The real change came in 1983 when the Fullerton plant closed - all production moved to Japan for a year or so - and then the current Santa Ana plant opened to resume US building.
This bass came to me for a full-scale tuneup - it had been languishing in an attic (and maybe a basement too?) on Nantucket for the past 15 years, after being played hard for previous 12 years or so. The pretty much all original - but it had no strings, a bent tuner, a big sticker on the back, good amount of fret wear on the first 5 frets, the clear coat chipping away on the edge of the neck, rusty screws and a missing knob - and it was covered with a quarter century of grunge, such that there was a ridge around the edge of the pickguards and on all the plastic and metal components.
And it was inside a 1969 Fender case that appeared to have been slightly CRUSHED and then dunked in water to enhance its mold growing environment.
After I disassembled the bass and scraped off the Bozo the Clown sticker I began the heavy duty cleanup. Knowing that the bass had the 70s polyester indestructo finish on it - I first wet sanded the front and back with 400 grit, 600 grit and then 1000 grit paper - to get a clean smooth as possible clearcoat surface. I then compounded the entire body just as I would a refin. The end result was pretty impressive - you have to aknowledge that the polyester finishes ARE tough !!
Following that came a cleanup of all the components - plastic polish for the guard and pickup covers- electronic cleaner for the pots - acetone and Brasso for the bridge and control plate. I also pulled off the bent tuner and carefully bent it back to shape - leaving a subtle crease in it, but no other damage.
The neck was in good functional shape - with a working truss-rod - but had some heavy wear. I wet sanded off the finish on just the edges of the neck, then resprayed with ReRanch's Tinted Neck Amber to re-yellow the binding and blend everything back in. A number of the frets had come up a little, but rather than pulling them and gluing them, a few sharp taps with my fretting hammer seemed to seat them back in. I used a concave fret file once the neck was adjusted flat, to dress all the frets - checking with a straight edge to make sure none of them were high. I finished the fret with different grades of paper, using the Stew-Mac aluminum fret "masks" to protect the fretboard.
Finally - re-assembly - after tightening down the truss rod, the neck was perfectly straight - I adjusted the bridge height and then set the intonation (since I'd disassembled the bridge to clean up all the screws and saddles too).
When I plugged it in - then the trouble started - the bass sounded fine - unless I moved and then a HELLACIOUS crackling came through my amp. I checked and rechecked all the connections I'd resoldered - and switched cables - but it was still there. I finally decided to put a new output jack in - and viola! - problem solved. The output jack had no visible damage, so not sure what was going on - something I'll need to make sure I check in the future.
And then the case - which was sad. The side had started to separate and was actually bent outwards and the handle was long gone. First, I cut and pried out the mountings for the old handle, and then installed a new handle with some oversized wood screws secured with some glue.
I then glued and clamped the entire side of the case after peeling back the loose Tolex and the lining. I also shot some staples in near where the original wood staples had pulled out. Once all the wood gluing was done, I used liberal amounts of Franklin hide glue to reglue the Tolex and lining, along with strategic staples and clamping by long wood strips.
All the gluing and clamping - the case was finally solid again and closed relatively well. Now to get rid of the mold !!
First I vacuumed the inside and cleaned the outside with vinyl cleaner. Then I sprayed carpet cleaner on the inside and let it dry for about an hour - then vacuumed it up. The lining was still damp after this, so I left it open and re-vacuumed it the next day - and finally it didnt smell moldy !!
A nice bass that will probably be a little better cared for in the future !!
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