Gigging A 70's Bass

[kev b]

I gigged my owned from new 1978 Jazz Bass regularly until recently, it is totally original and mint apart from the strings (which are tucked away somewhere) my amp is from 1973 as well.

I only stopped using it as like the previous poster, I was afraid of it being stolen or damaged in the tiny spaces we often have to play in.

Orchestral players use fragile instruments over two hundred years old so I wouldn't worry about something as robust and basic as an electric bass dropping to bits. Perhaps a quick check and clean of the pots and tightening up the jack socket and it should be good to go for another 20 years.

[bassbiscuits]

I gig a 1970 precision from time to time, tho I now tend to keep it for the more polite gigs due to the "drunken punter" issue mentioned in an earlier post.

But it's never let me down electrically/mechanically at all. As long as someone hasn't butchered the electronics at some point old stuff as long as it's well maintained is perfectly gigable

[dadofsix]

Can you take it to a qualified Luthier and have everything checked out? If it's all original and well maintained, you should be good to go. A caveat, though, the tuner on my 2002 Warwick just died, so problems can happen to "younger" instruments as well. lol

Good luck. Be happy.

Edited April 7, 2015 by dadofsix

[ambient]

My one tutors cello is about 200 years old, I remember her telling us it'd survived Napoleon and 2 world wars 😊, she still gigs it.

I'd maybe get it checked by a decent luthier before you use it.

Having it damaged or stolen applies to any instrument. Just be careful with it, as you would with anything else.