Guitar Blog

The Project: Short-scale bass guitar - Introduction

Not so long ago I bought this bass guitar from eBay. The seller described it thus:

AVON BASS LATE 60s, NEEDS WORK
This needs work to make it a playable guitar made around the late 60s in Japan, the model is Avon SG model 3405 ser no 0775, the back plate is missing needs the wiring sorting out, looks like a solid body,with a bolt on neck, so if you fancy sorting this out best of luck.

"Hey, just a bit of wiring," I thought to myself, "I can do that. And it doesn't look too bad in the photos."

Boy, was I in for a shock. When the bass finally arrived (the seller had detached the neck as he was worried it would get broken in the post!) I opened the box and my immediate impression was that I'd been sold a pile of junk. Quite frankly it was not worth my winning bid of £62 - not in the condition it was in. Which, in short, means that it was scratched and beaten up to buggery.

Sure, I could wire it up (on a closer inspection it looks as if the problem may just have been that of the wire from the pickup touching terminals it shouldn't, and shorting them out) and get the damn thing working straight away, but it looks a sight, and if I want to re-sell it, I ain't going to get my money back, let alone make a profit.

So, this was when I decided that I needed to re-finish the instrument. Strip it right down. And while I'm about it, I can change that vile hand-cut plate that the volume and tone knobs are mounted on... Oh, and that upside down Stratocaster style jack socket which is sticking OUT rather than in! What idiot was responsible for that?