So I went by a pawn shop today, and, lo and behold, I found this... beauty. So much mojo. Too much mojo for its own good. I plan on cleaning this bad boy up and get it working decently again, and wanted to document a before, perhaps during, and after.
Here it is:
I'll give you a second to take it in.
Got it? Alright, time for first impressions. The obvious:
Yes, it is true. The previous person has bolted a bunch of things to the front of this bass. I count two pickguards (not including the metallic one for the electronics), a tremolo arm bolted on upside-down and backwards, two bolts poorly painted white (the paint seems to had gotten on the tone/volume knobs), a metal squiggle horribly painted the same white, and a "Stradolin" plaque in the corner:
Not sure if it is the missing one from the headstock, I still have research to do on that. Speaking of the headstock:
Okay, so apparently the action on the zero fret wasn't high enough for this tinkerer, so he decided to put... is that a string bar from a teisco? Well, he dropped that between the nut and the fret. I mean, the action is decent now, but what that bent bar does for the intonation...
Also, for some reason there is a third strap peg screwed into the back of the headstock. The screw is 1/4-1/2" longer than it needs to be, so it is dangling around there. I don't understand that bit, either. Clearly he has a lot of screws... why not choose a shorter one? Maybe he ran out after his "decorating"?
As for the functionality of the bass, it works. The tuners seem to operate just fine. The pickup makes a decent sound, as far as I can tell with flubby, ancient flatwounds and a guitar's low E string, and the pots work and aren't terribly scratchy. The bridge seems to be a decent bridge for that ere, meaning that you can adjust either side and it has roller saddles that can be individually intonation. Not that is matters, the bass side of the bridge has been lowered so much that the E string moves around if you aren't careful. Here you can see the design decently well:
The neck seems solid on this bass, and I will have to check it with a straightedge tomorrow when I get a chance.
I keep calling it a bass, but I am not entirely convinced it is. The basic assumption is that if it has 4 strings it is a bass, but several things give me pause. The nut slots and the slots on the bridge are not large enough like they are on modern basses; the bridge might not belong to this bass, but I believe the nut does. Beyond that, the tuners are too small. They are clearly guitar tuners. I have heard that early on basses would use guitar tuners a lot of times since companies were just starting to deal with basses, so maybe that is it.
The strangest thing is the scale: From my quick measurement, the scale length is roughly 24.5". That is shorter than a Les Paul. How loose are bass strings going to be on this? How high the action? Maybe this was meant to be a tenor guitar, or a dumb, large mandolin, or an electric ukulele with guitars strings, or... something else.
I am looking forward to getting this bass thing going again. My plan is to take it apart, clean all the pawn shop grunge out of all the surfaces and our of the crevices, and install the mojo again (minus the -0.5 fret, that is bad mojo).
EDIT:
Gilmoreisgod requested a sound clip, which is an excellent idea. This is recorded directly into logic pro via an interface with no effects or simulated amps or anything.
I play the first 12 frets on each string starting on the high one to start off, then it is a couple measures of Twist and Shout with my fingers, a couple with a pick, a little bit of Stand by me fingerstyle, then a couple excerpts of Take Me Out with a pick.
Yeah, frets 1-4 or so on some of the strings are unplayable. I mess up a couple times (no click track :/), and I even cut out a small section when I was having trouble starting Twist and Shout with the pick for some reason, but most of the "mis-fretted" notes are from the terrible action. The E string is nearly unplayable all along the neck, and as you can her it has nearly 0 sustain. Strangely, the A and D strings sound like they have a phaser on or something.
I tuned the open strings pretty decently, but the intonation is way off.
Here it is:
I'll give you a second to take it in.
Got it? Alright, time for first impressions. The obvious:
Yes, it is true. The previous person has bolted a bunch of things to the front of this bass. I count two pickguards (not including the metallic one for the electronics), a tremolo arm bolted on upside-down and backwards, two bolts poorly painted white (the paint seems to had gotten on the tone/volume knobs), a metal squiggle horribly painted the same white, and a "Stradolin" plaque in the corner:
Not sure if it is the missing one from the headstock, I still have research to do on that. Speaking of the headstock:
Okay, so apparently the action on the zero fret wasn't high enough for this tinkerer, so he decided to put... is that a string bar from a teisco? Well, he dropped that between the nut and the fret. I mean, the action is decent now, but what that bent bar does for the intonation...
Also, for some reason there is a third strap peg screwed into the back of the headstock. The screw is 1/4-1/2" longer than it needs to be, so it is dangling around there. I don't understand that bit, either. Clearly he has a lot of screws... why not choose a shorter one? Maybe he ran out after his "decorating"?
As for the functionality of the bass, it works. The tuners seem to operate just fine. The pickup makes a decent sound, as far as I can tell with flubby, ancient flatwounds and a guitar's low E string, and the pots work and aren't terribly scratchy. The bridge seems to be a decent bridge for that ere, meaning that you can adjust either side and it has roller saddles that can be individually intonation. Not that is matters, the bass side of the bridge has been lowered so much that the E string moves around if you aren't careful. Here you can see the design decently well:
The neck seems solid on this bass, and I will have to check it with a straightedge tomorrow when I get a chance.
I keep calling it a bass, but I am not entirely convinced it is. The basic assumption is that if it has 4 strings it is a bass, but several things give me pause. The nut slots and the slots on the bridge are not large enough like they are on modern basses; the bridge might not belong to this bass, but I believe the nut does. Beyond that, the tuners are too small. They are clearly guitar tuners. I have heard that early on basses would use guitar tuners a lot of times since companies were just starting to deal with basses, so maybe that is it.
The strangest thing is the scale: From my quick measurement, the scale length is roughly 24.5". That is shorter than a Les Paul. How loose are bass strings going to be on this? How high the action? Maybe this was meant to be a tenor guitar, or a dumb, large mandolin, or an electric ukulele with guitars strings, or... something else.
I am looking forward to getting this bass thing going again. My plan is to take it apart, clean all the pawn shop grunge out of all the surfaces and our of the crevices, and install the mojo again (minus the -0.5 fret, that is bad mojo).
EDIT:
Gilmoreisgod requested a sound clip, which is an excellent idea. This is recorded directly into logic pro via an interface with no effects or simulated amps or anything.
I play the first 12 frets on each string starting on the high one to start off, then it is a couple measures of Twist and Shout with my fingers, a couple with a pick, a little bit of Stand by me fingerstyle, then a couple excerpts of Take Me Out with a pick.
Yeah, frets 1-4 or so on some of the strings are unplayable. I mess up a couple times (no click track :/), and I even cut out a small section when I was having trouble starting Twist and Shout with the pick for some reason, but most of the "mis-fretted" notes are from the terrible action. The E string is nearly unplayable all along the neck, and as you can her it has nearly 0 sustain. Strangely, the A and D strings sound like they have a phaser on or something.
I tuned the open strings pretty decently, but the intonation is way off.
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