Here's an example of bad customer service... (JimsGuitars.com)

[J.]

 

$12 99 . and it "plays like you would expect". in other words, i expect to play well enough, but nothing stellar. for $1299. robb.

 

 

You know, the more that I look at that bass the more I wish some luthier would give it some help. It will never be 100% ever again, but you could restore some sort of dignity to the poor thine, especially since the neck hasn't been messed with. Strip all the parts off the body, strip the paint, and fill in those ridiculous "custom" routes with like wood. Fill in the side jack route as well. Refinish the bass with a period-appropriate solid color, get an aged pickguard, and reassemble the bass in a passive configuration. It could be decent again, with help.

[L-1329]

 

You know, the more that I look at that bass the more I wish some luthier would give it some help. It will never be 100% ever again, but you could restore some sort of dignity to the poor thine, especially since the neck hasn't been messed with. Strip all the parts off the body, strip the paint, and fill in those ridiculous "custom" routes with like wood. Fill in the side jack route as well. Refinish the bass with a period-appropriate solid color, get an aged pickguard, and reassemble the bass in a passive configuration. It could be decent again, with help.

 

 

Why bother. Just put the neck on a different body and be done with it. It's been messed up, and nothing is ever going to make that anything but a garbage bass, and there are way too many other fenders out there to ever make all the effort of rebuilding that one worth it. You know there really is nothing wrong with scraping a bass if it's that far gone, and it's certainly not like a fender is a one of a kind irreplacable bass that needs to be preserved like an endangered species. Let it go. All instruments die sooner or later, some just killed before they should, like this one.