spacecowboy

Well it was harder than it sounded , when he told me he had some in boxes in the store room that weren't opened or on display he took some persuading to get them out... huffing and puffing ensued but he did get them out for me, and I walked away with one of the "Store room" ones!

Good eye! we have bloody loads of them, we went a little crazy at one point! Think there's 8 prints in our house!

That's a beauty mate! Out of interest did they plug you in to that little Orange combo on the floor too?

Yeah I asked about that cause I checked the stock before I went in and noticed that they didn't have everything out, the guy told me that during the pandemic they got a load of stock in and turned the downstairs of the shop in to a new stock room, so even though he seemed a little put out he did go and get more basses out of the stock room for me, including, ironically, the one I ended up buying, but they must have had 6 models in the store that weren't out on display and TBH really should have been!

So while I have a couple of days off work, I really wanted to take a couple of hours to scratch a P Bass itch I have, I don't know where it came from as I have NEVER liked the look or the thought of a P Bass, but I've been bitten recently and the itch is too much, so got to scratch it. I popped into Guitar Guitar in Newcastle and asked them to unfurl their in stock P Basses, line them up and let me try them all in a shootout fashion to see if any of them were a suitable ointment. With that said I was presented with lots of basses highlighting Fenders highly confusing catalogue of models, with a £5000 50's custom shop propping one end and a Squier Classic Vibe at the other, sandwiched in the middle were American Pro's, Vintera's, and Players series'. What a bloody hit and miss selection of basses they are, some were good, some were awful, combinations of good / bad strings, setups and neck feel, the £800 Vintera having a much better setup than the twice the price American Pro for instance... I can quickly talk about that £5k P bass here, and this is for people who have played it... that neck... WTF... it's a tree, U profile? sheesh!... ...So for an hour I went back and forward between 5 or 6 basses until I was playing just one and didn't want to put it down... that bass was... drum roll please... a... Squier FSR (Factory / Fender Special Run?) Late 50's Custom Vibe P Bass (awful mouthful) in a two tone sunburst (never liked this colour) with a anodised gold (never ever would have wanted this) pickguard... so it's a P Bass in a colour combination that I would never have looked twice at, it's got a maple fingerboard which I have forever told myself I don't like, and it's a squier... so why did I buy it? well put simply it's one of the best basses I have ever played, ever, I couldn't put it down, I went back to it after playing US Pros and Mex Vinteras and Players Series' and for me it was just better, the neck was better, the frets were better, the feel was better, it was just better so I left with it and then played it for 2.5 hours straight when I got it home, it's tremendous. £400, was the American Pro 4 times the bass? not a bloody chance. As for P Basses I thought they could only produce a stuffy wooly thumpy jumper sound, but it knocks most basses out the park for bark and bite, volume up, tone down and it just nails everything I want to play. I'm converted! It's a wonderful instrument, and I'm definitely coming round to the two tone sunburst and gold pickguard, it's classy in a "late 50's" kind of way 🤔.

That is excellent!!

Tan line! She's flashing her white bits!

Decided against a refin build diary, a good diary stripping lacquer does not make, so here's a couple of photos from the basses first reveal coat of oil, this is applied with sandpaper and should reveal any lumps and bumps I've missed, after 4 hours or so I can lightly sand it again and then start getting the oil on it properly, feels so much better than the heavy lacquer before it. Can't whack stroking a good bit of wood! The neck woods are also a lot clearer now, definitely Walnut sides, wenge stringers, but, the jury is still out on the center wood though... could be an Ash or Oak... the neck and body look alot more balanced tonally, should be a stunning looking bass when done.

Thank you Al, It'll certainly be getting some love and care, I have one of those electro cleaner things at work so I can chuck all the metal in that and it should come out all sparkly... hopefully, the wood just needs a lovely feed of oil and then a wax sealer, the poor timber has been well preserved in a sea of lacquer! good news there is that hopefully alot of these scratches are just lacquer deep and I don't need to sand too much.