Road worn bass pictures

[nilorius]

Public Your road worn bass pictures, add brand and model. Mine is 2003. made, refinished by black marker Fender Jaco artist jazz bass.

[nilorius]

God bless you all

[Old Horse Murphy]

Once more with the neediness. Why?

[SteveXFR]

Road worn or attacked with sand paper and a file?

[Grimalkin]

13 hours ago, nilorius said:

God bless you all

 

I think he may have given up on that one... 

[ezbass]

There's already a thread for this subject, have a look here 

However, here are some RWs I've had over the years, you can tell which one is genuine wear.

[Dr.Dave]

Worst I ever had was a 68 jazz that was basically vandalized. Burned in places , terribly hacked and in one place the words ' your Mabel's Pie*s M*rg*n box' had been scratched down to the wood. I managed to make £900 on it in a few weeks which is why I bought it but I'd love to meet the tosser who did it and tell him what I think. I was told he backed Tom Jones and humperdinck in Las Vegas and one evening frank Sinatra at an event - plus the bass is to be heard on several Gilbert o Sullivan hits. You'd think it was some extreme punk guy , not a cabaret artist.

[peteb]

56 minutes ago, Dr.Dave said:

Worst I ever had was a 68 jazz that was basically vandalized. Burned in places , terribly hacked and in one place the words ' your Mabel's Pie*s M*rg*n box' had been scratched down to the wood. I managed to make £900 on it in a few weeks which is why I bought it but I'd love to meet the tosser who did it and tell him what I think. I was told he backed Tom Jones and humperdinck in Las Vegas and one evening frank Sinatra at an event - plus the bass is to be heard on several Gilbert o Sullivan hits. You'd think it was some extreme punk guy , not a cabaret artist.

 

You're making the mistake of thinking that your average punk rocker is necessarily a nihilistic, angry young man with no respect for material objects or anything else! This is not necessarily true, just as someone with a shaved head and bad tattoos isn't necessarily a hard guy. 

 

When I was a teenager (a long time ago), I worked in a theatre for a bit. The pit band were all big drinkers and generally much more rock and roll than all the bands I knew, despite the short hair and dinner jackets. I'm told that when classical orchestras travel for engagements away from home (their version of going on the road), they are notoriously rowdy! 

 

[BigRedX]

How do instruments get like this? 

 

I'm not particularly precious about any of my guitars or basses and the ones I use regularly have all picked up a ding or two, but none of them are anywhere near the state shown on here and in the other thread linked. I've owned two basses that were a bit battered but both had got that way before I owned them, and one went straight back to the person who made it for a full refurbishment. That was 15 years ago and despite being my main bass for those past 15 years has not picked up anything like the damage it received in the 5 years before I bought it.

[mikel]

13 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

How do instruments get like this? 

 

I'm not particularly precious about any of my guitars or basses and the ones I use regularly have all picked up a ding or two, but none of them are anywhere near the state shown on here and in the other thread linked. I've owned two basses that were a bit battered but both had got that way before I owned them, and one went straight back to the person who made it for a full refurbishment. That was 15 years ago and despite being my main bass for those past 15 years has not picked up anything like the damage it received in the 5 years before I bought it.

Because some people think a battered instrument looks cool, and by default will be vintage. 

[Burns-bass]

3 hours ago, Dr.Dave said:

Worst I ever had was a 68 jazz that was basically vandalized. Burned in places , terribly hacked and in one place the words ' your Mabel's Pie*s M*rg*n box' had been scratched down to the wood. I managed to make £900 on it in a few weeks which is why I bought it but I'd love to meet the tosser who did it and tell him what I think. I was told he backed Tom Jones and humperdinck in Las Vegas and one evening frank Sinatra at an event - plus the bass is to be heard on several Gilbert o Sullivan hits. You'd think it was some extreme punk guy , not a cabaret artist.

Sounds less like road worn and more like mental health crisis. (I’m not trying to make a joke, it genuinely does. I had an acquaintance that once destroyed several instruments during an episode. Very sad and quite distressing.)

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

How do instruments get like this? 

 

 

That and being worn really low and thrashed with a pick I imagine. The one above certainly looked like that’s how it was so damaged around the heel area, that and 50 years (at the time) of use.

[Grimalkin]

It's the same principle as buying designer ripped jeans, it looks as if you've been places. Instead of in front of Facebook.

[BigRedX]

For the last 30 years I've worn my basses low and they have spent most of their time being played aggressively with a heavy pick - the most used one got played like this for at least an hour every single day for 10 years, but none of them have even begun to look as worn as the ones in this thread. I must be doing it wrong.

[Franticsmurf]

Similarly I have one that has been with me for more than 10 years. In all that time, despite gigs, recording, rehearsals and practices that probably average out to around an hour a day, I have yet to wear away any finishes. It's picked up a few accidental dings along the way but nothing that would be noticeable from the front row. Maybe I don't sweat enough? I don't mind genuine wear and tear but I'm not interested in paying for it.

 

[rushbo]

I do like the look of basses that have a bit of "history," and I don't get triggered by the fact that the wear on an instrument might be artificial. The key is that it has to be done convincingly and sympathetically. A lump hammer and a cheese grater are not the tools for this sort of job. I'm always amused by shots of the backs of reliced basses that look as if they've been dragged behind a Land Rover since the mid-seventies. Until I discovered Basschat about eleven years ago, I had one (!) gigging bass which after about twenty years of heavy use, suffered a bit from buckle rash. This means I have a patch of wear about 20cm x 5cm on the back of the bass and a few associated dinks and chips elsewhere. In spite of having a long, hard life it does not resemble one of Noah's oars.

Limelight do some pretty convincing relics, but some of their "heavy" relics can end up looking like the worst kind of car boot sale fire salvage.

[Lozz196]

My main bass - now retired to home use only due to sentimental reasons - did probably 150 gigs over a 3 year period, including festivals & overseas tours, plus video shoots. Whilst not precious about it I similarly wasn’t careless with it. Our driver on the tours used to joke that he’d never seen a bass in such good condition, aside from fret-wear it’s still in pretty much new condition. I’m obviously letting the low-slung heavy-pick attack punks down badly.

[ezbass]

50 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

For the last 30 years I've worn my basses low and they have spent most of their time being played aggressively with a heavy pick - the most used one got played like this for at least an hour every single day for 10 years, but none of them have even begun to look as worn as the ones in this thread. I must be doing it wrong.

Wrong? It’s not black and white like that surely, just different? The white P I posted above came to me like that and as it was a ‘63, refinishing it was out of the question. It played great and sounded great too.

I’ve never achieved any substantial wear on a bass that I’ve owned from new, just the odd knock, scratch and swirl.

 

Anyway, perhaps less debate as to the merits of RW or how it was achieved (or not), pics are what the OP is after, therefore…

 
 

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by ezbass

[Supernaut]

Refinished by black marker?!

[Linus27]

So this is my main bass, I bought it new 34 years ago and has done well over a 1000 gigs and been on TV, tours, recorded albums and live radio sessions. All this damage is genuine and the bass I would say has not been cherished.

It was also played for about 25 years with a heavy pick playing guitar punk pop so the heel has worn down but I did also wear a wrist band because if I didn't then I would end up with blisters on my wrist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BigRedX]

@Linus27 that all looks perfectly believable and considering the age of the bass fairly minimal compared to some.

 

However, how on earth did you manage to wear away a huge area of finish just below the jack socket?

[Dad3353]

35 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

...how on earth did you manage to wear away a huge area of finish just below the jack socket?

 

14 miles trailed behind a Landrover. 

 

...

 

 

[nilorius]

2 hours ago, Supernaut said:

Refinished by black marker?!

I took that sunberst finish off with a knife and painted it black that way.

[Linus27]

46 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

@Linus27 that all looks perfectly believable and considering the age of the bass fairly minimal compared to some.

 

However, how on earth did you manage to wear away a huge area of finish just below the jack socket?

 

I dropped the bass, I think once or twice and the paint in that area cracked. I'm actually amazed at how thick the paint was. So over time, the crack got bigger and bits kept snapping off until one big chunk just snapped off. So I've since rubbed the edges down so there's no longer a ridge to catch on anything. I'm kind of tempted to mask the area off and spray some hammarite over it but I'm kind of tempted to leave it as it is a proper battle scar.

[Linus27]

14 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

14 miles trailed behind a Landrover. 

 

...

 

 

 

It's the only way to do it effectively, you try doing it with a Tesla, never looks the same as a good old Landy 🤣