The Last Bass Outpost

Geez, I finally had to go look at which "Mk" of Deep Purple it was that I saw back in '75 - Mk. III, with Glenn Hughes. I wanted to see Glover with his big floppy hat and Rickenbacker!

I think Glenn got a bit fond of the marching powder. At the Cal Jam gig he uses that high, creamy vocal style a fair bit, but it is controlled. I've heard a few Mk3 bootlegs where he really goes for it and is shrieking ad lib over everything.

The Squier finish looks ultra yellowed then. A shame! I think the MIM stuff from ~10 years ago was closer to the originals?

I've finally finished off the fretwork Fender started. Essentially I had to clean lacquer off the sides and ends of the frets, round the fret ends over, ensure the crown of each fret was established and then polish out to a higher standard than Fender do. I also replaced the nut as the slot spacing seemed a bit arbitrary and I had a buzz from the A string behind the nut that couldn't be tamed, even after filing the slot, ramping and flaring the back of the slot, setting the witness point and making sure there was maximum break angle over the nut by getting the string right down the A string post.

Oddly both the third neck bolt and the anchor in the neck it secures into were very loose on this bass. I've used the micro adjuster setup to try and 'shim' the neck. It's a cool idea but it results in some scary creaking noises! Traditional four-bolt setups do seem to be a bit more stable?


Finally, I'm struggling to get the neck arrow straight. I'm wary of over-tightening the bullet adjuster and crushing wood under the string nut or torquing the bullet off the end of the rod . It feels very stiff, but I still have a bit of relief in the neck. I can live with it, but prefer a neck that could be dialled into a backbow so that I know I'm not using all the available tension on the rod just to achieve a usable setup and that a flat neck is achievable somewhere along the full excursion of the trussrod, rather than when it is squeaked 100% tight.


I've taken the bass to two rehearsals with an acoustic folk band. It is making me simplify bass lines and hang onto root notes, as the notes take time to bloom. Fast playing becomes a bit of a 'woof'! This bass sounds amazing with a pick, but the low end bloom when you play fingerstyle is really nice. Solid fundamental!

When did Deep Purple turn into old women?



"Go on Paicey, give them the Fireball intro again!"

Is it unethical to want to track down a vintage toaster and make it a 4001S?

Way too much scratch for a copy. A 1976 Fender Jazz should cost about that!

It is an audacious colour. I like it but my wife hates it. It goes beyond the realm of bad taste and back into being cool, for me. 

I've seen photos of, I think, one original guitar in zero hour condition and the finish looked like a sort of grey burst over Olympic white? The cheese-yellow-green tones all come from the clear coat yellowing, potentially. This would make the Squier finish an aged Antigua rather than exactly what rolled off the production line? My Antigua timeline is a bit approximate; I know they made the finish to hide glue seepage issues on the Coronado guitars in the '60s (quite a profound 'smokeburst' finish), but also rolled it out on many models in the late '70s?. I've seen photos of Antigua Mustang basses.

It wouldn't be too hard to find a maple neck with dots and a big slutty '70s Fender headstock logo to make the bass truer to the originals. I don't like blocks on a P Bass.