I've seen more basses come through my shop in the last 3 weeks than in the past 3 years...something in the air maybe...
The two coolest ones were both 70s era Fender Precisions. One was a 1972, the other a 1978. Both were ash bodies with a sunburst finish.
The '72 was extremely light. I did not weigh it, but I'd say it was probably around the 7lb mark. The acoustic tone, even with old strings, was very bright and lively. Plugged in, it was the same. Per the customer's request, I strung it with flatwounds (D'Addario Chromes). The flatwounds evened out the tone a bit, but did not kill any of the liveliness of the bass. This bass had a rosewood board.
The '78 was kind of a beast...maybe 2 or more pounds heavier than the '72. This bass lived its life strung with the original set of flatwounds & still had the pickup and bridge covers intact. As you'd expect from an instrument with 36 year old strings, it sounded quite dull acoustically.
The strings were terrible...flat spots & decades of crud were on the bottoms of each string. The tops of the strings were clean and smooth from regular use. Anyway, once I put a new set of flatwounds (D'Addario Chromes, again) on, the bass came alive. Punchy, but smooth. Not quite as bright as the '72, but not dull by any measure. This bass had a maple board.
I fell in love with both of these basses. Both well made. Both played a lot over their lives, but well maintained for the most part. Gorgeous tones. I think if I were in the market for a quality bass, or were building a bass, I'd go with the ash body. Heavy or light, it just worked so well in these instruments.
The '72:
The '78:
The bottom of a 36 year old, well used bass guitar string:
The two coolest ones were both 70s era Fender Precisions. One was a 1972, the other a 1978. Both were ash bodies with a sunburst finish.
The '72 was extremely light. I did not weigh it, but I'd say it was probably around the 7lb mark. The acoustic tone, even with old strings, was very bright and lively. Plugged in, it was the same. Per the customer's request, I strung it with flatwounds (D'Addario Chromes). The flatwounds evened out the tone a bit, but did not kill any of the liveliness of the bass. This bass had a rosewood board.
The '78 was kind of a beast...maybe 2 or more pounds heavier than the '72. This bass lived its life strung with the original set of flatwounds & still had the pickup and bridge covers intact. As you'd expect from an instrument with 36 year old strings, it sounded quite dull acoustically.
The strings were terrible...flat spots & decades of crud were on the bottoms of each string. The tops of the strings were clean and smooth from regular use. Anyway, once I put a new set of flatwounds (D'Addario Chromes, again) on, the bass came alive. Punchy, but smooth. Not quite as bright as the '72, but not dull by any measure. This bass had a maple board.
I fell in love with both of these basses. Both well made. Both played a lot over their lives, but well maintained for the most part. Gorgeous tones. I think if I were in the market for a quality bass, or were building a bass, I'd go with the ash body. Heavy or light, it just worked so well in these instruments.
The '72:
The '78:
The bottom of a 36 year old, well used bass guitar string:
