1958 Fender Precision Bass Restoration

They sure don't build em like this anymore. This 1958 Precision bass is one of the coolest vintage instruments I've had the privilege of working on. It has had the same owner since the 1970's, and for the first time in over 20 years it'l get some love and adjustment. The owner plans to pass the bass on to his infant son once he's ready for it, and wants to prepare the bass for long-term storage. 

 There is grime, and then there is vintage grime. This funky green stuff has been on this neck longer than I've been alive..literally. It was put in its case in the late 1970's, and has been in storage ever since. Amazingly enough, the bass played without a single buzz, and has great intonation after all these years. They truly do not make them like this anymore. 

The wear on the maple neck is typical of an instrument over fifty years old. The frets are original, and incredibly worn. While it was first considered to replace the frets, it was just decided to keep them as-is and maintain as much original value and charm of the instrument as possible. Instead I'll give the frets and fret board a thorough and careful cleaning. 

Employing an untold number of oils, liquids, abrasives, pokers, solvents, and conventional fret tools I begin to unseat the grime that has annexed the fretboard. The frets have potential to shine again, but the worn maple will always show it's age. 

You can see here the amount of material removed from the sides of each fret. Before I can start to polish the fret itself, there is a  solid green layer of junk encasing each one. This gets loosened by an oil and liquid mixture and then is lifted with a fine tipped awl. Finally, I use a series of abrasives to remove scratches and imperfections from the frets.

Almost done, I took a photo to show the contrast between the frets. Normally cleaning a neck and frets takes about 20-30 minutes, but for something this dirty and delicate, I worked for about three hours before it was all clean.

The idea here is to preserve all the character while removing all the nastiness. Grime is abrasive and when left uncleaned it hastens wear and eventual repairs on your instrument.

The action at the 1st fret was about .003" across the board. At first glance I was preparing for a nut replacement, but once I brought the guitar up to pitch it was clear that the strings didn't need any more clearance than that to play perfectly and buzz free. They really do not make them like this anymore.

One crazy thing about this bass was that the plastic covering on the bridge was still there after all these years. This means that all the sweat, grime, and dirt from the road was just sitting harmlessly above as the virtually NOS chrome lay below. I removed it and the bridge appears brand new.


HOWEVER, the saddle height adjustment screws were firmly rusted in place. With a mix of heat, lubrication, and vibration, all but one of the screws were released from their rusted static states. Luckily, that screw was frozen at the perfect height and the guitar was able to be set up properly.  

The actual thing that brought this owner into the shop was to replace the heavy white painted aluminum pick guard with  a new  anodized gold one. If you have a 58 P bass, it has GOTTA have the gold pick guard! 


Notice the sparking bridge!

I had a conversation with a guitar builder once and he commented that newly made guitar doesn't quite know that its a guitar yet. It fights and heaves and reacts for a good while before it settles into place.


Old ones like this have been instruments for so long that all the little kinks and quirks that pop up on newer guitars have all settled. This bass knows whats up.. now it just wants to plug in and be played!