rwb
Quarternote
Posts: 14
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Post by rwb on Jan 4, 2020 15:31:48 GMT -5
There were a few of us on the FDP. Let's see who has migrated....
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Post by Taildragger on Jan 4, 2020 16:20:36 GMT -5
Your definition of "vintage"?
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Post by garyweimer on Jan 4, 2020 18:41:58 GMT -5
Like this one? Attachments:
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Post by Taildragger on Jan 4, 2020 19:00:56 GMT -5
Oldest one among mine was made 21 years ago.
I like any quality instrument, regardless of age. If it's also old and not thrashed beyond utility, that's cool. But I don't like them just because they're old. Plenty of loser units were churned out "back in the day". My first bass was a Fender P that weighed about as much as a Peavey T40. Bought it new in about 1973, didn't really bond with it, traded it off and hope I never cross paths with it again.
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jeffscott
Wholenote
Rickenbacker Guru..............
Posts: 138
Age: GOF
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Post by jeffscott on Jan 4, 2020 22:29:39 GMT -5
I don't currently own any vintage ones, but have had a few over the years, from 1967 through to whenever you consider the cut-off date for a vintage bass.
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rwb
Quarternote
Posts: 14
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Post by rwb on Jan 5, 2020 0:02:35 GMT -5
Your definition of "vintage"? Good point. On the FDP we were really talking about Fenders, so the "pre-CBS" stuff got bandied about.... but here, I take it we're not restricted to Fenders? I dunno.... I love all old instruments... the threads about crazy stuff like the Tutmarc were fun. |
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Post by hushnel on Jan 5, 2020 9:39:25 GMT -5
My first bass, used it from 1965 to 1981. When I moved up to the farm after I retired I put it on the bench and did a fine tweaking of it’s set up, which had never been done. I’ve take it to a few rehearsals it’s as cool as it ever was and better to. I noticed that the floating bridge was 3/4” off the mark. All those years of bending the strings up to intonation, man was I a dumb kid.  |
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Post by LTB on Jan 5, 2020 12:38:34 GMT -5
My first bass, used it from 1965 to 1981. When I moved up to the farm after I retired I put it on the bench and did a fine tweaking of it’s set up, which had never been done. I’ve take it to a few rehearsals it’s as cool as it ever was and better to. I noticed that the floating bridge was 3/4” off the mark. All those years of bending the strings up to intonation, man was I a dumb kid. View AttachmentSemi Hollow and two pickups. Does it have a P or J’ish type tone or a unique flavor of it’s own? I think it is a cool looking bass. Glad you hung on to it |
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Post by bassjack on Jan 5, 2020 12:50:07 GMT -5
I’ve migrated...makes me an immigrant I guess! I was Jackl on the FDP but as you can see im now bassjack...new and improved. I love ‘em all!
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Post by hushnel on Jan 5, 2020 13:11:05 GMT -5
The Faumus Atlantik has a lot of useable tones, a little more defined than the P and not as much growl as the Jazz.
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rwb
Quarternote
Posts: 14
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Post by rwb on Jan 5, 2020 14:14:33 GMT -5
Cool machine! I actually prefer this kind of "definition" of "vintage" .... expanded to include all makes, and frankly there are probably obscure makes we've never seen or heard, from other parts of the world. Much more interesting than just the arcane details of all things Fender!
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Post by hushnel on Jan 5, 2020 15:06:55 GMT -5
Instruments are a lot of fun, particularly the bass, I meet a guy named Flick that had a masters degree in music, his main instrument then was the trumpet. When I meet him he was playing the washtub. I was in one of his seminars. He played the washtub bass up and down the scales, playing Mozart and other classical masters, it was almost unbelievable. Most of my life has been all about upgrading my bass rig, meeting Flick changed a lot of that. It’s not so much about the pride of the hardware as much as what you can do with it. Some of the vintage basses were really just crap, that’s how I considered that old Framus, it made me work hard to get the right notes and tones. Years after I purchased what I considered the holy grail of electric basses, the Precision Special, I spent a few hours on my old and ignored friend, the Framus. I am lucky to have kept it long enough to appreciate it more than I did in those first few years of playing it. The only thing wrong with it was it was never set up correctly. Don’t laugh, there are guys out there playing these that can kick butt.  |
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Post by Chauncy Gardner on Jan 5, 2020 18:00:58 GMT -5
My most vintage bass is a 1965 Gibson EBO. I played it all through high school and college. Weddings, dances, classy bars and dive bars. It was in my van in 1971 when a thief broke in and stole my first vintage bass, a Crestwood Beatle bass.
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Post by hushnel on Jan 5, 2020 18:27:28 GMT -5
I had a choice between two basses that were offered at the Post Exchange. I choose the Framus Atlantik over the Hofner Violin bass. The Hofner had what I consider fatal flaws. It’s balance was off, head dive, and that Paul guy in the famous Boy Band played one. The cool bassist that played the teen dances had the Framus and they played Motown and harder edged music. I also liked the sound of the Framus better. I don’t regret my choice, though I bet the 1965 Beetle bass would be worth more.
I eventually came around to appreciating the Beatles but much of the early stuff just didn’t compete with Spencer Davis, The Zombies, Eric Burdon, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Wilson Pickett, and many other bands getting air time in 1964-1968 Germany.
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Post by LTB on Jan 5, 2020 21:32:21 GMT -5
The Faumus Atlantik has a lot of useable tones, a little more defined than the P and not as much growl as the Jazz. My kind of bass. I did not like the J until I put TI Jazz Flats on it to smooth it somewhat. Rounds were just too growly. |
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Post by hushnel on Jan 5, 2020 21:46:36 GMT -5
Funny that I started off with a 32” scale, played the Fender P for years and my number one now is the 32” Guild Starfire, and both Framus and Guild are hollow bodied. I like my 34” Fenders the Precision and the Jaguar, I prefer the Jaguar over the Jazz, it seems to have a wider range of tones and the Precision, well it does the P thing and sometimes that’s the sound I’m looking for, particularly in the Studio.
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rwb
Quarternote
Posts: 14
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Post by rwb on Jan 6, 2020 2:22:20 GMT -5
I love how this thread is spreading out into several interesting areas, all of which (other than the Framus) I've touched on in my 66 yrs on this earth. And I like your comment about the guy playing the virtuoso washtub chops, and you revisiting old "lesser" instruments, only to realize wherein their magic lies. You made me wish I'd hung onto my early 60's Guild Starfire (I just called my friend who I virtually gave it to a few years ago, but, I discovered, he sold it for good money - with my blessing I might add). I've had too many "ones that got away" to ever have regrets, plus although at times I've had small hoards of instruments, I have never considered myself a collector. I prefer my hoards to all get some stage time.
I'm currently going thru some "hollow vs solid" experimentations, with a vintage Danelectro, a modern Epiphone Jack Casady, and a modern Reverend Dub King. Love them all, but if I am going off into "alien territory" (i.e. potentially louder stage, or playing thru a supplied amplifier) then I usually trust any solid body. Simply a matter of not having to worry about drones or feedback if things get loud....
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Post by garyweimer on Jan 6, 2020 6:00:45 GMT -5
This is one that I really loved, and the restoration came out really nice. Magnatone Hurricane. It had a zero fret, even back in the '60s. Nice neck and really wonderful sound. If I recall, the pickups for these were made by Rickenbacker.  |
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Post by hushnel on Jan 6, 2020 11:52:38 GMT -5
Some of those old instruments were really crap, but, crap back in those days was still fairly well made. I picked up a Silvertone Stratotone Jupiter from a guy I traded one of my home forged knives for. I had received a new fretboard for it, it’s an off scale and had LMI slot it for me. I need to put it back together, I was thinking of doing a none stock restoration but recently decided to go original, the old pickups were made by DeArmond and are still working and really cool. This is what the figerboard looked like, the neck is still flat and the trussrod is good.  The damage around the phone plug outlet  Repaired  |
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Post by LTB on Jan 6, 2020 16:19:03 GMT -5
Funny that I started off with a 32” scale, played the Fender P for years and my number one now is the 32” Guild Starfire, and both Framus and Guild are hollow bodied. I like my 34” Fenders the Precision and the Jaguar, I prefer the Jaguar over the Jazz, it seems to have a wider range of tones and the Precision, well it does the P thing and sometimes that’s the sound I’m looking for, particularly in the Studio. I get more tones out of my Jazz Basses than typical. I put a Fender Volume with S-1 series/ Parallel center push-button to get some deeper tones heading toward P bass. But now that I have a Fender P bass the Jazz has serious competition. I would love to have a Guild Starfire. |
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Post by hushnel on Jan 6, 2020 16:40:26 GMT -5
I liked the Guilds Bi-sonic pickup so much I purchased an inexpensive Squire Affinity Bronco and dropped one into it. I know, pretty ridiculous but talk about a sleeper. Anyone making erroneous judgments about me because of the Bronco get quite a surprise once I crank up that BiSonic pup.  |
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Post by Taildragger on Jan 6, 2020 16:45:43 GMT -5
...my number one now is the 32” Guild Starfire... Starfire Bass scale length is actually 30-3/4″ (781 mm), unless yours is custom or altered. There seems to be wide-spread confusion about this because Starfires need medium-scale string sets from most string makers due to the greater than "normal" distance between the bridge saddles and the ball end anchor points. The silk from many/most short-scale string sets will end up pulled past the nut (and over the fretboard) because of this unusual configuration of the "harp" bass bridge.
Don't mean to pick nits, just pointing out that this is a widely held misconception (which may not even be held by you if your bass has been altered). Guild did make 34" basses B-301, B-302, Pilot, and a few JSI and JSII But the majority of the JS series and "Gumby" Jetstars and (so far as I know) all of the Starfires, both MIA & MIK are shorties.
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Post by Taildragger on Jan 6, 2020 16:50:12 GMT -5
I liked the Guilds Bi-sonic pickup so much I purchased an inexpensive Squire Affinity Bronco and dropped one into it. That's a way cool idea. I love Bi-Sonics. I replaced the stock pups in an MIJ Fender Mustang Bass with Nordstrand NM-4s, but I bet you Bi-Sonic Bronco sounds better! |
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Post by hushnel on Jan 6, 2020 17:18:07 GMT -5
...my number one now is the 32” Guild Starfire... Starfire Bass scale length is actually 30-3/4″ (781 mm), unless yours is custom or altered. There seems to be wide-spread confusion about this because Starfires need medium-scale string sets from most string makers due to the greater than "normal" distance between the bridge saddles and the ball end anchor points. The silk from many/most short-scale string sets will end up pulled past the nut (and over the fretboard) because of this unusual configuration of the "harp" bass bridge.
Don't mean to pick nits, just pointing out that this is a widely held misconception (which may not even be held by you if your bass has been altered). Guild did make 34" basses B-301, B-302, Pilot, and a few JSI and JSII But the majority of the JS series and "Gumby" Jetstars and (so far as I know) all of the Starfires, both MIA & MIK are shorties.
Yes, I am an idiot “o) freakin’ numbers and me, well we struggle. Turned out so is the Framus, 30.somthing metric, at lest I was still correct about going back to my roots. Scale lengths have little affect on me. |
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Post by gato on Jan 7, 2020 10:37:30 GMT -5
My 1964 P Bass only gets played at home. Too valuable to risk at bar gigs.
I've got a 1965 Hagstrom ( a duplicate of the one I played at first gig in 1964)
My cherry finish Gibson EBO I picked up in 1966. I don't know how much older than that it is.
At home I plug 'em into my 1966 Blackface Bassman. (Remember when that was the "wow" amp that bass players coveted in the early 60's?)
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Post by Laker on Jan 7, 2020 13:35:53 GMT -5
My newest bass is my Lakland I purchased new in ‘99...would that be vintage? Here’s my ‘63 Fender Jazz that I purchased in the mid ‘70s for $150 with a ‘62 Precision neck on it. The neck was put on an old Precision that I restored so the Jazz now sports a Mighty Mite neck that I had set up to my measurements. It is a really fine playing bass. The second is my ‘65 Fender Precision I purchased new in ‘65 when I traded in a 62 Fender Jazz. Attachments:
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Post by LTB on Jan 8, 2020 21:03:45 GMT -5
Back in 1974 I played guitar only but was asked to play bass in a band. I went to a Pawn Shop on W. Division in Arlington Texas and traded my 1969 Harmony 12 string Electric semi Hollow body guitar and gave them ~$230 (lot of money for me then) for a 1964 Fender Precision Bass (natural finish). Had a slightly twisted neck but played and sounded ok (for me then-what did I know LOL ). Then it was considered just a 10 year old bass with a twisted neck and when I started college I gave it away  How dumb was that. Had I kept it I could probably straightened the slight twist in the neck and had a 64 P Possibly worth something. |
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Post by heynorm on Jan 8, 2020 23:25:50 GMT -5
I still have the 1965 Vox Cougar bass bought new as a teenager. It’s now mostly a wall hanger. The necks on those were not real good. It still occasionally comes out for a set or two for fun.
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Post by Riff Twang on Jan 9, 2020 17:08:49 GMT -5
I have a late 70's Music Man Stingray I bought slightly used in 1978 or 1979. Also a 1998 American Standard Precision.
Like some others here, I am mainly a guitar player nowadays.
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ilan
Quarternote
Posts: 11
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Post by ilan on Jan 10, 2020 3:03:00 GMT -5
Let's see... '75 Fender P '71 Fender P '77 Fender Jazz '78 Fender Musicmaster bass '73 Ric 4001 '86 Ric 4003 Shadow '70 Gibson EB-OL '60 Höfner 500/3 '63 Höfner Senator Bass '64 Höfner Senator Bass '65 Höfner Senator Bass '72 Yamaha SB-50 You could say I like vintage.  |
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