Parkinson Bass, bit of a surprise. . . . .

Two posts in two days!

Just a quick one - read this one first and then come back . :)

http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2010/08/parkinson-bass-leigh-rare-as.html




Last week, I finally got round to sort out the Parkinson - bit of a
wiring issue, a few sharp frets to sort out and then put some strings
on it, for the first time in my ownership - over two years ago!
Shame on me!!

Removing the scratch plate revealed the wiring.
How quaint, all bits of different coloured wires, soldered in a "I hope
it sticks" sort of way. One hadn't!
I sorted that out and tidied up a joint on the jack socket
and was going to sort out the other wiring but then thought I'd leave
it in it's original condition - the rest of the joints seemed solid so I
left well alone.
The pick-ups are a bit unusual - completely sealed and one two core
wire coming out of each. I could see bare timber under the pick-ups
which looks like Sycamore?? Not much exposed, so it was hard to see.

Being around 35 years old, at a guess, a few of the fret ends were
exposed slightly, so they were sorted and then a rub down with a
cloth - deliberately not buffing anything up, to keep it as it was.
Scratch plate back on, just with a couple of screws, a set of old Dean
Markley strings, that had been brought back to life in my special
"Brightening tube" and strung it up.
No relief, off with the plate backed off the rod, tuned up again, much
better - set the action and intonation . . . . . . still with me??
Yes, I know this is going on much more than necessary but as I said
in the first post, this is so handmade, I was having fun sorting it out.

Plugged in. . . . . . bit surprised! I normally leave the volume and eq
the same on my little amp, so I can get an accurate measure of what
each instrument sounds like. Loud and bright, in this instance.
It looks like a Precision but sounds more like a Ric?? It really does.
Took to a friend, who has a Precision, plugged in the Parkinson - still
loud and bright, plugged in the Precision, nice but not so loud and not
so bright. Mmmmm!
Took it to rehearsals, plays really nice and through the big rig, sounds
a lot more like a Ric than a P. Rest of the band thought it sounded nice.
Very interesting and quite surprising!
No pics yet but will try and get some really soon

Anyway, that will do for now - I am still on the trail of the original owner
of the Jaydee and will post it up as soon as I can.

Cheers. :)