la bam Posted Friday at 09:56 Share Posted Friday at 09:56 With time flying, how about a thread / club for all those basses (not bassists) who have reached or surpassed the grand age of 50. Would be interesting to see what's out there, what condition, what stories, history etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
la bam Posted Friday at 09:59 Author Share Posted Friday at 09:59 (edited) I'll start with my 1972 Kay 20 b. All original, all works, sounds great. Nice finish and feel. Looks lovely. Bits I like: 1. The fact each pickup has an on/off/mix switch, a volume and a tone. 2. The little pointers under the numbered knobs. Makes it super easy to dial in what you want. 3. It has character. Nice finish and feels more handmade than a like a modern cnc'd piece of wood. Edit: the headstock photo was taken before I did some work on it - previous owner had strung it all wrong!! Edited Friday at 19:08 by la bam 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted Friday at 10:36 Share Posted Friday at 10:36 Great idea, sadly I can’t contribute re basses, none of mine anywhere near that age - did used to have one of those Kay Rickytypers though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beedster Posted Friday at 10:39 Share Posted Friday at 10:39 51 this year 👍 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassAgent Posted Friday at 10:41 Share Posted Friday at 10:41 1966, 1971, 1970: 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted Friday at 10:46 Share Posted Friday at 10:46 My 1968 Fender Precision, bought new by me in March 1969, seriously modded in 1986 and finally put in its case in 1996 when I switched to 5 string basses. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted Friday at 12:09 Share Posted Friday at 12:09 See you in 4 years - my oldest bass is my 1978 Yamaha BB1200... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggaebass Posted Friday at 12:34 Share Posted Friday at 12:34 53 years old 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigthumb Posted Friday at 12:50 Share Posted Friday at 12:50 Scraping in at 50 years old. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuyR Posted Saturday at 23:03 Share Posted Saturday at 23:03 (edited) All Jazz basses. Youngest is 58 years old dots/bound/lollipops which I am quite enjoying. Acquired via these hallowed pages from the long term ownership of the lovely McKendrick, very sadly no longer with us. Edited Saturday at 23:08 by GuyR 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueMoon Posted Sunday at 07:50 Share Posted Sunday at 07:50 My early 70’s Fender basses: ‘71 Jazz and ‘73 Fretless P 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
la bam Posted Sunday at 08:50 Author Share Posted Sunday at 08:50 Some beauties here. Great to see they're still lasting the test of time. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybertect Posted Sunday at 22:52 Share Posted Sunday at 22:52 (edited) The same age as me, this is my 1967 Hofner Verithin I bought it in 1988 from a friend who had replaced the tuners with some Schallers; everything else is original. For the band I was in then, I took great advantage of its ability to feed back to create some terrifying drones when crouched in front of the Sessionette 100 I was using at the time. 😎 For the last few years I have kept it strung with D’Addario Chromes. It still comes out to play every once in a while. Edited Sunday at 22:55 by cybertect 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzyJ Posted Sunday at 23:52 Share Posted Sunday at 23:52 August '65 P. Gigged a few times when I bought it 15yrs ago. Now strung with TI Flats and lives in the original case. This one is going nowhere 🙂 . 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggaebass Posted Monday at 08:14 Share Posted Monday at 08:14 8 hours ago, JazzyJ said: August '65 P. Gigged a few times when I bought it 15yrs ago. Now strung with TI Flats and lives in the original case. This one is going nowhere 🙂 . Oh my, that’s a beauty 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basshead56 Posted Monday at 09:12 Share Posted Monday at 09:12 My 73 Precision creeps in. Though the pickup is long gone, replaced with a dimarzio 60's. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbiscuits Posted Monday at 20:51 Share Posted Monday at 20:51 (edited) Here’s my old lady. 54 years and counting. Bought it 30 years ago from Musical Exchanges in Coventry, which involved part-exing my only bass, a Charvel 1B. I was in university at the time and this has been everywhere with me over the last 30 years. For a very long time it was my only bass and as such helped to shape the way I play. It’s on its third set of frets, second nut, and has had the usual maintenance visits to the local luthier from time to time, but the rest is all original and it’s light as a feather and a pleasure to play. Edited Monday at 21:00 by bassbiscuits 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burns-bass Posted Monday at 21:12 Share Posted Monday at 21:12 1966 and all original. Used at all my electric gigs so that’s 40 or so a year. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted Monday at 23:16 Share Posted Monday at 23:16 Here’s my Precision , 61 years old and mine for nearly the last 40. Refinished in the late 80’s by Paul McNab (Paulman guitars of Huddersfield). 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burns-bass Posted Tuesday at 07:25 Share Posted Tuesday at 07:25 It’s reassuring to see a lot of long term owned basses here. I’m not saying you can’t instantly have a connection but (without wishing to romanticise too much) you do build a relationship with an instrument over years. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted Tuesday at 13:09 Share Posted Tuesday at 13:09 13 hours ago, casapete said: Here’s my Precision , 61 years old and mine for nearly the last 40. Refinished in the late 80’s by Paul McNab (Paulman guitars of Huddersfield). For anyone interested, here’s a picture of my 63 Precision in the hands of its previous owner! Jeff Ramsdale was originally in Hull band ‘Roger Bloom’s Hammer’, who had a good go at breaking into the big time. They were signed to CBS and supported quite a few famous bands in the late 60’s including T.Rex. When Roger departed they carried on as ‘The Hammer’, and as well as Jeff they had Rod Temperton in the band of Heatwave / Quincy Jones /Michael Jackson fame. When The Hammer broke up, Jeff carried on playing, and the picture below is him with my bass playing at The Hofbrauhouse in Hull, probably in the late 70’s. By then someone had made a strange scratchplate for the bass which you can see. I played in a couple of bands with Jeff after this and the bass was refinished in a sort of mustard yellow by Rokas in London. Sadly Jeff died in a tragic car accident, and I was contacted by his family a year or two later to see if I wanted to buy his bass . When I went round to see it, it wasn’t in a good state after being kept in a loft for a while. After acquiring it I had it refinished to natural, and Paul did a great job of making the horrible holes from the previous scratchplate look like knots in the wood. Fortunately the original plate was still intact, and that’s how it’s remained for nearly 40 years. It’s a lovely bass, not heavy and sounds like a good P.bass should - will remain with me till I’ve departed. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunty Posted Tuesday at 17:04 Share Posted Tuesday at 17:04 My contribution - a ‘73 Mustang, all original and the same age as me (not all original 😂). Bought via Andy Baxter and I’m sure I’ll spend many hours wondering where it’s been during its life, before it came to me. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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