The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

This is gonna be a long story...

Here goes.

I passed on a VP-700B a while back and had regrets, so saw this VP-795B posted for sale but it was located 2 1/2 hrs away from me. Didnt feel like make the drive since was still expensive in my mind. A few weeks passed and was going an hr away from there in the week coming. Contacted the seller and threw him an offer, we reached a more acceptable price. I asked him for more pictures since the ad only had 3 pics.

Here are the original pics:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yJoN2S ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aqoZkb ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U_Lzyx ... sp=sharing

I asked for him to send them directly to me so that I could have better quality pictures since the ones on the ad were very small and unclear.

He wrote back the next day advising me he added pics on the sales ad...
Here are the added pics:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I0jPvs ... sp=sharing

Noticed right away, missing the original TRC.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F615Le ... sp=sharing

Very blurry but unmatching pole piece on the pups.

And the last new pic scared me.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11v9XOP ... sp=sharing

Once I saw how high the strings were, decided to not even bother...

Dont know if it was the pic or not but it looked scary as hell.

One week passed, he contacted me to say that he will be driving down to about 50 minutes from were I live. So, for curiousity sake, decided to meet with him.

We met yesterday, and I was right... The neck had a huge front bow. Strings half an inch off... When you add things up, missing TRC and bad neck goes together...

Decided to take a chance on it, we re-negotiated on the price since this bass is in dire need of repairs and no garantee that I will be succesfull. This bass look like it had the neck adjusted to the max and put away without strings for 40 years...

Spent a few hrs yesterday night on it. The nut was at its max with that front bow... I keept bending the neck by hand to massage the truss rod over and over... I eventually managed to tighten the truss rod with the neck staright, all by force. not adding any string pressure at this point. the neck is holding... this will be a long process to get it back 100%... Havent heated the neck or used any clamps yet. so still have options.

Here are some of my pictures this morning.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19o9sf0 ... sp=sharing,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AKlvrJ ... sp=sharing, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EFrgmQ ... sp=sharing,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ENzRda ... sp=sharing,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kh1mkY ... sp=sharing,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L1Rp29 ... sp=sharing,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eKquF1 ... sp=sharing

Decided to have a look at the pups, bridge pup is a replacement... hence the mismatch pole pieces... and its not working.

I should have aticipated this...

The seller is a musician, he was playing dumb when I was pointing these things to him yesterday. He just wanted to unload this bass...

Well. [Foul Language Used] it. Will get her working.

Now, anyone has an extra TRC cover lying around ?

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

From what I see she looks like it will be worth the effort Pierre.

BUT, all the links in the last group you posted (except one) have "access denied" messages (some in the first group too).

You'll have to change the Google access to 'public' so we can see what you're talking about.

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Guitars: http://legend.barryeames.com/guitars.html
Music/Pix/Videos: http://getback.barryeames.com

Can you try again...

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

There she is!
Merci beaucoup.

_________________
Guitars: http://legend.barryeames.com/guitars.html
Music/Pix/Videos: http://getback.barryeames.com

Nice, that looks very clean. Good luck with it.

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My wife yes
My dog maybe
My Vantages never

Thanks!

Will get her 100% , trust me.

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

Been there done that. Forward bow is indicative of either a non-functioning truss rod or it was completely loose for as you said a long period of time.

What I do short of cooking a neck is place it facing up with the neck rest at the headstock if there is not enough relief (face down for too much) and place a rag then a 15lb dumbbell in the middle of the neck and leave it over night. A few times it has taken several nights. Considering its age it might take several sessions.

At the risk of sounding stupid what is a TRC? Keep in mind I'm not a bass player.

TRC Truss Rod Cover. It took me a while to get it

_________________
My wife yes
My dog maybe
My Vantages never

I use 2 small pieces of wood to add height at the top and bottom of the neck, put a straigh edge ontop and use a clamp in the middle to force a small back bow in it. tighten the truss rod and leave it that way for a week or so.

That is exactly what I am going to do today to help it along. I added string tension this morning and still not were it should be so more work to be done on her.

Will get her fixed !

Worst case scenario, I'll just send her to Barry to fix...

_________________
MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!