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ply bodied P basses


Geek99
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I'm thinking of buying one of these bodies for my build process - MIK originally I think, mostly down to cost grounds..

Has anyone got one / used one / painted one?   Going to be solid if thin Olympic white in nitro - any advice appreciated

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I have a bitsa with a ply body, it sounds fine, its got a cheap pickup and a cheap artec preamp in it but it sounds like a P bass should. I havent painted it it came with a great black finish on it. If i hadn't of put in the active pre and routed out for the battery i probably wouldn't even know its ply

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I had a ply bodied P bass sometime back. It was a late 70's / Early 80's MIJ (It was either a Hondo or a Hohner, I think, but definitely MIJ)
Someone had mostly removed the original decal on the headstock, and tried to paint a new one on it.... then tried to remove that, and do another.... so I don't know the exact make
The body was quite "roadworn", dented & chipped....
The neck on it was broken. I found someone locally (on a facebook group), selling a replacement P neck (not Fender)

I didn't know it was ply until I took the neck off, and had to to a bit of tweaking, to get the replacement neck to fit the pocket
Anyhow, I got the neck to fit the pocket very snugly. The electrics all worked fine, in fact - I wish I had removed the pickups and kept them for another project, as they sounded superb!

I sold the bass on, which was what I had intended to do. But a part of me wished I'd kept it as a knockabout bass - for gigs in rough pubs, and just because I liked the bass a lot
It was 3TSB and looked rather nice. I must say, the bass was very resonant, and quite loud when unplugged. No dead spots, and quite a hefty bottom end. Good range of tones really
How much of that was down to the pickups, and how much was down to the solid nature of the body, or the fact that I just must have made the neck / body joint pretty well... I'm not really sure

It was a tad on the heavy side, as was the neck, so overall, the bass felt on the heavy side (well, a bit anyway)
Bought the bass for 20 quid, paid I think 35 for the neck and sold it on for a small profit. The guy who bought it sold it on again.... and also for a small profit.... maybe I should've kept it though.
Although it was scratched & dinged, I didn't mind this. I would imagine a re-paint would be quite difficult. The sunburst versions of ply instruments are painted black around the edges -
so you can't see the end grains & laminations... Then again, if you're painting them a solid colour, you should be alright

EDIT: At that sort of age though, would I be right in thinking it would have been a nitro finish?
I'm just wondering what health hazards there may be, in removing paint from instruments from that era.....

Edited by Marc S
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I've got a bunch of ply bodied Fender clones (as well as a ply bodied Rick clone). One is a 1970's Japanese Maya jazz bass, which was a rather battered sunburst finish when I got it. It was filled and refinished in flat black by Ian Allerton (The Guitar Works in Hertfordshire) and it came up a treat. The downsides of cheap ply bodies is that they tend to be quite heavy and the screw holes will need dowelling if you remove the hardware or scratch plate too often.

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my first bass was ply (soft centre blocks with hard wood facings)  it was pretty awful, no sustain and a dull sort of sound.  I guess it depends on the quality of the ply, as dense fully hardwood ply is as stiff as any solid wood.  Thinking about it, my Wal is ply ... it's just that the centre of the ply is inch thick mahogany!

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On 1/13/2018 at 00:15, Funkfingers said:

If your plywood bass guitar was a Hondo II, the pickup could well have been an OEM DiMarzio. 

Thanks for that info. There wasn't a stamp on it, or any mark to help identify it.
I wasn't expecting anything much, when I first plugged the bass in - but it really did sound great 

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On 1/13/2018 at 15:42, Rexel Matador said:

Where do you get them from? I'm always on the lookout for cheap p bodies to mess around with, but I rarely seem to find any - any leads would be much appreciated!

I got my £20 P bass from a local Facebook group. I also bought the neck, again, quite cheaply from the same group (South Wales Guitar, Amp, Gear Exchange)

Yes, I know a lot of people don't particularly like Facebook, and TBH, some people you get on these type of groups are eeejits and time wasters - But I've also met some great people via a couple of local buy & sell groups, and traded quite a bit too....
Plus, Every now & then, a bargain will crop up, or a part you need for an obscure brand of guitar

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