umcoo

Ok I found the serial numbers from pics sent by the seller. The front panel is OR215 and the main chassis is OR237. Initialed by "DK"

Thanks guys, I'm out of the country at the moment so not sure on the serial number. I seem to think it's in the 250's, and the front chassis is different, very early 200's. I'll double check when I'm home. I have a Matamp GT100 from 1976 that Matamp serviced for me, Jeff gave me the build date from the book. I'll perhaps ask them to date it at some point. Was told it was a 1970 though. Have you moved on all your old Matamp gear now Dave?

This is it...this is the holy grail! Shipped over from Sweden, this is a 1970 Orange Matamp OR200. As used by Jimmy Page and many others back in the day. I believe they were only built for a few years and they don't come up very often, so I snapped this one up when it became available. Fell in love with these back in my teens when Weezer's original bass player used one on their first couple of albums and been after one ever since. The UPS guy was pleased I was in to help him with the box, but out of the box it's not terribly heavy...the two handles make it relatively manageable. Not had chance to really crank it, but just take my word that it sounds really good 😁 Anyway, pics...

Yeah, plays great! Need a bit more work on the setup but the pickup sounds great - nice and beefy but that just may be because I'm used to playing a jazz bass. Neck is quite slim for a precision too so not a baseball bat 😀

Ok, so this is all finished! I didn't get many pics of the last bits of work, but what I did was... made a new wiring harness with CTS pots and the original cap, cleaned up the bridge sorted the pickups out and got rid of the tape and spliced wires ordered a new tort pickguard left all the screws in a bath of apple cider vinegar to clean them up new knobs Quick setup to get it playing better and strung up with Ernie Ball's, it's sounding great. Nice to have a P Bass in the fold again. I've recently ordered a Badass II and I'm going to get a black pickguard too, just to see what it's like. Really enjoying this one and good fun to get it back into playing condition. Cheers for all the help along the way.

That's sad news, I'm sorry to hear that. DHA pedals were all the rage when I first started coming on here back in the Bassworld days. Owned a few and sounded great.

Thank you, my friend! All sorted!

This is what I'm working with...

Hi folks, Need some help with wiring up the pickups. They've come with additional wire spliced onto then and it's a pretty poor job. I'm going to de-solder and attach new cloth wiring. My question is: how do I know which lead is hot, which is ground, and which two to connect together? I had a quick search but nothing obvious jumping out. I'm totally new to P-Bass wiring, so forgive me! Thanks all

Just a quick update on this. I've dismantled all the wiring. The pots are shot, but the pickups are reading just fine, so that's good news. I think I'm going to go with Alpha pots as they will fit the existing holes. I'll use the original cap as well. I shot some clear gloss on the pickguard, but it's a bit orange peely, so I might sand it back...maybe just get a new guard for it, but unsure for now. There's a headless pickup screw I need to sort too. This evening, I taped off the frets and just gave them a once over with some steel wool to get the crud off, then a quick rub with Autosol metal polish. They're looking really good. Need to order the parts soon so I can get it back into action.

Stripped it all down today and cleaned up the pickguard and body. I wet sanded the guard with 1200, 1500 then 2500 grit, then buffed it out. It's a little matt, so I'm tempted to give it a quick shot of clear gloss, but that may take away from the aged look. The body came out really nice with just a simple rub with Virtuoso cleaner and polish and the grain really pops. I disconnected all the wiring and pickups too. One of the switches wasn't even connected to anything. Getting a reading on the DC resistance for the pickups which is good news. The wires were spliced and held together with tape though, which might explain my lack of output. I'm just going to wire it up with new pots as a standard P bass, and keep the switches in for the aesthetic. Next job is cleaning up the frets... Here's a few pics... Pre-cleaning

Thanks all for the comments @Bassassin I was hoping you would make an appearance! Thanks for the info, and lovely looking basses. @dood Yours looks great too. Thanks for posting. I am going to see if CTS pots fit and get some ordered this week hopefully so I can get it making some noise. It's a really figured body and possibly Sen when I've googled it, so think it may be that. Nice and lightweight, whatever it is.

In that case, they're working exactly as they should! 😁

I've been on a bit of a P bass kick lately, and wanted to pick something up that would give me that classic sound, but without breaking the bank. I'm a sucker for older basses too, so when this 1976 Greco P bass copy came up for sale in Japan, I snatched it for the princely sum of £113. Had to pay almost the same again to get it over here and through customs, but today I picked it up. Currently not getting any output, but the wiring is shot and I think it's more of a pots issue than a pickup issue. A spray of contact cleaner made no difference. Needs a good stripping down and cleaning, but should do me nicely! Nice and light not sure on the body wood, but looks fantastic. Everything's nicely aged too. No idea what's going on with the 2 additional switches - once I've taken it apart I'll try and work it out. Kill switch maybe? They're obviously not original, but it would be cool to keep them and use them for something- open to suggestions! I'll probably take my time getting this one back to working order, but that's all part of the fun. Cheers all, here's some pics....

Looks great, good job Zilla!

Needed a wiring loom for a Jazz which has knackered pots. Messaged John in the morning with a query, and it was posted to me a couple of hours later. Installed today, works perfectly and great craftsmanship. Cheers John!

Sorry, forgot link - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2413094311/

The guy is having them made by rareguitarheaven.net This is the Facebook group if you want to look - it's from a few months back so you might have to scroll a bit - good luck with the project!

There is a Wal Facebook group and a chap posted in it recently about a company in Japan who make clones of instruments. They're making him a Wal clone (well, the wooden bits at least) for quite a reasonable amount. They may be able to do you the body and neck of Pro 1E? I'll try and find the details.

Looks great, good job! There's something really satisfying about restoring and old and abused piece of gear back to how it should be.

Looks great! Fantastic job by Zilla as usual.

Been there, done that The Matamp slays the Orange

Ohh no

Hi all, I've always had a soft spot for Capri Orange and couldn't resist when this came up on Reverb a few weeks back. It's a 1993 MIJ '62 reissue, one of the "non-export" versions. A few battlescars, and the neck pickup doesn't work so I need to take it apart and see what's going on, but other than that it's a great bass and plays very nicely. Came with a non-original pickguard but I much prefer JB's without them anyway. Can't say I've seen many of these about - I think Capri Orange was only in production in 1993 and 1997, but it would be interesting to hear more. Enjoy the pics!