You Cannot Buy Your Way into Cool
I have a friend who was a pretty prolific guitar teacher. And he used to go to this super-rich guy’s house to teach him lessons.
This guy was so rich (how rich is he?) that said friend actually had to go through a service door. Like, there was a different door for people who were coming to the house to work. LOLs.
Then he would go into this room filled with super-expensive guitars, but in my friend’s words, not awesome expensive guitars. They were not cool, but stupid-expensive.
And some backstory: I know the rich guy. I grew up with him. He used to ride my bus, and when none of the other older kids (who'd did not love him) were there, he would bully the kids. He had a real mean streak-not trying to be funny. Just an unfriendly d*ck.
I got my revenge later when I inadvertently became close with a couple of sisters, one of whom was clearly the love of his life (whom he never got.) Still super-friendly with both of them. I know you’re not supposed to be out for revenge, but this one is a keeper for me. I’m a weak person.
Anyway, fast-forward to yesterday. I'd kind of realized that taking a 1962 Precision Bass to cover-band gigs wasn’t really a good idea.
I tried to change the strings on it, but if you’re familiar with old vintage instruments and how they are, it’s just easier to keep what's working on them. But, old, dead flatwound strings are not the best for a Grateful Dead cover band.
So I spent a few days looking for a cheap and cheerful marketplace Precision Bass, because I just wanted to keep things simple. Two knobs, and I can fix anything.
I found a couple of candidates out of the 10 or so on Marketplace, tried to get a feel for what would work for me. And sure enough, last night, I looks at what turned out to be a 2005 Mexican Precision Bass.
Nothing seemingly special. Except, you know, I went to see it, picked it up, and it felt good. Nice, wide neck, but thin from front to back. Not to get too technical, but good shoulders. It just felt great. Remarkable neck--like, is it really this good?
It wasn’t too light. It wasn’t too heavy. It felt like it had never been adjusted for playability etc. And Seller was a really good guy selling it for a friend.
You could tell it had been bought and then put straight back in the gig bag and then into climate-controlled storage-still had the plastic on the pickguard.
I bought it for full ask, $450.
Serial number says it's is 21 years old, which, by classification and definition, makes it vintage.
Turns out everything works flawlessly.
I had to take the pickguard off because, after I took the plastic off, it was all sticky. So I cleaned that. No problem. It had the original strings on it. I took those off, put on new strings, adjusted the neck, and it plays beautifully. Spent about 2 hours futzing w/ it.
And now the bass looks brand-new. (Certainly Guitar Center new.) Everything held up overnight and it was still in tune this am.
Also sounds wonderful. I recorded with it this am.
Truly prefect for what I was after.
It is so much more satisfying to get an instrument this way. Doing it wring sticks. It matters who you buy it from. It matters how you buy it.
While it does feel great, it needs miles-played for a year or two to kind of get broken in, but I’m happy to do it.
Also, this guy was really happy for it to go to an actual player, and I am delighted to have a 20-year-old, new-old-stock bass. (I much prefer new instruments to old worn out ones, especially to new instruments made to look old/ pretend aged.).
When you buy it right, the good feelings never go away. They only grow.