1970 Fender Precision Bass Guitar

[@JoshuaLTRyan]

Cool bass, my favorite color.

[@TheSupy96]

Loving the longer movies Dave! Cheers!

[@briano.5746]

Like I've said before , you've made me unafraid to work on my own guitars . thank you !!! Love you brother !

[@Andyjpro]

Working on nice instruments is always such a pleasure. Everything just works the way it should

[@SaxophoneHitman008]

I know you clean output jacks with a rat tail type file. On vintage instruments we use a brass brush about 2 inches long in the bristle department with a screw-on type of handle. I think we bought them out of gun cleaning kits. They work totally great. With a little contact cleaner and a few swishes with this brass brush and viola! perfect. Good as new and we're sure we didn't get rid of metal, just corrosion. FYI. [Word of caution when using contact cleaner or any other potent cleaner near a guitar finish. Know what you're doing. A mistake there, can ruin a finish very easily!] Keep entertaining us my friend! Greg

[@SkyscraperGuitars]

It's fun to watch one that didn't need a bunch of drama to get it playing smooth.

[@mr7wi]

+SkyScraper Guitars I thought the same thing

[@hstrung44]

I've learned so much from your videos Dave. I feel like I know what I'm doing when setting up my own basses. Cheers!

[@ronmelanz4973]

Hey Dave, when I pull a Fender neck, I do what you do with an added procedure. After reinstalling the neck and tuning, I loosen the neck screws a quarter of a turn and tighten them back up. I believe that this allows the heel of the neck to "ground" to the body, making it as close as possible to a "set" neck guitar. It must do something because I found that I have to retune the guitar after this. Great job and I enjoy your grumpy old man schtick. I can identify as I am in the later years also. Keep it going.

[@Ka13Bang]

Too many critics out there, Dave. Pay them no mind man ! Do your thing buddy & we'll (the faithful majority) will keep watching brother ! If didn't live way down here in New Orleans, I'd love to have a Dave's World of Fun Stuff setup !

[@sd3falco]

Another good one Dave. Thumbs up! Beautiful P bass.

[@RandySchartiger]

I'm getting a bass tomorrow that looks much like this, electronics are supposedly all crapped out. Nice work as usual!

[@gsquaredthebassman]

Love the sound of that bass.

[@goptools]

Hi Dave, Thanks for the video! Good to see a nice vintage instrument in great playable condition. Maybe you could add some footage at the end where you are playing the repaired instrument (besides G-D-A-E). I'll bet others enjoy that too. Other than that, nice work! -mike

[@markwatson6417]

Hey Dave Really enjoy your videos. why was the bridge screw on the G string so much longer than the others? i am assuming it is not original . . .

[@burningkarma]

Love your videos Dave. Learned a lot of DIY tricks from you. Always entertaining, thanks.

[@dazxmedia]

That bass is gorgeous

[@dalepal]

Thanks for sharing another informative video. Nice job setting up the P bass.

[@jeff7807]

Nice Vintage Vibe on that Bass

[@SixSixthSix]

Hey Dave, The video that you were talking about around the two minute mark was from the fender Customshop.

[@lousiragusa7676]

Thanks for another great video, Dave - love your work!

[@justanaveragemanofbronze1864]

Dave, I wanted to write this to give credit where credit is due - to your awesome vids! Our local library has a pool of instruments to lend to folks, and amongst their selection is an Ibanez GSR-100 bass guitar. Being new to playing bass, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to try out the instrument in the leisure of my humble abode (Santa brought me a Yamaha TBRX, great beginner instrument, I just wanted to kick the tires on their Ibanez). Upon getting it home, I saw immediately that the action was a MILE off the deck and the strings had been installed by a left-footed pachyderm. I immediately returned to the library and asked them if they had a competent tech to look at it - it was unplayable, especially by some kid who might check it out. They didn't, so based on watching HOURS AND HOURS (yeah, I really do have no life...) of you setting up various guitars I volunteered to take a crack at getting it playable. The instrument is an older Ibanez GSR-100 (with split pickups, the new ones look like one-piece pickups), so it wasn't like I was going to be messing with a priceless REAL instrument anyway! Truss rod worked, altho' I had to clamp the body of the guitar to my kitchen table and GENTLY put pressure on the head to take the strain off the truss nut (I didn't see your vid of that clamp setup until after finishing this job, just followed my nose on this one). Got the neck straight and let it sit overnight, it stayed straight so I didn't need to fool with that anymore. Removed TONS of ICK, was like mucking the Augean Stables. Simple Green and lots of clean rags - just like you teach. Pulled off the machines, spritzed the black gunk out of the crappy stamped-out pieces of... stuff... and put your patented nut grease on them. New strings, set the saddles to height and then found I had giNORmous buzz on the 2nd fret... Thought about that one overnight, it was looking like a bit more than I wanted to bite off. But heck, the library budget wasn''t likely to PAY somebody for a fret fix on it so I figured, "What could possibly go wrong?" (note: sometimes, ignorance really is bliss) That 2nd fret was WAY high, it must have come from the factory that way. I don't see how it was ever playable, which is probably why it was donated in the first place (and why the action was set so high). Worked the fret down with a file and re-crowned with careful sanding (I had all day, and it was only one fret). Set the intonation, checked everything a bazillion more times and called it good (for now). With the new strings, it didn't feel any worse than my Yamaha (to me, a beginner, anyway) so I figured it was time to leave well enough alone. A HACK job, I know, but in this case it's gonna be played by kids and my object was to get it so they didn't need vice-grips to fret the notes. Mea culpa... The rest was easy - polish up the frets (NO steel-wool, and Nevr Dull rules!) and oiled the fretboard (while the strings were off), worked the scratchies out of the pots (and tightened the nuts up on both of them). Yeah, it's lipstick on a pig - but for a loaner (read: beater) guitar it will serve and I owe everything I learned about how to do this to your vids. Like I always say, "You put the SUC in SUCCESS!" :-) Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us here in the KZbin community, and for taking "The Gooch" out of this world one guitar at a time! (And BTW, I'm not trading my Yamaha for their Ibanez anytime soon!) Peace.

[@justanaveragemanofbronze1864]

+JustAnAverageManOfBronze BTW - Just wanted to emphasize that I've never, EVER, attempted this level of fiddling with an instrument. But I've been a 'fixer of stuff' all my life and your vids gave me the necessary information to try making this guitar useful. Plus a whole new set of vocabules! Thanks a million!

[@molonlabe_1177]

Holy cow I just noticed the guy fawkes mask. Awesome stuff Dave

[@1ApolloOne]

My Jazz has the truss rod adjustment at the heel, too. Bit of a pain because the action was terrible out of the box, I had to make three separate adjustments. But that was almost two years ago and I haven't had to mess with it since.

[@rocknrollresignation93]

Dave you're the man!

[@undercrackers56]

Hi Dave. I don't recall ever seeing you use aerosol switch cleaner on the guitar electronics. I have used this many times to stop "scratchy" potentiometers as it cleans, lubricates and improves electrical contact. Do you have a reason not to use it? Thanks.

[@yamahagh]

Dave good to see you back on youtube , enjoy your vids alot !

[@SimplyReg]

It's just like the one played by Roger Waters on "Live at Pompeii". Very nice.

[@davidallen346]

I was thinking removed the pickguard and wedge the adjustment tool in there for the truss rod, that is a very good resonant sounding bass guitar

[@statmagic]

Love your vids Dave! Informative and entertaining. Great work.

[@davidpeters44]

Every bassist should learn how to adjust and set up their bass.

[@chrishopkins209]

david p Everything I know about setups comes from this channel

[@jeffhebert9643]

Awesome as usual....Keep up the videos.

[@griffinparmalee11]

Dave...I have a unique setup and need a little help. Perhaps you can help me, if you are interested. My 1981 Fender P-Special is lost to Fender due to a fire at the Fullerton CA plant where it was made. So even they do not know what I have. To my knowledge, there is no other bass like it. It is black walnut with gold HW and active electronics with an active/passive switch. There is a gain adjustment knob in addition to the volume & tone knobs. The unique part is that there is no fingerboard. The frets are directly in the neck that has a slight bow and noticeable when the active is cranked. It is the first big boy bass I bought as a young teenager after cutting a gillion yards...$1,200 worth and I still have it. In the early 80's, that was a cr@p-ton of $$. So my question(s) is/are this: Can you fix that & have you ever heard of this? Oh! BTW, I have an all original Ampeg B15 flip top, also in mint condition to go with it. Even the tubes are original and in good shape!

[@dylangreen9819]

so it's a maple fretboard just one piece of wood with the frets in it

[@BassmanII]

My Godfather owns an identical 1970 P-Bass. The headstock, because of the nitro finish, darkened over time.

[@trekrider14]

Beautiful bass, nice work!

[@tomkirk6942]

Thanks for another great video Dave! Cheers.

[@BARTSIMPSON-gk3db]

Great stuff as usual Dave many TKS!.CHEERS!

[@D3ft0ne]

Hey Dave, thanks for this video as usual. Would .012 feeler be considered a "happy medium" ? Some manuals mention .015... I find anything above 014 will cause buzz on 12 - 17th frets... guessing it depends on the playing style?

[@jeffersoneinstein9641]

Speaking of silly questions I have one. If you were to replace the not so easily accessed adjustment screw at the end of the neck with a much more user friendly barrel type that you can use basically anything that fits in it's holes to adjust the truss rod would that devalue a guitar by much? It seems like a relatively minor change that would only require reshaping a small bit of the pick guard. Thanks for showing time tested proven methods to de-gooch guitars. Cheers Dave!

[@jeffersoneinstein9641]

Got it.. thanks.

[@shoominati23]

My holy grail is the pre 64 stacked knob jazz bass. I wish fender would just rerelease these

[@johnharrison6808]

could you not just get a two pot bell plate and a pair of stacked pots? You could be waiting forever and an age for Fender to get round to it.

[@trappenweisseguy27]

Yep, all the hardware is available.

[@trev3050]

Fleas new signature bass

[@dylangreen9819]

+John Harrison yeah but that only had 2 holes for the knobs and one for the output jack. he would have a random hole on the control plate

[@johnharrison6808]

+The Ghost of the Flying Dutchman I did mention change the control plate too. I just called it a bell plate.

[@jeffreysearch]

Nice setup Dave ... i have a 72 Pbass same colour and neck as this one .... really need to find someone to do the same work on it as you did here ... Yes they are a Cool Bass to own ... best colour ... in my opinion.. Also own a Pre ernie ball -76 Natural Musicman Stingray ... Enjoy your work Cheers :-)

[@Sindja98]

Love your videos! Great job Dave! Keep it up!

[@lachopakapura]

Great video thanks for sharing 😊

[@midwestfisherman]

Rock on! Awesome bass!

[@tonybenci2796]

Howdy Dave, I might have missed this (having watch just about all your videos) and I am about to set up my Brand New American Standard Telecaster (so you gotta brag when you finally buy the guitar you've wanted for 50 years :)). When checking the string height (4/64ths) I assume you measure from the fret top to the bottom of the string. Can't remember anyone every actually saying that in any vids I've watched on setup. Love the videos... keep it up

[@highlanderdetroit5370]

Thanks Dave nice video

[@MrLucky1967]

That was a nice looking bass Dave.

[@johnjones-sy9yb]

Do Some Fender basses have string through body bridges? I thought that some did. Just wondering.

[@nickmurray9193]

Hey there Dave! Gotta love this shitty Canadian weather eh? Anyways, got a question for ya. I have 3 basses, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to humidify them. See, with my guitars I can just use those little humidifier things. But with the basses, I'm stuck in a shitty place, the wood is drying out. Would it work if I was to put a damp/wet sponge in a bag, and poke holes in the bag, then put the bags in the cases with my basses? I figure they'll probably work pretty much the same way as a guitar humidifier. Thanks

[@nickmurray9193]

***** They don't dry out super bad, just a tiny bit, so I figure the makeshift humidifiers might work for a little support

[@gamehog2696]

Hi Dave why did you stop using surgical tubing? just curious. great video as always.

[@Bertrano5150]

Very informative, Dave, as usual. What would you use to treat an unfinished maple fretboard on a Pbass? I read lemon oil was no good. What about tung oil or linseed oil?

[@Bertrano5150]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff It's a Squier VM Precision Bass (amber with a soft maple body and unfinished hard maple neck and fretboard) .

[@Bertrano5150]

Your videos have given me the confidence to do my own setups and mods, Dave. I have saved some serious bucks thanks to you. I have a few images of my modified Squier VM Precision Bass (tort pick guard, bridge cover, Dunlop Chrome flats). If you like, I can unload.

[@Bertrano5150]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff I really don't know how to tell if it has a finish or not. Poly finish (aka "plastic") implies no treatment necessary - just keep her clean. Yes?

[@Bertrano5150]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff Sounds like a plan. Thanks a lot, Dave. Please keep the great videos coming. Even if they don't apply to my instruments, I really enjoy your "delivery" and watch and "like" them nonetheless!

[@brad7204]

hey dave!! do you have any videos of sanding a bridge on an acoustic? i have a taylor big baby and need to lower the saddle like 6mm. if i do that then the bridge is way to high. only way to fix the action as far as i can tell….advice?

[@JOHNOBUB]

hey cool bass

[@teleman65]

Another great Video brother. I sure like to send you a couple of my USA G&L ASAT's to setup.

[@teleman65]

Oops Well guess not. im US dammit.

[@totrodder97]

A very nice stranger from a facebook guitar group has just given me his very nice Fender P Bass for free because he is giving up gigging and has too many guitars and basses and the wiring is gooched so i am told, so i shall set to work on it in the morning try to get it all working and set up again :)

[@totrodder97]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff i wouldnt have a clue how to do it if it wasnt for you Dave so a massive thank you! And i hope you keep up the great work :)

[@totrodder97]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff managed to fix the wiring, somebody had put all of the wires in the wrong places e.g hot wire on the back of the pot, earth wire on the hot lug. Thanks again Dave

[@CJ-rf9jm]

Dave your popular with the bass players lately. Maybe its the surgical tube. Maybe your the Hawkeye Pierce of guitars :-P

[@rochaduffel]

Hi, i'm from argentina and i love your job, it's makes me wanna learn to setting up my bass but i'm afraid to broke the truss rod, can you give me some tips for that? and can you tell me the strings high in Cm (centimeters). thank you and keep going on, You are great.

[@rodeo11]

5/64" = just shy of 2 mm.

[@duxerraticus9584]

+rodrigo amoroso Aye, Dave's a goodie. 25.4 mm (mil)= 1 inch (in or ") exactly. So 1 mm = 0.040" (40 thou) approximately. Dave sets his neck relief to 0.012" (12 thou) = 12/40 = 3/10 = 0.30 mm. Bass action 5/64" = 2 mm. 6-string guitar action 4/64" = 1/16" = 1.6 mm, which is neat and easy to remember. These translated figures are about 98% accurate, easily near enough for guitar setup.

[@rochaduffel]

+Dux Erraticus Thx

[@trappenweisseguy27]

Beautiful tort guard on that. Might be real Brazilian rosewood as well.

[@zacredington4776]

I'm just waiting for the day a Dingwall turns up on your doorstep.

[@budbelden1099]

Dave, Your doing a great job on these guitars keep up the good work, and f##k the tolls. If they know anything,they can step right up the damn jackasses. Keep doing what you do.

[@ThomasDeLello]

Why do some people put the thumb rest on the side below the strings... I prefer mine above the strings so that when I use the "Rest Stroke" ( Walking fingers that rest on the above string ) technique, that I have a rest point when playing my 'E' string.

[@ThomasDeLello]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff - Okay... Now I know. I have one on order from E-Bay and it's made of solid Rosewood. The plastic ones are flimsy and when I had that I stuffed it with Styrofoam. When mounted, either on the upside or the downward side, they are always mounted non-parallel to the strings. Do you know why...? I don't. The "Rest Stroke" is a classical guitar technique originally, but some electric bassists are taught that too. I will mount mine up.

[@briano.5746]

Love you Brother , you crack me up peace cheers !!!

[@oguzhansahin1517]

Hey man, what is the name of tool that you use for checking grounding on tone pot and brigde?

[@periurban]

When determining string height do you measure the actual clearance? Or do you measure to the middle of the string?

[@Evilwhiteclownpunk]

+periurban Top of fret to bottom of string... (air space)

[@periurban]

***** Thanks!

[@Evilwhiteclownpunk]

periurban Hey!!! I remember you... From LiveVideo a bunch of years ago...

[@periurban]

***** Aye, that was me. Me and William Shatner hanging out in adjoining dressing rooms. Those were the days! lol

[@loaizacam1934]

Great looking bass! Greetings from Kommifornia!

[@SawyerPvP]

Might be a dumb question, but old basses all seem to have that little piece of plastic past the G-string near the edge of the neck, and I'm just wondering, what exactly is it and what does it do??

[@bluesguy47]

back in the old days guys played a lot with their thumbs and used the tug bar to support their fingers... somewhere in the late 60's, early 70's styles changed and people started playing more finger style so they moved it up to the top to rest your thumb on when playing, then finally did away with it completely....

[@grantkoeller8911]

I play P-bass with my thumb, I still use the finger rest all the time (Tug Bar) it's great, so comfortable!!!

[@henryfreeman7748]

At the risk of asking a dumb question what is the problem with windex on the fret board?

[@henryfreeman7748]

Dave's World of Fun Stuff gotcha dude

[@grantkoeller8911]

For rosewood fretboard use lemon oil, (old English Furniture oil)

[@JOHNOBUB]

How about another video Dave?

[@nyx9208]

how have I not noticed the guy Fawkes masks it's been there for a couple videos now

[@MuscleDad420]

So many people complaining about heel-access truss rods in the comment section. All of em spoiled by convenience.

[@darrensjames]

G'day Dave old mate, Your videos are far too short. I've thrown out my whale noise CD's and I listen to you for relaxation now. Cheers.

[@connernagy9416]

holy shit I have a bass like that (I don't think same year though)

[@johnharrison6808]

I take it there's a good reason why someone decided to put the truss rod access in the most pain in the arse to get to and work on part of the bass.

[@strangersound]

She's a beauty. :)

[@mipabass]

Hey Dave, what about radius gauges?

[@charlesmiller5078]

One word, HeadbandMagnifier.

[@edmertins8072]

U CA man, man!

[@ChurchillCigar]

If only I lived within 200 miles from Dave...

[@justanotherdummy3448]

Dave I. have a favor to ask.I oun a fender Jaguar made in 1963 .my dad had it refreted for me a long time ago.ithe guy that did the work dressed the ends too much and the e strings keep slipping off .if you know what tang they used on the neck and could radius the fret material would you send it to me in the mail?or is there another option?

[@justanotherdummy3448]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff michigan

[@justanotherdummy3448]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff I don't think I want SS is there anything almost as hard that is easier on tools? I'd leave the size up to you.the standard frets were fine.made a little higher would be OK.I have a very lite touch.

[@justanotherdummy3448]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff I forgot radius is 7.25 I'm pretty sure I'd like to find some ro!er saddles to fit the dam thing but there all to flat of a radius.

[@justanotherdummy3448]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff just for you to drop them in an envelope and send it .figures.

[@justanotherdummy3448]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff ya no it's funny they don't seem to mind sending there trash over to Michigan ha ha. could you give me the numbers of the wire I'll just buy some on eBay if I can hind it.

[@jameslewis2635]

Interesting. I thought the 70's era basses had trapezoid inlays.

[@jackfindlay5312]

Dave, you always have either zero or very little dislikes on your videos. didn't suprise me!

[@devbpoll2]

damnit dave, i checked my phone... twice..

[@elijahnielsen2953]

hey dave, how much do you think it would cost to get a guitar refretted?

[@elijahnielsen2953]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff well its an older yamaha acoustic, rosewood fretboard

[@elijahnielsen2953]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff its an FG 435A

[@Junebu99ie]

What brand of feeler gauge set and capo do you use?

[@Junebu99ie]

Thanks Dave!

[@l3ertuz362]

just watched a Fender factory build guitars and they do use power tools to screw the neck

[@pex2268]

Looks like Dave gained some weight!! xD

[@ltmusic1988]

Like the pissing rain comment lol that's what it's like here in Britain lol

[@EricMetalhead]

Dave notice me!

[@justanotherdummy3448]

IV got the same truss rod hate it there.good thing IV only had. to adjust it twice in 35 years. ha ha I guess it's dried out by now.

[@balsaboy55]

cool man ..................need my Gibson looked at

[@michaelmintchev6010]

My current bass is so horridly set up I think I might just go out and buy a new one. If only I knew where in Canada Dave was so I could get him to fix up my crappy bass!

[@ThoggDCaare]

Toronto

[@abulalamo2150]

+Michael Mintchev Dude it's like $50 for a setup lol

[@rashgarner5064]

+Michael Mintchev Watch more of Dave's movies and learn to do it yourself

[@briano.5746]

Need more cooking videos

[@buddybusker3483]

hey Dave love Ur anonymous mask du u also moonlight as a computer hacker?

[@cry2love]

you must've been played a lil bit more! please, next time do. Have a good day

[@BARTSIMPSON-gk3db]

Another one bites the dust?LOL

[@pedraw]

Fender and their BS remove the neck to adjust the truss rod. What a load of crap. That is a sweet bass however.

[@pedraw]

I'll take your expert word for it Dave.......just seems like a bunch of BS though. You made it look easy and painless.

[@cowtippingrocks]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff That must be why they designed it that way.

[@cowtippingrocks]

Martin has a shitty truss rod design. You need an Allen key that's 7 inches long to get at it. That one I can't figure out!

[@Andyjpro]

+cowtippingrocks Two reasons for that: 1.)keeps goofs out of there. 2.) makes it so you have to take it to the dealer for an adjustment or pay for a special key

[@zacredington4776]

Jackson HT6 has the best truss adjustment system I've ever seen. Can go from playing to adjusting, back to playing in 10 seconds or less. It's amazing.

[@lancehurley9743]

The blue pad at least lets you see all the shit....

[@ozzy.fishrich1182]

i thought all Canadians were nice ha i guess dave taught me that's not entierly true lol

[@dezziwood555]

What a stupid way for Leo Fender to decide to adjust a neck. I would never buy a guitar that you have to take the neck off to adjust the neck.

[@dezziwood555]

+Dave's World of Fun Stuff Real good point but still a pain to pull off neck. I played Fender basses for 38 years then switched to MusicMan StingRays, Leo Fender designed a wheel that protrudes at the end of the neck at the body and is very adjustable without neck removal. You can adjust it with a nail or hex key in seconds. I love P basses and played them for 38 years before switching and still own a P. Keep up the good work and hope your world warms up soon!

[@nickfanzo]

dezziwood555 play early g&l basses. Thats a real leo bass.

[@ernestochang1744]

The reaosn why saddle height is a big no no adjustment fro me is think about the guitar, if it's made in china by a bunch of low payed people you are going to have more then 4 frets higher or lower, doesn't matter, then you got douchebags saying my guitar buzzes at this fret, well no wonder your guitar was made by a kid. This though i woun't mind touching dat precision bass dough (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ