A tale of two P-basses (introducing 'The Travolta')

[bloke_zero]

There is a P-bass in the studio next door. It's 1973, been refinished sort of bland and has 14 year old strings on it. Dead spots galore - but sounds great. It consistently beats visiting basses except a '65 era bitsa.

 

As a project I tried to build a modern bitsa that replicated the thing - allparts rosewood and maple neck, nitro alder body, badass 2 bridge, roundwounds, pickups miles away from the strings (5 or 6mm), bespoke 70's style handwound pickup. It was not even close - it turned out well, a solid, even strong sounding p-bass, but maybe missing the growl and without the same mid character.

 

So far so dissapointing!

 

So anyway, the other day I was watching Pulp Fiction and drinking beer with my wife and spotted a bass come up for sale here, in bits from the excellent Mr @Turbineclimber (who provided a wealth of detail and hooked me up with some '74 pickups):

I asked my wife, as it seemed like a good opportunity, and she, having a fondness for Travolta and maybe also a few beers down was feeling mellow and agreed, after a sigh.

 

A couple of days later I managed to assemble the thing, it was dubbed the Travolta.

 

First thing to do was to try it head to head with the studio bass.

 

I'm still shocked by just how different they sound. I know, the strings (GHS Boomers on the Travolta, 14 year old Rotosound stainless steels on the other), maybe the bridge!?

 

Any way - you be the judge - the travolta comes first and alternates with the p-next-door. Excuse my playing - both played with no foam, finger at the pick-up position, straight in on through a clean pre amp, 1 then the other, cut together and roughly normalised):

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m7lerfbz466x5iw/PvsP.aif?dl=0

 

(Travolta is on the left - yeah I'm changing the cooker knobs!)

[bloke_zero]

Here it is after a hose down:

 

[wrinkleygit]

Excellent result, I agonised over those bits when they first appeared on Gumtree and then Facebook market place as the seller was only about 20 minutes from me, at the time I was also looking at a mid seventies fretless P up on Dartmoor, which finally came to live with me. 
  Good to see the finished bass.

[Longwheelbass]

John and Uma! Great piece of decoration bro! Looks awesome, sounds tasty, so glad it has ended up in good hands.