alright gentlemen, this is the sad, sad tale of a young man finding music. he ebays his first bass, as his brother has recently picked up guitar and wants to start a band. when he gets it, all seems well, other than the neck being (quite possibly, literally)the ugly stick of satan. it was the thickest neck maybe ever made and the frets buzzed seemingly every 3 frets, not to mention more than a few stuck off the fretboard completely, causing an incident resulting in a nasty palm gash. oh, and did i mention the 2 inlays that since the dawn of time have represented the 12th fret were on the 11th fret? well.. all my guitars were stolen and sold, minus that piece of butchery. and thats 2 acoustics (one electric), a jag-stang, fernandez bass that played like god's gift to bass guitar, and esp hybrid. luckily, i got the esp hybrid back atleast, so im not guitarless as it was sold to a friend but not before lying about not knowing who the orginal owner and making me pay him for it. (some friend, eh?)
so, to recap: i've the esp and that god-forsaken bass, which i only still have because it was left at my mothers house because it was just unplayable, plain and simple. but necessity is the mother of invention, so i had a friend file the frets a bit, only they arent pro and wore off a bit of the fret board, exposing wood, so i colored it in with a dying perminant marker. im thinking of sanding the neck down so its actually possable to reach the strings with the worst action i've ever seen. also, anyone ever heard of a stripped truss rod? i strung it up, just to see if it were playable and the nut snapped. lmao. the only reason i have ever kept this thing was to pull a nirvana on it, and bring it out on the last song in a gigging situation.. but luckily for it, its survived as my band recently fell apart. shame too, because the body, dings aside, looks nice.. like a really dark blue-burst almost.. but its just caused so much trouble, i dont have the money for for a new neck or the patience to try an salvage the current one.
it's just funny because im so against mistreating instruments, or doing anything that compromises the cosmetics or integrity. but with these thing, all rules are thrown out the window, atleast as far as the neck is concerned.
just a little story to make anyone out there with something junky feel better.
i'd gladly take a squier bass neck at this point, and man.. those things arent anything to brag about. 😛
