Valentines Day and the smell of bass-related romance.

[7string]

Ah, the smell of romance is in the air.

I was doing a trawl of Gumtree yesterday and came upon a bass. I mentioned to my wife that I remember playing that type and model of bass years ago and it was great fun. I thought it might be good for friends of ours, but their children aren’t quite big enough yet. My wife said that if it was really fun to play that I should get it for my Valentine’s Day pressie.

So I drove over there tonight while my wife was in her calligraphy class and picked it up.

Here it is:



Ish an ickle baba bass. All together now…. Aaaahhhh



I really like these little things. A studio I used to go to had one of these with an EMG in it. They used it all the times for on-the-spot basslines as (even!) guitarists could use it as it's only a 30" scale.

Plans are to get a suitable replacement sticker with Little in front of the adult version of Fender (GreeneKing has one I think *EDIT* I just searched the forum and Neepheid's the bassist in question just sent him a PM. Sorry for confusion GK), take the pick holder off, give it a setup and a fret-dress (if it needs one) and pimp it over time. May even do it a different colour or see if there’s a DIY version of vinyl wrap.



Our friend’s kids may (or may not) take a shine to it in a few years time, but it’ll be getting a fair amount of use in the meantime (I’ll tape over the sticker when they visit).

I’ll start getting Valentine’s Day stuff together tomorrow to avoid the rush on Sunday morning.

Edited February 17, 2010 by 7string

[7string]

Blimey! We have chosen our wives well

[7string]

I started to take the wee bass apart to see what needs to be done. The list has been getting longer and longer!

* Electronics are a bit dodgy. The pots are horrible and while I'm there I might as well change the input jack as well.

* Most of the pickguard screws are stripped as are a couple of the bridge screws and one of the strap buttons. The pickguard screws are of a few different sizes!

* Fingerboard needs a good going over as it's virtually black and it's rosewood.

* Frets need leveling. They're low but I think I can get away with just a leveling and not have to re-fret it.

* And most importantly the Encore headstock decal has got to go.


I knew that there would be some work and most of it isn't too bad. The plugging and re-drilling of the stripped holes will be a challenge as I haven't done that before. Other bits I know how to do.

So there's a bit of work to get "Val" (my wife suggested the name) up to scratch but that's fine by me.

So far:

* I've ordered and received new pickguard screws pots and an input jack from WD Music (quick and efficient as usual!).
* Got dowel to plug the holes to re-drill. Later found that I didn't have a 3/16" drill bit so that's on its way.


Most importantly, I've sanded the 'E' word off of the headstock. I thought that one of Greenkings basses had a different version of the Fender logog but then I searched the forum and found it was Neepheid instead. A quick PM later and I was pointed in the direction of seller [b]plankspanker101[/b] on eBay (well worth a look when you have a spare 5 minutes). I found a decal which was the kind of thing I was looking for, sent a message to ask if I could alter it a little and got it in the post yesterday. Top man




So a few things to do, but it's all good fun

[discreet]

Basses for Valentine's Day presents??

All I got was a kick in the conkers.

[MRJAKESK8]

Mmm, Looks rather like my first bass Mine was great!