Manchester Guitar Tech
A regular customer of mine has built this great Jazz Bass replica. The body is alder and finished in Olympic White with a beautiful NOS tortoiseshell pickguard. The bound neck has a matching headstock. You can read the full story on BassChat.
Following on from the “70s Bass Extravaganza” earlier this year I have two early 80s basses in for set up this week. Gibson Grabber Bass The first is a lovely 1982 Gibson Grabber Bass. It was suffering from uneven frets and a rising tongue caused by some unwise heavy shimming of the neck with a …
I spent just about all of today rewiring this jazz-style guitar. It was made by Skiffle Cat who may well now be defunct? It’s not the greatest guitar in the world but it is very servicable and now sounds the business. Last time it was here I dressed the frets, gave it a new Tusq …
Over the last few weeks I’ve been fortunate to have some unusual 70s basses in the workshop. It was a coincidence that they were all here at the same time, although the two fretless basses were brought in by the same person. Wal Pro II Bass The Wal Pro series of basses was introduced …
I made the Tortoiseshell pickguard for this Fender USA Deluxe Jazz Bass the other day. For some reason, Fender don’t make this bass with a torty ‘guard but I think that tortoiseshell over 3-tone sunburst is a classic look. The material is genuine 4-ply cellulose nitrate which smells great when it’s being cut. Making a …
This Japanese Fender Precision Bass has been the mainstay of the bassist from The Australian Pink Floyd Show for about ten years. Due to it being used for the same songs show after show, a couple of major grooves were worn in frets two and three. I therefore performed a partial refret, carefully removing the …
A couple of tours ago I did some work on Jared Followill’s basses, and today the Kings of Leon brought me a couple more to work on before tonight’s gig at the Lancashire County Cricket Ground. I shielded both bases with copper foil and rewired them using CTS pots, Teflon coated wire and a solid copper …
I just thought I’d share this. I set up this 1983 Squier JV Precision Bass and discovered the original shim in the neck pocket, dated May 83. Needless to say, I left it there.
Cherry Red Epiphone Coronet This was a complete refinish in Cherry Red. This guitar is rumoured to have been owned and played by Steve Marriot. Another complete refinish in Cherry Red.
The body was received in stripped condition and the colours for the 3-tone sunburst were matched to what remained in the pickup cavity. The central yellow area, being semi-opaque is correct for the mid-sixties when Fender under CBS management were saving money by cutting out steps in the finishing process.