Gary Nava restores an old Top Twenty electric bass

Supportact

Nice series of videos where Gary Nava restores an old Top Twenty/Teisco bass. He's a very accomplished luthier known mostly for his acoustic guitars and mandolins, but it's interesting to see him work on the Top Twenty I think.

guitars4you

One for you @prowla ;

prowla

:-) Cheers!

OilCityPickups

I rewound one of those bass pickups a few months ago :-)

ICBM

I like working on those. They’re often described as firewood, but I think of them more as kit guitars that have been assembled badly. Strip them down and re-assemble them more carefully and thoroughly, and you can make decent enough instruments out of them. They’re never going to be as perfect as a high quality modern guitar, but that’s part of the charm - and they can certainly be made to play well and sound good and characterful.

(It’s true that some have very poor fretting and are more trouble than they’re really worth, but most aren’t that bad.) 

Offset

Against all expectations I really enjoyed this.  Gary comes over as a really likeable guy who clearly enjoys what he does.  Very interesting stuff.

Having said all of that, my overriding impression - sadly - was "why on earth did he bother polishing that turd?"  I grew up in the era of Top Twenty 'Woolies Specials' and they were reviled by my generation.  No-one in their right mind would be seen dead with one and Gary's noodlings at the end of the final instalment did nothing to dispel that.

Still enjoyed it though!

Supportact

Offset said:

Against all expectations I really enjoyed this.  Gary comes over as a really likeable guy who clearly enjoys what he does.  Very interesting stuff.

Having said all of that, my overriding impression - sadly - was "why on earth did he bother polishing that turd?"  I grew up in the era of Top Twenty 'Woolies Specials' and they were reviled by my generation.  No-one in their right mind would be seen dead with one and Gary's noodlings at the end of the final instalment did nothing to dispel that.

Still enjoyed it though!

Yes I kind of understand what you mean, it occurred to me that when you look at the stuff he normally makes, this is maybe not the most financially efficient use of his time and skills! On the other hand I quite like the idea that he still obviously gets a kick out of restoring what is a budget instrument. Something quite satisfying about the whole process. 

Wazmeister

My first guitar was a Top Twenty Strat…still got it somewhere 

prowla

I've got an Audition plywood special and it sounds really good.

The original pickup stopped working so it's got a Strat one in there.