Black Bart Restoration (in progress)

1983 (Fender) Squire Japanese Vintage Precision Bass



This one is another pawn shop rescue but I overpaid this time. The days of $75 Fenders are long gone. The overall condition was good to great, right out of the gate.

History

The date of manufacture for Fender instruments of this era is normally written on the butt of the neck in pencil. This one is no exception. May 25th 1983. Why does that date sound familiar? That's because it was the release date of Return of the Jedi. Nerd-gasm! Darth Vader Bass!

The body, finish, pickguard, neck and tuners were all original but the bridge was replaced with a Badass II and the pickups were swapped out for EMGs.



Restorations to date

Body

The body is basswood or poplar; not a great sounding wood, but we'll fix that later. The original black lacquer finish is road-worn but in-tact so no point making any changes there other than buffing out a bit of wear with compound. The original white pickguard was there too but I prefer the look of a black one. Since I couldn't find a black P bass pickguard anywhere, I had to buy a blank and spend a day cutting, routing and fitting it. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Bridge

The original Fender bridge was gone but not to worry, I've got the exact match with the 82 Jazz bridge from the other bass. But the Bad Ass II is a better bridge so no sense putting the Fender one on. The Nickel and gold Badd Ass II was almost totally oxidized black. Completely disassembling it and a few hours with a Dremel Tool and various polishes brought it back to original condition.

It'll do for now, but an isolated string through body bridge will go a long way to compensate for the less than stellar body wood. Even though 2TEK is just recently back in business, the Hipshot Triple Lock Down Individual String Bass Bridge is a more reasonable choice. At a third of the price of the 2TEK, with only minimal routing required and available in black, this will be the next step in the restoration.

Pickups

Original P Bass pickups from the eighties are nothing special, so they won't be missed. EMG P Bass pickups are better in someways; brighter, louder but worse in others; no midrange, compressed sound, no headroom... I converted them from 9 volts to 18 volts in series but they still weren't cutting it. So at a little over $100, a new set of Bartolini 8SU passive pickups (that match the ones in the Jazz Bass) are the solution. I've installed them since these photos were taken and they're magical. They've transformed this bass from a probable Flipper to a Keeper.

Happy Accident

In replacing the pickups, I broke off the tone control capacitor. I put it together and tried it anyway sans a Tone Control. It sounded great. I found a replacement capacitor and did surgery again. The sound this time was not as good. Basically anything you put in the signal path degrades the sound. I've put all control bypass switches in instruments before and I think I'll do that again here. With a single pickup, you really don't need volume or tone controls anyway, just wire the pickups straight to the jack with a kill switch. So go cut the capacitor off your tone control and enjoy the improved sound.

Tuning Keys

The original tuning keys were functional but they're vintage style meaning they turn backwards.
It's a pain in the ass unless all your instruments turn that way. So I swapped them out for some average clover leaf tuners. They still won't stay in tune, so I'll have to find some Gotohs eventually.

Finishing Touches

Once the new bridge is on, I'll swap out the control knobs to black ones and put on a set of DR Black Coated strings.

I could pull a better bass sound out of my ...

There are two universal truths:

1. Most drummers can't even tune their instrument
2. Most bass players wouldn't know a proper bass tone if it bit them on the ass.

Perhaps that's why every single tech ryder I see from touring acts specifies an Ampeg SVT and 8x10 cabinet for the backline. Monkey see, monkey do. They're the biggest, loudest and most expensive bass rigs you can get, but they sound like a flatulent elephant. The bass players don't mind though, it's fun to have someone else pay for them and lug them so they can stand in front of them and feel their pant legs move. More Ampeg-bashing later.

I've spent the last year playing with Amp modelling software trying every conceivable combination of bass amps, speaker cabinets, microphones and mic preamps with mostly predictable but a few surprising results.

Speakers

Get yourself a 4x10 cabinet with a horn. That's really all there is to it. SWR and Eden are the top choices, but Peavey or Traynor will do too for half the price. In a pinch, a 2x12 guitar cabinet will do too. Avoid 15 and 18"speakers; they're too heavy and slow to give a useful bass tone. A 4x10 cabinet will give you the same volume as a single 15"anyway. This is the formula: 4x10"= 2x12"= 1x15"

If you're stuck with a 15" combo amp, go plug into your guitar players 2x12" combo to hear what you've been missing with that slow old 15".

Amp Heads

Leave the Ampeg SVT head to the posers, pretenders and knuckleheads who are more concerned with the image and size, than the sound. SVT's have huge power and price tags but are voiced completely wrong for a bass guitar in a mix. Gobs of bottom end, honky top end and absolutely no critical mid-range from 220 to 700 hz. it's the exact opposite of what a bass tone needs to be sit in a mix. Good for bass solos though, Mr. Sheehan.

One of the best sounding amp heads is the Galien Kruger RB800. While it's not the most robust or reliable, it has plenty of power and the passive EQ, specifically the low mid control is voiced perfectly for bass.

An interesting choice (if you can find one) is the Marshall Plexi Super Bass Head. An old tube head that also has perfect passive EQ circuits for bass tone. The Fender Dual Showman head is an ugly old beast that also has perfect passive EQ voicing for bass.




SWR, Eden, and Aguilar amps, even with their active EQ just can't dial in the right bass sound. Great cabinets, lousy sounding, under-powered amp heads.

Surprising Combo as Amp Head

The Roland Jazz Chorus JC120 makes a surprisingly good bass amp or head to drive your 4x10 cabinet. It's incredibly clean, fast, has more bottom than you'll ever need and the built in 2x12" puts out as much sound as a 4x10"cabinet. It's a little light on power though, so mic up that cabinet with a large diaphragm dynamic mike. RE20, D112 or MD421


How to Dial In a Good Bass Tone

Assuming you have one of the preferred amp heads with passive tone controls (passive controls go from 0 to 10 with 5 at the center. Active EQ goes from -15 to +15 with 0 at the center)

Set the Bass control to 5 then, turn the mid, presence and treble up full. Hopefully this will be a bit to bright, so dial out some treble until it sounds OK. Now try the sound in a mix or with your band before making more adjustments. A bass tone that sits properly in a mix or with a band will sound like it has too much mid-range when played by itself.So keep that in mind before dialing out any of the mid control or adding any bass. 220Hz, 500Hz and 700Hz are your friends. Don't scoop them out like so many do by instinct.

The Green Bastard From Parts Unknown

1982 (Fender) Squire Japanese Vintage Jazz Bass



This was a "Rescue Dog" from a pawn shop in 1989 or so. The previous owner(s) chose to paint it Richard Petty Blue and then black, probably with a brush. They also scraped everything off the headstock. leading me to think that it had a checkered past.

If they were trying to conceal it's identity or owner, they should have also removed the neck plate as the original serial number is right there. That along with the date of manufacture written on the neck joint made it easy to identify it as a Japanese Vintage Squire Jazz from 1982; the primo vintage for these basses.

Components

Along with the custom black brushed-on paint job, it had the original tuning keys and bridge, but the Fender pickups had been swapped out for Bartolini 9s' A significant upgrade worth about $300 for the set. This made the $75 price tag on the bass itself a no-brainer. The body is Alder or Ash. It's just to dense to be Poplar or Basswood.



Restoration/Hot Rodding

The first step was removing all of the finish from the body. It's been a while now, but I seem to recall the original finish being Arctic White. Over the next few years, it went from a natural oil finish, to Canary Yellow, until I decided to do a proper restoration.

Before refinishing, it got a serious bridge upgrade though. A 2TEK through-body bridge. The 2TEC is a massive, 4lb chunk of brass that mounts from the back of the instrument. This means removing a huge amount of the bass body to fit the bridge. Think long and hard before doing this to a vintage instrument because it can't be undone and it destroys any resale value.

The improvements the 2TEK makes to the instrument are well worth it though. The extra mass and individual "fingers" for each string removes any dead spots from the neck, brings the neck and body back into balance since Jazzes are neck-heavy to start with, and sustains for days. ("You can go and have a bite, come back and it's still going")

When Dupont automotive paints re-released all of the original Vintage Fender colors, I started the process of refinishing it in Fender Surf Green. All finish was removed again, grain filled, sanded, then a few coats of color enamel (since you can't get tinted lacquer anymore). Finally 8 or 9 coats of clear lacquer, wet-sanded with 800 through 2000 grit and compounding and buffing.



Why does the headstock say Fender if it's a Squire?

As mentioned earlier, somebody destroyed the headstock by grinding everything off it. I leveled the headstock with wood filler as much as possible, but it was too far gone to reveal the natural maple, so a thin sheet of Maple veneer was laminated on. Then to redo the branding I used this restorers' trick; find the Fender fonts on the web and create the new logos in Photoshop. Print the logos on a sheet of clear acetate using a laser printer. Choose a gold or silver metallic Sharpie and fill in the Fender logo from the back. Cut the sheet to fit the headstock and glue it on with Mod-Podge. Add 8 or 9 coats of clear lacquer to level.

Choosing a Fender logo rather than a Squire logo, authentic to the instrument was a poor decision and I'll probably redo it one day.

Coming Next: Black Bart, the 1983 Japanese Vintage Precision Restoration