ah me... the pain!
In 1972 I was newly divorced, wracked with guilt and remorse, financially in deep trouble,
emotionally constipated and uncertain of any future. Bad place to be.
I turned to music like the drowning man seizes a life ring thrown from the lighthouse.
I saw an advertisement for a Fender Bass for sale. I had always wanted to play bass, but never had
the means or the will to actually begin. My animal vitality asserted itself over my human melodrama
and I put $100 cash in one pocket of my jeans, and $20 in another pocket, and went to see the man
about the bass. It was a 1966 Fender Jazz Bass, said the advertisement.
The man pulled the case out from under his bed. He said he was selling the bass because he wasn't playing
it. I thought, "Fair enough..." and opened the case. I squinted at the instrument from different angles and then
told him, "The neck is warped... I'll probably have to buy a new neck. So I'll offer you $100 for this instrument."
He balked. He wanted more. I pulled the $100 out of my left pocket, showing him the cash, and told him it was all I had.
In 1972, this was considerable money (at least for me it was). So it was not an insulting offer. A new Fender Bass might have cost
$300 or $350 then. He wanted to get $150, but didn't realize the neck was warped, which it was. He could see it too.
The instrument had been under the bed too long.
He looked at the $100 in my left hand (five twenties)... and he took it. I took the Bass. I didn't care if the neck was warped,
this bass was going to be my path. I would do whatever was necessary to travel the path. I went directly to the shop of a
guitar repair guy I knew, named Dan Earlewine. I showed him what I had bought and asked him if he thought the neck could
be saved, or if it needed to be replaced. He said he thought he could save it. And he did. And he charged me $5.00 to do so.
*grins ...Dan's the Man. He was just getting started on his long and successful career, and his prices were reasonable.
I've been playing that same instrument ever since. For more than 35 years, it was my only bass. I've had no more trouble with
the neck. And that '66 Fender J-Bass has the best tone and sustain of any instrument I've ever played. I bonded with it, and
it became an extension of my spirit. It's never been for sale, ever. Not till they pry my dead, cold hands off it.
So... about the stripping... The bass I bought for $100 had a sixties style sunburst finish. Red, Yellow and Black. I didn't care
for it, but it was my only bass, and it sounded so good that it didn't matter what it looked like. Here I am in like 1976, well
along on my path, playing my Fender Jazz Bass in a hotel lounge.
In those days, it was
just an old bass... Fender basses in the '70s were called "Groovy Naturals" and they had clear
varnish over Ash bodies, and I thought these looked stylish and cool, and my old '66 just looked old. Silly me.
I named him Sluggo.
In the '70s, mod fever was sweeping the country. Guitarists drooled over magazine articles where they interviewed
Eric Clapton and he told about ripping the covers off his hum buckers to get more treble. Led Zep was in the driver's
seat, and every guitarist wanted to sound like Jimmy Page with his Les Paul. Or Tony Iommi with his custom SG.
People ripped their instruments apart and threw away their tarback pickups in favor of DiMarzio Super Distortions...
they threw away their bass bridges and installed the BadAss... to get more sustain.
I never did this, because my bass has sustain up the wazoo, and all from its stock bridge, just a piece of bent steel.
But I decided that I would remove the old sunburst, because it was my bass and was not for sale until after my
moldering corpse was dust in the wind. So I did. Here I am, playing the same instrument, but with the sunburst
stripped off, and the pick guard removed, and the chrome plated steel pieces removed, and black nails inserted into the
screw holes, just to look radical.
When I did this, it was my firm conviction that the bass looked a lot cooler stripped naked.
And at the time, this was right. It was just an old bass, no one was worshipping them yet.
I had paid $100 for it, so what did I have to lose?
Fast fwd thirty years... I've been playing that same bass from Tallahassee to Talkeetna, and
from Rockland Maine to Santa Cruz. I saw a post on the internet about some old Fender instruments
for sale at a famous music store called "Elderly Instruments." I followed the link, and saw they
had a 1966 Fender Jazz Bass for sale, asking price $18,000.
I couldn't believe it. But Elderly is the real thing, one of the best stores in the country, and they know
what these instruments are worth. I knew mine was not worth that much, but I thought: "What if he's only
worth half that much... Should I be traveling all about with Sluggo, all unguarded and care free?"
Then I thought, "I wonder what became of that old cardboard box that I put the parts in when I removed
them from the bass." I began looking for it, and I found it under a heap of old forgotten things. I found the
original pick guard, the original steel pieces that covered the bridge and pickups, but could not find the
original 'tugbar." (This was a piece of plastic or bakelite that Leo Fender thought was necessary on his early
basses). When I removed everything, I felt that the bass looked cooler without them. But by 2009, no Fender
Basses were being made with those parts, so I realized that he would look cooler with them back on.
Here is what Sluggo looks like with his original parts re-installed:
I never found the original tugbar. So I went looking on the net. I had already paid for an original Fender Tweed case,
now that I was realizing what old Sluggo might be worth, and considering how well he had served for so many years.
I paid more for the case in this century than I did for the bass way back when. Think of yer dollars as dimes.
Anyway, I looked on the internet for an original '66 tugbar, and found them quite pricey. Then I found someone who made
them out of ebony and charged $11.00 for them, so I bought one. It's a fine upgrade, even though I never use this. Old Leo
felt that the proper way to play Fender Bass was by resting one's fingers on the tugbar, and playing the notes with one's thumb.
...WRONG... one of the few things Ol' Leo got wrong. But it doesn't matter. My Ebony tugbar is so much better than any old
piece of '60s plastic, no one can deny it.
So there's my tale of woe... If I'd left that raggedy sunburst unstripped, my bass might be worth
$10,000 more than it is. But my daughter can worry about that after they pry my dead cold hands
off this instrument. It's not for sale, and never was. So whatever I threw away when I modded my
old classic instrument was only imaginary money... in someone else's imagination. *shrugs
Many secretaries get it. Many Tony is a secret secretary.
