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Vintage Basses?


ClassicVibes

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Has in Vintage the brand.

A mate has offered to sell his Vintage V4 P copy to me for a song and I'm tempted to make it a little lockdown project.

I'm looking to take out the neck and replace it with a Jazz style version and then possibly swap the pickups, bridge, tuners etc.

Do Vintage use similar specs to Fender for the neck heels and hardware?

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I have one I'm happy to take measurements from for you. However, play it first before you take it apart, there is a strong chance you'll like it as it is. They're really nice instruments. 

If not and the fit is good I'd be interested in the P neck you take off the Vintage. 

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Like Stew says, they are decent instruments. I've just been doing some work on one for a customer. The hardware was all good, as were the pick ups.

I did some fret work, smoothing the ends and a little levelling. Also upgraded the pots. It played, looked and sounded great.

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I have the Tony Butler Sig Precision and it’s a very good quality instrument. It was the backup to my US Standard and I fully expected to have to swap the pickups out, however that turned out to not be the case. Aside from putting in better pots/capacitor (thanks Ki0gon) I didn’t need to do anything on it, it’s just a great instrument.

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29 minutes ago, stewblack said:

I have one I'm happy to take measurements from for you. However, play it first before you take it apart, there is a strong chance you'll like it as it is. They're really nice instruments. 

If not and the fit is good I'd be interested in the P neck you take off the Vintage. 

If you could, that would be great. Especially the neck heel dimensions. 

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The newer (newer logo) vintage v4s are very good. All Wilkinson hardware, so you'll struggle without going over the top, to improve it without spending a fortune.

They also record very well.

Give it a chance first, see what you think.

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Here you go 16mm x 100mm x 61.5mm. The picture of the 16mm is weird but I've double checked it. The Fender neck is a tiny weeny bit sloppy in there. Can't be much though because my vintage neck fitted in the Fender slot. 

IMG_20200607_162520.thumb.jpg.8d35143ac4a480cf2eb14de2d678049b.jpgIMG_20200607_162544.thumb.jpg.15a2f939c3021a9b4667653beeb98482.jpgIMG_20200607_162612.thumb.jpg.80b8c22bccecc973976c5fd078c990c8.jpg

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In my experience these are good basses. I've tried a few of their P basses and they've all felt great.

I have an old Vintage Stingray clone (that's been out on loan to a mate for about 5 years!) and that plays great too. As has been mentioned already, the pots and jack weren't fantastic but once I'd changed them the stock pickup really sang. Lovely neck on it, really playable.

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6 hours ago, Deedee said:

In my experience these are good basses. I've tried a few of their P basses and they've all felt great.

I have an old Vintage Stingray clone (that's been out on loan to a mate for about 5 years!) and that plays great too. As has been mentioned already, the pots and jack weren't fantastic but once I'd changed them the stock pickup really sang. Lovely neck on it, really playable.

Agree- I have the active one EST96a, was yellow now faded to see-through caramel 

belter - they still make them 

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After some research and seeing stewblack's photos I'm pretty certain the P body I bought on here a few weeks ago is from a Vintage.  It's very light and the neck pocket fits a MiM P neck almost perfectly.  I had to shim a touch to alter the neck angle and there's perhaps a credit card thickness gap between the neck and body (I filled it).

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23 hours ago, stewblack said:

This photo interests me.  Does the pocket on the lower side get a touch wider towards the back of the pocket, or is it just the angle of the photo?  In the photo the bottom edge of the pocket doesn't look quite parallel with the line of the paint.

I ask because what I take to be my Vintage P body was a touch wider at one end.  I sanded just that small part down and refinished it.

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1 hour ago, inthedoghouse said:

Does the pocket on the lower side get a touch wider towards the back of the pocket, or is it just the angle of the photo?  In the photo the bottom edge of the pocket doesn't look quite parallel with the line of the paint.

Ah, I didn't notice. I measured in the middle at the deepest point. 

The bass is reassembled now. 

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3 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Ah, I didn't notice. I measured in the middle at the deepest point. 

The bass is reassembled now. 

Ok thanks.  On mine there was a definite very small bulge towards the heel that was obvious (on fairly close scrutiny) when the neck was on.  It's nice and stright now and refinished - looks good. 

I can't get over how light these poplar bodies are.

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