NBD! Fender 60th Anniversary Precision Bass!

Kerem Koseoglu

Kerem Koseoglu

Aug 27, 2018
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Istanbul, Turkey
www.keremkoseoglu.com
#1
Well, here we go with yet another NBD post. Let's start with a teaser photo.
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I have found this bass online. The (ex-) owner accepted one of my idle basses as a partial compensation, which is nice. The bass has some dents and scratches, but that's part of the mojo of having a mean old P-Bass; I suppose. Some people pay a lot of money to get brand new artificially damaged basses.

After getting home, I noticed that the pickguard is warped; and decided to remove it. To my surprise; there was a volume-knob shaped hole under the pickguard (probably CNC-related). I didn't like it, so I installed a real volume knob into it :D Now it looks like the bass has modified electronics or something, but the knob obviously does nothing at all.
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I put the screws back in as well; installed my favorite strap locks, and ran through the usual cleaning & polishing & string change & setup process. Without the pickguard and with the deceptive knob, the bass got an original look; which I liked a lot.

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Besides the hole on the body; I had other surprises with this bass.
  • Although it's ash & maple, it is not as bright & trebly as some other basses I had before; which is nice.
  • Although it's ash, it is lighter than most of the basses I had before; which is also nice.
  • The sound has a direct attack with the unmistakeable P-Bass low-middy-thing going on. It is a really really good sounding bass. Reminds me of Michael League's usual bass sound (minus the flat wounds).
After owning a Fender Marcus Miller V for a while; I thought that I'd never approach another ash & maple bass again because it clacked too much; if you know what I mean. However, I stand corrected. It is a matter of taste, obviously; but to my ears, ash & maple & P-Pickup work together very well on this bass.

I'm looking forward to get in on stage tomorrow, and make it sound like surdo drums on our Brazilian Latin Jazz gig.

Cheers!

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#5
Well here is an update... The Brazilian Latin Night went really well.

Most of the band commented on how good the P-Bass sounded. Only one player commented that he finds a Jazz Bass more appropriate for the style.

My opinion: Samba often requires the bass player to imitate the surdo drums. P-Bass did a very god job at it - much better than my Jazz Bass. However; due to the maple neck, I needed to dime the tone knob to get that "surdo" tone - till the point I wasn't hearing the fret / finger noises as much.

I guess EQ'ing would work as well (around 4Khz), but I preferred to have the control under my hand. Dime too much, you hear mud. Dime too little, you hear scratch. There is a sweet spot to be found.

Here is a link to hear the bass in action (active for 24 hours only):
Instagram .

And here is a memory photo:
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