The Last Bass Outpost

Gear Discussion Forums => Fender Basses => Topic started by: godofthunder on January 16, 2024, 08:10:48 PM

Title: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: godofthunder on January 16, 2024, 08:10:48 PM
  So I decided to use my surf green Vintera Tele Bass as a donor for the '74 body I picked up on Ebay.  The parts swap went super easy and I'm really happy with the results! Looks great next to my just arrived Vintage White  Vintera II Telecaster Bass 🙂 I'll sell the green body to recoup some of my costs.
 https://i.imgur.com/WqWYm1h.jpg
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: Alanko on January 17, 2024, 05:19:36 AM
Looks good, and the compatibility of parts suggests Fender did a good job of cloning the '70s basses for the Vintera range.


Why is every modern Mustang Bass the wrong shape? I just picked up a JMJ Mustang and the treble-side tug bar mounting holes are at the same weird angle as on the new Vintera Mustang Bass models. The body shape is the same as the '90s CIJ reissues onwards. Odd when the JMJ model is supposedly a clone of a '60s bass.
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: godofthunder on January 17, 2024, 08:27:59 AM
   The Vintera II Telecaster Bass feels and looks more like a dead nuts reissue, Fender did a really nice job on these
  Tge only giveaways are the tinted neck and alder body (which I love btw).
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: godofthunder on January 17, 2024, 09:36:46 AM
  Here's some pictures of the process.
https://i.imgur.com/rG2yBPJ.jpg
 https://i.imgur.com/hCW7EJj.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zlnqy6h.jpg
 https://i.imgur.com/a2qQFty.jpg
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: godofthunder on January 18, 2024, 01:26:14 PM
Here's a little video of the final result.

https://youtu.be/P4EDsVH-V2M
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: Pilgrim on January 18, 2024, 01:52:25 PM
   Here's a little video of the final result.https://youtu.be/P4EDsVH-V2M?si=YGqvHIUJySECTZaI

Your videos are impressive!  If I could ask for anything, it would be to have a mic closer to you when you speak - it's pretty echo-laden and a bit hard to understand what you're saying.
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: godofthunder on January 19, 2024, 08:34:37 AM
 Thanks for the feedback,  I reviewed this particular video and the audio seems fine. Any one else experience garbled audio?
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: Pilgrim on January 19, 2024, 09:45:33 AM
Thanks for the feedback,  I reviewed this particular video and the audio seems fine. Any one else experience garbled audio?

I may be too critical, it just sounded to me like the mic was too far away from you.  Perhaps it's OK to others. As an old radio guy, I'm pretty focused on getting mics within inches of the speaker. Doing that might require a two-channel mixer with separate mic and bass inputs.
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: Dave W on January 19, 2024, 10:56:55 PM
Thanks for the feedback,  I reviewed this particular video and the audio seems fine. Any one else experience garbled audio?

It's not garbled at all. You're just a little too far away from the mic. You, not the bass.
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: gearHed289 on January 21, 2024, 09:48:40 AM
Hey Scott, since you asked, I've always found your speaking parts considerably quieter than the bass parts in your videos. I have to be careful at work, LOL!
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: godofthunder on April 07, 2024, 06:34:27 AM
You guys might enjoy this, Black Sheep's Payn' Your Dues. There are not many examples of the 70s Telecaster bass on a recordings from the time but I find this to be a particularly good example.  The wide range pickup displays what it is capable of in the studio and Bruce Turgon plays some tasty upper register licks.
  As a side note I have had the opportunity to work with both Donnie Mancuso and Lou Gramm in the past and I am subbing on bass with Donnie in a few weeks and get to play this song, I'm really looking forward to it.  [MEDIA=youtube]2m8lq7xk0eg[/MEDIA]
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: gearHed289 on April 08, 2024, 07:28:32 AM
Link was messed up. Here it is. Sounds good. Never heard of these guys. Gramm was a helluva singer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m8lq7xk0eg
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: godofthunder on April 09, 2024, 05:02:51 AM
Thanks for fixing!
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: Alanko on April 10, 2024, 01:24:10 PM
Two examples of WRHB Tele basses that I think of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcNUz4njCo8

and...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJTFzvMPFa4
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: Alanko on May 15, 2024, 02:54:04 PM
A question for Mr Dasson.


Did the Vintera pickguard have the same screw hole pattern as the vintage body? I want a black pickguard on my Vintera Tele bass and my usual pickguard supplier only has a 1974 Tele bass pickguard template on file. They've sent me a PDF of it, but it might be a faff to reprint it at scale as the scan is in two parts and looks like a photograph of a pickguard sitting on a cutting mat. A user on Talkbass suggests a good number of the pickguard screw holes are in different positions, based on their own investigations, per: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/71-79-telecaster-bass-with-wrhb-pickup-recreation-with-twists.1650654/
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: godofthunder on May 17, 2024, 03:36:04 AM
   The pg fits fine though two holes don't line up. They are the two at the waist of the body right where you set the bass on your thigh when playing sitting down. All the other ones line up.  I've no idea why Fender did this.   I'm still trying to decide if I should just drill two holes in the body and be done with it or make/buy a pg with the right hole pattern.  For now it functions just fine.
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: Ken on May 17, 2024, 06:11:51 AM
Scott, you could always just make one with no holes and use double-sided tape.  I did that with my NR and it looks really clean.
Title: Re: '74 Tele project and another Vintera II Tele Bass
Post by: Alanko on May 17, 2024, 01:51:37 PM
The guy I get pickguards from on EBay has offered to make an undrilled pickguard that I add screw holes to, using the Vintera schema rather than the 1974 Fender schema.

Some people cut screw heads from screws and glue them into the countersinks in pickguards if they want the original look but no extra holes in a guitar body.