamp='1370296582' post='2098920']
Lovely job.
Here's my 57 RI CIJ lefty for comparison. I added the gold anodised pickguard,chrome covers and it has a Kent Armstrong pickup.
[/quote]

Looks terribly nice next to the Ampeq. And sblueplanet, You got me into thinking again for a couple of ashtrays :D

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